The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay

During the Salem witch trials, there were many important contributing factors that spiced up the trials. The witch trials were nothing more than land grabs, economic opportunity, and people trying to get their revenge on their neighbors. The Puritans religion, politics, and economics were the factors that played a huge role during the investigation for witchcraft. During the trial of the accused person, the community would constantly use their religious and political belief against them. Many accused witches hardly stood a chance if they were known as sinners or stood on the wrong sides of political views. If an accused was not known to sin, and they believed the right side of politics, they would most likely be found innocent during the investigation for witchcraft.

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In 1692, in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts, 20 people were hanged for offenses they did not commit. But what was the charge against the 20? The answer would be witchcraft. The charges deeply affected the small community. Neighbor turned on neighbor. Every act that a person made would be carefully scrutinized, dissected, and repeated to others. This would lead to the question. What caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? The 3 main factors that would cause widespread panic in the town of Salem were gender, marital status, and age, actors and attention seekers, and neighbor conflicts within the village of Salem.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Puritan Massachusetts in which religion, justice, individuality and dignity play a vital role. These factors define the characteristics of many of the most significant characters in the play. Some of them being John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale, Danforth and many others. The Salem witch trials were a result of the lack of expression of individuality and the fact that no individual could expect justice from the majority culture as a result of the deterioration of human dignity in the Puritan society of Salem.

Throughout the Salem witch trials, there were many important contributing factors that spiced up the trials. The witch trials were nothing more than land grabs, economic opportunity, jealousy, and people trying to get retribution on their neighbors. The Puritans religion, politics, and economics were the factors that played a colossal role during the investigation for witchcraft. During the trial of an incriminated person, the community would constantly use their religious and political belief against them. Many accused witches hardly stood a chance if they were known as sinners, stood on the wrong sides of political views, or owned property that someone wanted. If an accused was not known to sin, they believed the right side of politics, and they did not own anything of value, they would most likely be found innocent during the investigation for witchcraft.

Between June 10 and September 22, 1692, 20 people were put to death in Salem Massachusetts for witchcraft. Neighbors turned on neighbors, women turned on women. Nobody was necessarily safe from being accused of witchcraft. During the time of the 1600s many English immigrants arrived in New England, a number of them being Puritans. They came to New England to practice Christianity in ways they felt were pure. To help guide the Puritans through life, they read the bible. Whatever the bible said, they believed and one subject was about the Devil. One of the tricks the Devil used, was to enter a normal person’s body and turn that person into a witch. A witch could cause terrible damage. Of course, the Puritans believed it, so every bad act they saw, they often accused the person of being a witch. What

The Crucible was based in 1692 in and around the town of Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The Salem witch-hunt was view as one of the strangest and most horrendous chapters in the human history. People that were prosecuted were all innocent and their deaths were all due to false accusation of people’s ridiculous belief in superstition and their paranoia. The Puritans in those times were very strict in personal habits and morality; swearing, drunkenness and gambling would be punished. The people of Salem believed in the devil and thought that witchcraft should be hunted out.

The Salem Witch Trials was an event that took place in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. During this time, more than 200 residents were accused of practicing and participating in the Devils magic better known as witchcraft. Out of these 200 people, 20 were put to death. After these horrible events had been carried out, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and helped salvage the families that had been effected by the events. So why did these trials take place? It had everything to do with the events that were happening within the Puritan community beginning in the 1300s. During this time in history Puritan beliefs and religious practices were held so high to their community

Puritan laws were extremely strict and the community needed to follow this laws, so everyone who went against the laws or did something that was against the law was viewed as a sin and that they deserved to be punished, this is why the community took the trials seriously and accused harshly the “witches”. There was hysteria because of the “witches” was among the streets of colonial Massachusetts, so the government and the judicial court, that were heavily influenced by puritanism, started a special court in Salem to hear the

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Why did the Salem Witch Trials happen? ¨The question ´Why Salem?’ will probably never have a definite answer. It seems, at bottom, that an unsavory brew of village enmities and jealousies, gossip, a narrow-minded belief system spread through the community...¨ (Brandt,2014). The citizens of Salem were blaming others for a misfortune in their lives. The neighbors were saying that every time they stood up it was as if their backs were being broken and blaming innocent people. ¨ Anything suspicious in nature- an unexplained illness (and most illnesses in the 17th century were unexplained)a calamity or misfortune- might be a witches evil work,¨(Brandt, 2014). 18 of these innocent ¨Witches were hanged, And the 1 person was crushed to death.

The Salem witch trials were based on the Puritans' belief in the conflict between God and Satan. Puritans had always believed that they were the new chosen people, abandoning a land of sin and oppression to establish the Promised Land. In the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, a town existing most of the Puritans, any sign, word, or even thought of the devil was considered immoral. One evening, many girls were found dancing, naked in the woods, with incriminating devil worshiping paraphernalia. When discovered they were accused of practicing witchcraft. The rumor of possible witches in Salem quickly spread throughout the community. Three girls Abigail ,Tituba, and Mary Warren caused mass hysteria in Salem through their alleged wrongdoings. The people of Salem were in uncertain times. Just a year earlier a witch in the nearby town of Beverly was executed and now the witch hysteria had spread to their village. Confused, the people didn't know who to blame whether it be the girls, the negro slave, or even the Devil himself. The deception of the witches of Salem was beginning. ... There

The Salem witch trials occur for three main reasons. The beliefs of the people, the hysteria and the economics of the towns. Belief was huge because they had a very strict, firm religion. As seen in document C. This is talking about how evil spirits are possessing people. They would believe that  if the bible said it it was true, so in document A with the quote “ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This says that witches do exist, so everyone believed they were around. The next factor is hysteria. The people became paranoid that there were evil spirits around them. Everything that wasn't normal became a reason to become a witch. It could be a slight twitch, crossed legs or anything else that isn't something everyone does. As seen in document

When challenged by fear people respond in extreme measures and act irrationally. The Salem Witch Trials began in the early spring of 1692 after a group of adolescent girls claimed to be under the control of the devil and began accusing townswomen of using witchcraft. Hysteria engulfed Salem to the point where 150 people were accused over several months. September of 1692, the hysteria finally died down as public turned against the court. Later, the court nullified the guilty verdicts against those accused and compensated the families of the supposed guilty who were executed. I don’t believe anyone could have done more to end the hysteria in Salem because there were so many causes of tension that everyone was on the brink of insanity. The town of Salem was going to boil over one way or another, and because of this even the most influential people of Salem had no actual influence over the what would happen during the trials. There was no way of stopping it.

The Salem witch trials started in 1the spring of 692 with a string of accusations from young girls against their neighbors, accusing them of witchcraft. Generally, nowadays, it is accepted that witchcraft does not exist. If not for witchcraft, then what caused these girls’ outbursts and accusations? Since witchcraft was sincerely believed at this time, the girls may have simply been sick, and were hallucinating or having fever dreams where they saw their neighbors with the devil or attacking them and honestly believed they were being bewitched. There was also a lot of tension in the town which could have caused the people to point fingers at each other. It is important to focus on the why of a situation to be able to prevent it from happening again. Instead of a literal witch hunt, other witch hunts could start from people being hysterical.