The Witch Theme Analysis

Conflict arises when Reverend Parris, the local minister, discovers the girls in the forest being led by a black slave named Tituba. Two girls out of the group, including Reverend Parris’s daughter, Betty, fall into a coma-like state after they have been caught in the forest. This causes the town to start to question if witchcraft plays a factor in their sicknesses. Reverend Parris’s niece, Abigail,

The play starts out with the audience learning about how a group of young girls and a slave were dancing in the forest. Reverend Parris the minster in the town saw this occur. Later, Parris’s daughter, Betty, has fallen ill and silent. She was one of the girls dancing. Then accusations of witchcraft come to be as some the townspeople begin to believe that this is what is causing the young girl to be silent. In actuality the girl is just scarred. Reverend Hale, a witch expert, is called into the town to assess the situation. He eventually gets the slave, Tituba, Betty, and Parris’s niece,

In these classes, we will be going over many of the different guidelines put out that explain the rules, laws, and principles for pagans of all kinds.

In the book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer the town of Salem starting going into a panic of the theory of witches from the fits of two girls. Everyone accusing each other, family is accusing family. Brothers are accusing brothers. Accused witches are taken to trial, but are the trials that fair? The trials were unfair because of the use of spectral evidence, the inability to testify for oneself, and the surprisingly unbiased judges.

The main thing that occurred in the movie was death. Nineteen people were hung and a man was pressed to death. Rebecca and Mary were the two main characters who were accused and murdered. Rebecca was on of Sarah’s sister and was the first to be accused of being a witch. A year after Rebecca death they realized Rebecca was not guilty at all so they cleared her name by pronouncing that her soul was set free. Mary was Sarah’s other sister and had done nothing wrong but was still accused of being a witch. Mary was very religious, however she was going to be hanged and when she was she was praying. Sarah was the only one who survived, but barely. She was taken by a secret jailer and was kept in a shed for a whole year.

The main thing that occurred in the movie was death. Nineteen people were hung and a man was pressed to death. Rebecca and Mary were the two main characters who were accused and murdered. Rebecca was Sarah’s sister and was the first to be accused of being a witch. Later on they realized Rebecca was not guilty at all so

“Have you ever wondered if Magic or witches and wizards really exist in this modern world? Well yes, they do exist, and they are quite active in the modern world. There are more than 10 million witches in the United States, with new practitioners on the rise daily.”(Caine) Being a witch is much different than what you may have seen in the movies. There is real magic to the craft, but witches or wizards don 't walk around turning people into to frogs with a flick of their magic wands. They don 't disappear into thin air, nor do they fly around through the night on broomsticks. They also don 't live in a big castle or mansion. They walk around as normal people and you wouldn 't be able to tell them apart for anyone else. The art of real witchcraft is one of the oldest practices in the world. “The oldest instruments of the real craft that have been discovered date back to 40,000 years ago, while the practice of real witchcraft dates back to paleolithic times. It is very much a way of life, as you may have heard from the modern followers of Wicca. During the middle ages, and in the event known as The Inquisition, the practice of witchcraft became outlawed throughout most of the Christianized world, an offense punishable by death.”(Caine) A witchcraft frenzy broke out in the early colonial history of America in Salem, Massachusetts. Insane torture tactics were put in by the church to draw out confessions. This period of time is often cited as the start of "the burning times."

Since it’s infancy at the beginning of the eighteenth century, horror has followed certain conventions that results in an awakening of the senses, evoking intense emotions of fear and terror in the audience. Horror feeds off triggering the primal fears embedded within all of humankind, creating a sense of menace that is the very substance of this genre. Furthermore, the central menace of a piece tends to enlighten the human mind to the world of the paranormal and the enigmatic, dark side of the unknown. The movie “Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock is a perfect example. Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre, “Psycho” was filmed with great tact, grace and art in regards to horror conventions.

The movie began with women singing and dancing around a fire. One woman named Abigail Williams, who was having an affair with a farmer of the town, John Proctor, wanted his wife dead and wished it during the fire. The next morning, two children in the town were not able to wake up. A Reverend, John Hale, was called into the town to examine the girls and brought the idea of witchcraft into the village. When Abigail and her friends heard about the witchcraft, they began falsely accusing numerous innocent people in the village.

People nowadays love being scared in any way, shape or form. Wether it would be ranged from going to an amusement park to a haunted house. In the article King states, “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare. To show that we can, that we are not afraid, that we can ride this roller coaster”. In the article King compares horror films to roller coasters, to show that they are similar. They both have their element of surprise, you never know what is coming till it happens. Everyone loves the adrenaline rush they get when they get scared. It leaves them wanting more of what they are getting. Today the most popular type of films are horror, there is always that hype over the new horror film that will be coming out. No matter what the circumstances are, these things are done to

Summary- In the town of Salem there is the Reverend Paris. His daughter, his slave, his niece, and ten or so other girls were all caught dancing for the devil in the woods. When questioned Abigail the reverends niece and his slave Tituba, confess to the lord and state that they saw several other women in the town of Salem with the devil. In court all those women do not confess and there is just a really messes up court system. Abigail gets a lot of people on her side a lot of innocent people pay.

Horror can be defined as a genre meant to psychologically trigger individual fear with the presence of certain supernatural or abstract characteristics. The genre is dependent on people’s fascination with unrealism and the sensation that comes from experiencing fear personified into tangible elements on a screen. Horror films have thrilled audiences for decades, revealing stories of the more sinister parts of life. The popular allure that stems from the genre comes from the tension moviegoers experience when aroused by specific stimuli uniquely present in these cinematic features (Walters). Over time, as the genre progressed, the standardized elements found in a typical horror movie began to shift in different directions primarily due to changing societal circumstances and increasing consumer demand for cinematic innovation. The expansive nature of the different codes and conventions within the horror genre, coupled with the evolution of society’s fascination with these characteristics, has led to the mutation of the genre itself in order to allow for unique approaches to a familiar style in response to both economic developments and taste shifts within the consumer industry.

Horror is designed to scare, cause alarm and dread, while also entertaining the audience at the same time in a cathartic experience (Dirk, 2016). Horror films are meant for a specific type of audience that enjoy scary films. Dirks (Tim, 2016) approach to genre horror, is that films went back as 100 years ago, from the earliest days our vivid imagination in seeing ghosts in the shadows to be connected emotionally of the unknown, and fear things that are improbable. You watch a horror film, it makes you aware of the scary surroundings, the essence of fear itself, without actually being in any sorts of danger. Dirks argues that there is a fun and thrill factor in being frightened, or watching something disturbing. It gives you that feeling of an adrenaline rush, as well as having that feeling someone is actually next to you lurking in the dark (Dirk, 2016).

Horror films are known for their ability to scare audiences, to get the audience’s hearts racing, their blood rushing. A good horror film will cause viewers to be on the edge of their seats and having their perception of reality distorted as they attempt to understand the unraveling plot of the horror film. The tone of the film aides in the amount of suspense that a horror film produces, since a much darker film will create a more suspenseful atmosphere than one that is more focused on campy monster makeup. But the tone of a film is determined by the sound of the film, or in other words, the score. Sound or music in a horror film, or the lack thereof, make the intense scenes and without the addition