Salem Witch Trials And Convictions In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Salem witch trials was a story of envy, lies, and the danger of the people. Others wouldn’t defend those accused, and if they did, they themselves were eventually charged as witches. In many ways, defending others was condemning yourself. Such was the case for John Proctor in “The Crucible”. John Proctor was someone who had made mistakes, but through his own crucible made peace with himself and defended the honor of himself and the others that would not admit to witchcraft.

American playwright, Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible (1952), suggests that witch hunts still exist in American society. Miller supports this claim by drawing parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and the Senator Joseph McCarthy Trials. His purpose is to warn his readers of the dangers of mass hysteria. He uses emotional appeals (pathos) and logic (logos) to convince the reader that mass “hunts” are still a danger to Americans today. The main way, however, that Miller achieves his ultimate goal of demonstrating the dangers of individuality vs. ideology is through the vivid characterization of Mary Warren. Mary Warren is an example of an outwardly conforming character because in the play she tells Abigail that she wants to tell

The purpose of my paper is to compare and contrast Arthur Miller’s The Crucible with the actual witch trials that took place in Salem in the 17th Century. Although many of the characters and events in the play were non-fictional, many details were changed by the playwright to add intrigue to the story. While there isn’t one specific cause or event that led to the Salem witch trials, it was a combination of events and factors that contributed to the birth and growth of the trials. Some of these events included: a small pox outbreak that was happening at the time, the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter by Charles II, and the constant fear of Native attacks. These helped in creating anxiety among the early Puritans that

"He states that you coldly prompted your daughter to cry witchery upon George Jacobs that is now in jail" (96). In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, people would do anything to get what they want. In the town of Salem good vs. evil plays a big role. The people of Salem are constantly debating about who is telling the truth and who is lying. People are also judged based on their religious views. Even though they had a lack of evidence, the town of Salem mislabeled people as good or evil.

The crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, a story about adultery, false accusations, and forgiving. The story is a real life based event that happened in the 1600’s when people were falsely being accused of being “Witches”. Along with the false accusations, it led to punishments such as death. In The Crucible, John Proctor’s reputation around the town is known as an Adulterer, he was also victim of false accusations brought against him, and he was forgiving of his sins.]

“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it,” said George Santayana. If this is true, then why have we continued to repeat something like the Salem Witch Trials on more than one occasion, including the recent uproar of sexual assault accusations? Although The Crucible and modern day accusations of sexual assault differ in the ways that these assault accusations are in modern times and they are also on something that is not related to religious beliefs, they ultimately have more in common, like how evidence was and is shaky for some cases, all accusations were started by a domino effect, and reputations were ultimately ruined even if the accused were proven innocent eventually.

Mary resorted to self- preservation because of the ear instilled by Abigail. Mary wanted to confess to faking and tell the truth. Mary was a loyal worker for the Proctors and when Elizabeth Proctor was accused of being a witch Mary’s conscience weighed upon her heavily.When one of the girls that was caught dancing, Betty, fell ill Mary felt guilty, “MARY WARREN: Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery's a hangin' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things!” (Act 1, p.144-147). Mary Warren felt the blood of the hangings on her hands and wanted to come forward and tell the truth. Abigail would not let that happen because she was too concerned about the repercussions and her reputation getting ruined. Mary was stuck between John Proctor begging her to confess and Abigail threatening her life if she did. Marry ended up taking Abigail’s side in order to save herself in the end by incriminating John Proctor, “MARY WARREN, hysterically, pointing at proctor, fearful of him: My name, he wants my name. “I’ll murder you,” he says, “if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court,” he says!””(Act 3, p. 110). At this point Mary was so confused by the violence in the situation she cracked under the pressure. Then, Mary Warren turned and accused John Proctor of threatening murder, twisting the truth in order to save herself. By saving

The year is 1692. Throughout the small, Puritan, seaside community of Salem, rumors and accusations fly like gusts of ocean wind. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and even the most holy church-goers are accused of being the devil’s servants. The Crucible details this real-life tragedy of the Salem witch trials, in which nineteen members of the Salem community were hanged for alleged witchcraft. Abigail Williams, a seemingly innocent girl, accuses dozens of Salem’s citizens of witchcraft through the support of her mob of girls and the complicity of the court officials. The title of this play gives significant insight into the experiences of several of these Salem citizens. Although a crucible is often used in chemistry for heating up substances, the title of the play carries a much greater weight. In his famous play The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the title of “crucible” to signify the severe and unrelenting tests of faith and character that many of the community members endure throughout the Salem witch trials, which he achieves through the use of figurative language and fallacies of relevance and insufficiency.

In 1962 the penalty of witchcraft was to be hung or smashed. There was a big outburst of witchcraft and spells that were going around among the people of Massachusetts in 1962. Some of the women of Salem began the witchcraft many people started to catch on and fallow them. A lot of these people were hung do to what the bible said about the wrongs of witchcraft. When these women of Salem Massachusetts started to do witchcraft and pass it on to other people they were put on trial for their actions, which at the time was, illegal. It had caught on all over England and was spreading fast. Arthur Miller made a play called the Crucible that was about the Salem witchcraft trials. Arthur miller took the historical

Erma Faye Stewart, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson. What do they all have in common? They were all found guilty and charged with a crime they didn’t commit, yet all of them sealed their fate themselves with a false confession to the crime. False Confession and Wrongful Convictions, they are a big reason that innocent people still go to prison in the modern day and many people have never heard or thought about it. Throughout history, people have tried to find the truth about crimes and torture was an effective way of getting a false confession. It is effective because it creates a situation for the victim where confessing, even though the victim might be innocent, would be better than not confessing. This situation is how most false confessions arise. This situation where confessing to something you didn’t commit is better than not confessing is clearly seen taking place in multiple areas of Arthur Miller’s 1953 play, The Crucible. Due to the common occurrence of this phenomenon, in times hundreds of years ago and the modern day, we must ask what causes the decision in someone to make a false confession and be falsely convicted for something they never did and how can we prevent this in order to acquire better truths and protect the innocent.

It was a cold dark wintery night in Salem Mass. Titubia could feel the wind bellow through the cabin as she gently rocked the baby in front of the fireplace. Two older children sat by her feet listening to a wild tale.

Many crucial events lead to the Salem Witch trials. The trials ended in a gruesome manner, and conflicts were at the root of the cause. The Salem Witch trials were the result of illogical-mass hysteria, and were induced by grudge holding people who used the trials to harm their foes.

Through the course of the play, persecution was a major consequence of people’s self gain. Thomas Putnam was one who was sucked into greed. For his desperate need for land, he told his daughter to accuse George Jacobs of being a witch, so he would be forced to forfeit his land if he gets convicted, which Thomas was the only person in town that could afford it. Including, Abigail who accused Elizabeth Proctor of doing voodoo on a poppet that was supposed to be her. Cheever and Herrick were searching the Proctor home for poppets. As a result of Abigail’s accusation against Elizabeth saying that Elizabeth had a doll and stabbed her in the stomach from the doll. “Herrick, Herrick, it is a needle” (Miller 176). As a result, they found the needle

Justice, also known as fairness, isn’t apart of everyone’s minds in the Crucible, but they are limited to some choices. People had to live by rules, but even with these rules, people were able to make their own choice, by having kids, what they want for dinner, maybe even what they do in their own homes. But the main point is that there aren’t many ways to show that life during Salem was different to now days, and there aren’t many ways to show justice in a society in Salem. Justice is a hard expect to accomplish, which in Salem, it is.

The Salem Witch Trials - a time where the people of Salem were controlled by Christianity, but their God was nowhere to be found during their suffering and immense fear. Many pieces of literature often try to portray the chaos and seemingly godless times that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, but the most notable piece of literature surrounding the trials is Arthur Miller’s drama, The Crucible. Miller’s characters are all based on people who were actually a part of the Salem Witch Trials and uses details from their lives to contribute to his writing. His dramatized version of the trial accurately describes the hysteria that occurred in the town, and helps lead the reader to a deeper understanding of the witch trials. By showing multiple conflicts in his play, all having to do with religion, relationships, and authority, one begins to question what actually caused the trials in his work and if the trials were truly a search based off of the need to rid the town of all evil. In the end it becomes clear that multiple characters to use the idea of witches as a way to stir up hysteria and fear amongst the people of Salem in order to gain respect and power.