Essay The Diary of Reverend John Hale

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale’s attitude and beliefs are changed completely as the play progresses. After Reverend Parris is a witness to girls dancing in the woods and also when his daughter becomes very ill, he calls Rev. Hale to Salem. Hale’s job is to find any form of witchcraft and to get rid of it. Over the course of the play, Rev. Hale experiences a transformation in his beliefs from the beginning of the play to the end. Reverend Hale has three different emotions throughout the play. When Hale is introduced in the the beginning of the play, he is passionate and very confident about finding witchcraft and getting rid of it. In the middle of the play, Hale is frustrated and he does not know who to trust nor

The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is a play that takes place in the sixteen nineties during the famous but tragic witch trials. Reverend Hale who is a minister and an expert of the demonic arts and witchcraft is sent from East Hanover to Salem where there is a spreading fear of witchcraft. When Hale arrives in Salem he finds the entire town in total chaos. At the beginning Hale is adamant in believing that they’re where witches and that nothing but good could come of his being there. Near the end when the truth has been exposed, Hale with so much blood on his head pleads : ‘‘ I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves. There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on

The purpose of this book was to examine the history and social life of Salem Village to try to figure out what was the cause of the events that occurred there. I believe that the authors achieved their objective at least they did to me. Boyer and Nissenbaum's explanation for the outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Salem hinges on an understanding of the economic,

Most observers now agree that witches in the villages and towns of the late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century New England tended to be poor. They were usually not the poorest women in the community, but the moderately poor. Karlsen tries to show that a woman who was vulnerable was most likely to be accused of being a witch. Even women who had gained wealth because of the death of a husband were prime candidates.

Before the 1500s, prosecution of witches was rare. Trials were conducted against those who were seen as suspects of “practicing harmful magic and occasional mass trials" (Bever, 2009, p. 263). These accusations were often made by children and that of their imagination. The decline; however, occurred not through the prosecutions but through its “suppressing roles” and the overall “decline in witch beliefs” (Bever, 2009, p. 285). The title of the article is “Witchcraft Prosecutions and the Decline of Magic” and it is written by Edward Bever. Bever is the Associate Professor of History, SUNY College at Old Westbury.

In this study she addresses the accused and the accusers, the young, the old, the poor, and the cute. In chapter seven she constructs an interesting analysis and a statistically significant interpretation of those females who were possessed, and why these particular females responded to their possession in Puntan society. In order to prove her case she used evidence associated with those who were the accusers and the accused during the witchcraft trials. On the whole, she proved that women who were out of the social norms of colonial society were more likely to be suspect of witchcraft. In Puntan New England this was mainly non-married women, widows, and non-conformist females. These distinctive behaviors and demographics were seen as potential threat to New England Society, especially during a period of great change or social upheaval.

As the story progresses people fear for their own safety and begin accusing their neighbours of witchcraft in order to escape being hanged. Salem became overrun by the hysteria of witchcraft. Mere suspicion itself was accepted as evidence. As a Satan-fearing community, they could not think of denying the evidence, because to deny the existence of

Witchcraft was defined for the masses by the publication of the Malleus Maleficarium also known simply as the Handbook. Written by two Dominican friars in 1486 it’s purpose was to be used as a handbook to identify, capture, torture, and execute suspected witches. Opinions stated as facts and written in the Malleus Maleficarium, “handbook”, were based their faith, church doctrine, and the Bible. No doubt a religious masterpiece in it’s time this handbook is a neatly woven together a group of beliefs, experiences, wisdom of ancient writers, religious ideas, and God inspired writings that justify it’s purpose. Written by and used by Catholics this handbook proved useful for Protestants as well. Based on biblical interpretation and ideas the handbook provided Protestant Church leaders biblical authority to prosecute witchcraft as well. Translated into today’s vernacular phrases such as, “everybody knows that women are feeble minded” or “everybody knows that women are more superstitious than men” and “all women have slippery tongues” are included in the handbook and presented to the reader as foregone conclusions. Specific

Suddenly people seemed very paranoid and soon residents were placing blame on one another and accusing each other of witchcraft. In a fifteen month period between 1691 and 1692 nearly twelve dozen people were accused of witchcraft in or near Salem (Norton, p8).

said that the young girls who accused these woman of being witches were pretty good actors they had terrible success one person got away with it so they all tried to do it. This supports my claim because this all the more points in the direction that these women were jealous and wanted to get these women prosecuted and they got away with it. Caption for this

The people in Salem must seek out and destroy the Devil that corrupts many young girls by having Puritan Church officials take charge in this matter. The Puritan Church will help the situation by looking more into the deposition of the witnesses.

Throughout the history of witchcraft it has been hard to establish if any of these accusations on ‘witches ' were actually true due to lack of records and proof, although it now seems certain that the vast majority of women incited were innocent. In the book "The Bewitching of Anne Gunter" we can see how these allegations can be completely fabricated for personal gain and revenge.

Due to morally bankrupt foundation of the church and state many residents among Salem has remained “selfish” and took advantage to blame on another in order to save themselves through accusations, while others simply did it for greed. An

This was followed by enforcement as, stoning them, preforming bleedings, burning and hanging to death. These passages left the community skeptical. The accusations came primarily group of young women. At the start of the trials, the selected were random, reaching from rich to poor, old to young. Though after a months the accusations were more directed towards a particular group, merchants. The merchants had access to the world outside of Salem. Their connection with others made them easy prospects. In a town as small and skeptical as Salem was, rumours were able to speared extremely quickly. Young girls having strange behaviour seemed to become a more popular occurrence, therefore having more people to accuse of

The human mind has always tried to grapple with inconsistencies, misfortunes, and differences. Without true success, humans have pinpointed possible influences and causes of misfortunes or tragedies within their communities. For many people in the 1600’s, witchcraft was a possible answer to a lack of success in pinpointing the cause of tragedies. Gossip was the the primary root in all such instances of witchcraft, weaving stories and accusations in private. These accusations of witchcraft did not end in the 17th century, but now hide under pseudonyms such as “different” or “outsider” in this day and age. The Lisbon sisters and Janie from The Virgin Suicides and Their Eyes Were Watching God, respectively, are modern day examples of how gossip can catalyze witch-hunts to persecute and incite violence upon women who differ from the status quo. Janie and the Lisbon sisters possess many characteristics often attributed to witches: sexual deviance, religious discord, and they are each outsiders in their community. Witch craft is heavily influenced by rumor and gossip in the sense that witchcraft would not exist without rumor and gossip to be fear leaders in witch-hunts. The fear that gossip and rumor bring about in a community often snowballs into acts of irrevocable violence and sometimes death, as is the case in The Virgin Suicides. Women have always been the targets of witch hunts for two main reasons: one being that men were perceived as stronger than women, and therefore,