Rebecca Nurse Character Analysis

Towards the middle of the play more accusations keep appearing. Well respected and known towns people begin being accused of being a witch. Most towns’ people are now in disbelief because such accusations should not be. “Believe me, Mr. Nurse, if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole world from burning. Let you rest upon the justice of the court; the court will send her home, I know it.” (Miller71)

John Demos’s nine point portrait of a witch is one way to analysis the case of Rebecca Nurse. To do so, one must first evaluate and understand the history of Rebecca Nurse and her role in the Salem in the late 1600’s. Rebecca Nurse was the wife of Francis Nurse, a farmer who became wealthy after buying and tending a large plot of land between Salem Village and Salem Town. Together they had eight children, and as a family they were prosperous. Connecting this information to Demos’s portrait of a witch, Rebecca Nurse falls under the first four points made in his sketch. These first two points are that she was “female” and that she was of “middle age”. However, the latter point is slightly inaccurate because Nurse was older than sixty years. The final two points that Rebecca Nurse falls under in Demos’s portrait of a witch are that she was of “English” and “Puritan” descent and culture, and that she was “married”, with little or no children. Again, the latter point is not fully accurate because Rebecca Nurse, while married, had, in fact, eight children in her lifetime. The significance of these traits of Rebecca Nurse agree, for the most part, with the

Respect is earned, and Rebecca has surely earned hers, as noted by the Reverend Hale when he enters the play. “It’s strange how I knew you, but I suppose you look as such a good soul should. We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly.” (Act 1). The fact that the Salem dwellers thought so highly of her, that someone from a different town, during a period without modern technology, has heard of Rebecca is huge. Goody Nurse seems to be the only women in the play to have power before the madness of the witch trials sets in. She seems to serve as an almost all-knowing force for the town as well as a sort-of mother figure. Rebecca sees the citizens of Salem through a different lens then most, she sees and hopes the best of them all, and

Without question of evidence the court believed the girls. But most of the towns people believed the girls. Rebecca Nurse as an example sacrificed her life to stay true to her religion, she refused to tell a lie and confess to being a witch.

Numerous innocent people were killed on behalf of religious beliefs of being witches. Betty, a young girl, was found in the woods “conjuring” the devil with other girls and became severely ill after this. Preceding Betty’s suspicious illness was the Salem Witch trials. People believed Betty to be the victim of a witch. Abigail, one of the girls who was with Betty, declares numerous innocent women as witches, trying to protect herself from what she was doing in the woods. Abigail’s claims caused people from the town, including the Proctors, Parris, and Abigail, to protect their names whether positively or negatively. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows that people who value one’s reputation will protect it despite how it affects

In the year 1692, a sort of craze ran through the village of Salem, Massachusetts. Accusations of witches among them caused an intense hysteria and also an opportunity to the villagers, some historians even believe there may have been more motive behind the shocking amount of accusations made. Though the trials all began with a charge of a devilish possession they may not have ended with the same sin in mind. By observing the 3 original targets the trial of the first woman hanged, Bridget Bishop, and Mary Easty’s final plead for the innocent what is brought to light is a slight acknowledgment to the sexism and Puritanical beliefs that fed the trials rapid growing flames.

Rebecca was a highly respected woman in Salem, and was extremely faithful towards her religious practices. Rebecca and her husband Francis were well known throughout Salem, and earned their respect for being pious and having such a charitable and loving background. “A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back” (Nurse 27). Rebecca’s false conviction of witchcraft didn’t cause her to become fearful over her life. She knew who she was and how close she was with her religion, and wouldn’t allow the court to wrong her and take her dignity.

' The spiteful and envious actions of Goody Putnam, resulted in Rebecca's death. 'I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse'. In Goody Putnam's search for an excuse and reason for her deceased children. The willingness of Mrs Putnam to accuse Rebecca is influenced by the mass accusations from the citizens of Salem as many of them attempt to receive more property. 'Vengeance is walking Salem'. In doing so she allows her truthfulness, judgement and morality to be clouded and disturbed by desire for revenge.

Whether it again has something to do with personal judgment, or the claim of another individual’s is worth much more than the next persons’. A demonstration of this is when Elizabeth disbelievingly says “ You will never believe, I hope, that Rebecca trafficked with the Devil.” ( Act 2 ) In this scene when Reverend Hale states that Rebecca Nurse is accused, which is unbelievable to everyone, because of Goode Nurse’s reputation that displays her as a good christian woman. But due to the fact that the Putnams name carried more weight in the court than Rebecca’s shows that a person’s reputation can’t save them in times of complete hysteria. But it was the girls’ accusations that stood stronger in court than anyone else's, due to the fact that the afflicted girls are seen as innocent in the eyes of the court.

During the era being considered, the legal identity of a woman was covered by her husband’s (Davidson & Lytle, 2010, p. 71). Additionally, the communities in both Salem and Hallowell believed that the role of women is to serve their families and be submissive to men. As such, in the case if Mrs. Foster, not only did her subordinate gender role undermined her accusations but her husband’s tainted reputation tainted her as well. This gender bias also explains the higher number women than men tried and convicted of being witches in Salem. Hence, through the observations it can be concluded that the gender bias played a role in the outcome of both cases.

Rebecca Nurse trial was the turning point of the Salem witch trials. Her trail split the state from east to west because she was accused of witchcraft and many colonists didn’t believe she was a witch because she was a good person. Rebecca supporters were

For the Vocation as Biography project, our group decided to create a character within the period of time of the Salem witch trials that we named Alice Harris. Through this project, we gained an improved knowledge of: the Salem witch trials, the effect of religion on moral perspective, and how groups of people can use religion in controlling ways. These are relevant because it is important to know our history in order to avoid repeating it, especially in regards to being able to recognize situations where religion is being used as a tool for power gain or justification for immoral or unreasonable acts.

When faced with her trial, Rebecca Nurse chose not to provide “false witness”, which would go against one of the Ten Commandments, as well as not stoop to lying to prove her innocence. She decided that her connection to

The identity of person makes them who they are. In Rebecca identity is one of the themes the author choose to focus on. Some of the characters in Rebecca struggle with identity issues, but the narrator and heroine of the story is struggling with her identity the most.

In history we had many different authors who set standards for many other authors today. We covered many different so far in the semester some of these authors have similar views and some with totally different views. We covered Jean De Crevecover, Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Phillis Wheatley. These authors are Revolutionary War Era author who’s trying to answer what is an American. In history many authors try to answer this question. You get many difference answers for this question.