The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions that lead to the death of 20 innocent lives with over 200 accused of Witchcraft. However, I believe that something similar would’ve happened if the Salem witch trials didn’t happen. Salem was a ticking time bomb ready to explode any moment. The restrictive Puritan society coupled with personal fear of the severe punishments that ensues witchcraft, and people’s natural inclination for survival and power made Salem an ideal setting for mass hysteria. The restrictive Puritan society allowed for people to use the system according to their advantages. The Puritan society was restrictive in many ways, not only on their strict religious legal system, but the fact that there was extreme …show more content…
The natural human desire to survive coupled with fear allowed for the rampant false accusations to ensue in such a short amount of time. Another factor for such a fast snowball effect to occur was the already tense environment that was in place (such as land disputes) causing people to blame people that they dislike or have a grudge against. If everyone was like John Proctor who viewed their personal integrity and the lives of the people around him, there would be no snowball effect that would eventually engulf the entire Town. It is because of personal fear of the painful and deadly execution methods that are used in Salem which encourages people to quickly blame other people to avoid their painful execution. In a way it is ironic to see painful execution methods encouraging criminal activities, which were originally used as a deterrent criminal …show more content…
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, people’s natural inclination for power made leeway for tension in the Puritan community which lead to people falsely accusing one another to later buy their property. Another prime example of this is Abigail herself, although she did accuse people at first for the sake of her survival, she realized she could use her position to accuse many more people in the end to reign power over the people that did her wrong in the past. The scenario was a Ponzi scheme with no other alternative than death and it was just a matter of time this virus would engulf the entire town of Salem. That doesn’t mean that there were people that had interests besides survival. John Proctor being one of the people that chose his personal integrity over his survival for the sake of his children and his grandchildren being able to live a life without being a martyr was more important. He was executed, but died in a heroic
The Salem witch trials managed to kill many innocent people. These “mobs” or groups of people would convince each other that the person or people that were on trials were guilty. This is comparable to times in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy had accused certain politicians and people serving the government at that time of practicing communism. These accusations led to many of them losing their jobs and society status.
The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 ended almost as soon as it began. Why did this happen, and why did it happen in Salem? Between June and September of 1692, over 20 men and women were hanged, an 81 year old man got pressed to death under heavy rocks and hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. In 1689 Samuel Parris moved to Salem as the village minister.
In 1692, in the Essex County of Massachusetts, particularly in the community of Salem Village, a series of witchcraft afflictions, accusations, trials and executions began to take place. Afflicted with spells of black magic and sorcery, men, women and children were all rapidly involved in the activities of the witchcraft outbreak. As Salem's witchcraft outbreak began to spread throughout the community like a virus, more and more men, women and children were being arrested, tried, hung and executed. The very first incident of the Salem witch outbreak began when a group of young girls in the Salem Village met in their usual small, informal gatherings where they discussed their future.
The Salem witch trials had a long-lasting impact on the American justice system. Salem had an impact on the justice system by helping to create the idea that all men are innocent until proven guilty. Salem helped create this idea due to the fact that during the trials if a person were to be incriminated of being a witch they would consequently be put on trial. The person on trial wouldn’t receive a lawyer and no investigation was done. The trials didn’t require real evidence to be used.
The Massachusetts Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were unfortunate, unforgettable tragedies that resulted in the slaughtering of innocents, tests and punishments against accused witches, and ultimately regret that tore a community apart. Puritans were wary of witchcraft so by the end of May 1692 prisons were full of people who were believed to have sold their soul to the devil (Wilson 103). However, the accused citizens had much to say about that outrageous claim. Sarah Good, a woman executed in July of 1692 due to the Salem Witch Trials yelled this as she was being convicted; “You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you my blood to drink” (Brandt 34).
Scapegoating began taking place everywhere and soon chaos broke out. People were accusing other simply because they, themselves, had been accused and they wanted to blame to be passed on to someone else. Accusations were being made at enemies and those that someone had a grudge on - rarely were accusations made in an honest manner. “Any unlikeable characterist could get someone accused of witchcraft” (“Five Myths about the Salem Witch Trials”). A great level of paranoia grew around the town of Salem because one never knew when he/she would be accused of the witchcraft.
The Salem Witch Trials In the summer of 1692, a series of unfortunate events occurred in Salem, Massachusetts, The Salem Witch Trials. These witch trials resulted in the deaths of a score of people, both men and women and imprisonment of more than 200 of the villages residents (Blumberg). There are endless reasons as to why the Puritan village went into hysterics, including but not limited to paranoia, the Puritan’s strict religion, conflict between residents, economic turmoil, an ongoing war, and unexplainable events(Linder).
John Proctor was most responsible for the Salem witch hysteria. John Proctor scared many individuals in Salem because he claimed innocent people were being accused of witchcraft. In Act 1 of The Crucible Proctor claims, “I can call you death without a charge.” This statement claims that it is easy to cause death for an individual if you accuse them of witchcraft. This made many people terrified that they themselves or their loved ones would be accused and executed.
The 1692 events in Salem were not caused by a single person. Rather, the horrific miscarriage of injustice that was unfair persecutions under the guise of witchcraft could be blamed on natural phenomena. When young girls of the Massachusetts town developed strange symptoms, such as vivid hallucinations and strange bodily sensations, the local town doctor could not explain why they had suddenly taken ill. Confused, he diagnosed them with the one thing that made sense to the suspicious religious town: Witchcraft. Now, modern science concludes that a simple fungus was responsible for the girl’s symptoms.
An article from the First Amendment Encyclopedia shows the significance of these senseless accusations, writing, “The Salem Witch Trials testify to the way fear can ruin lives of innocent people and the importance of due process in protecting individuals against false accusations” (Purdy). This quote from the article supports the idea that these senseless accusations of witchcraft can ruin one’s individuality and freedom. Facing these ludicrous accusations, Proctor is sent to jail. After Proctor is in jail for 3 months, he faces the hard decision of being hung or confessing to something he never did in order to save himself, but permanently destroying his name. He makes the difficult decision to sign a confession but refuses to hand over the signed confession.
Reverend Parris, Deputy Governor Danforth, and Reverend Hale’s desire for Proctor’s confession demonstrates their need to keep up their reputations and the well-being of the citizens of Salem. A motive for Proctor’s confession is for Reverend Parris and Danforth’s reputations to be upheld and avoid a rebellion of the townspeople against the court and leaders. Parris fears that if Proctor is to be hanged, then the town will attempt to overthrow the court for it’s dishonesty and rebel against him. Danforth’s beliefs are similar to Parris’: if Proctor does not confess, then his reputation of holding up an honest and valid court would be ruined.
During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.
The confession of Proctor would convince others in the town to confess to their incriminations and not have to be hanged. Reverend Parris, Deputy Governor Danforth, and Reverend Hale’s desire for Proctor’s confession demonstrates their need to keep their reputation and the well-being of the citizens of Salem. A motive for Proctor’s confession is for Reverend Parris and Danforth’s reputations to be upheld and avoid a rebellion of the townspeople against the court and leaders. Parris fears that if Proctor is to be hanged, then the town will attempt to overthrow the court for it’s dishonesty and rebel against him.
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, as a response to McCarthyism, which is, in general, accusing people of crimes with little to no proof. It ran rampant through the United States during the Second Red Scare through the early 1950s (exactly when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible). In The Crucible, Miller juxtaposes the leaders, who rationally think for themselves, and the followers, who believe what everybody else believes, through irony, imagery, and denotation. The Crucible is riddled with irony, and Arthur Miller utilizes situational and dramatic irony to show the difference between followers and leaders.
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.