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How Did The Salem Witch Trials Influence The Church

1763 Words8 Pages

Elizabeth Nickel

Mr. Glorfield

English 11A

12 January 2023

The Past Influences Witches and The Church

There are several outcomes that can happen when an event is caused, the effects start widespread emotions. Panic and gaining control afterwards are a method commonly used as more of the negative emotions we feel are some of the first to be recognized. However, the ways of gaining recontrol often lean more towards some of the worst ways to end the panic of the public. We can see the influence that caused society in the past to take this route in the events of the Salem Witch trials during the 1690s and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which is his telling of the Salem Witch trials in the time of the Red Scare in the 1950s. We see that …show more content…

However as earlier stated from The Crucible from how Elizabeth Procter was acting towards John many could see that as Elizabeth could be hiding that she practiced witchcraft from John, and she could be placed on trial. And the same could be said for John as well as later on in the telling of the play, it became known that John did not attend church on a regular basis, and with that John could be portrayed to be going against church practices. The fact that John was not attending church on a regular basis being substantial evidence to accuse him of witchcraft can seem far stretched but it was part of the Puritan life to attend regularly, as stated in an article from Mr. Nussbaum, “When Puritan settlers weren't at work, they were likely at church or at prayer. Church was an extremely important part of the daily lives of Puritans, and attending church was mandatory. There could be severe punishments for those who failed to attend. Puritans believed that they were doing God's work and that those who disobeyed or strayed from Puritan teachings were sinners”. This states that while not attending seems quite childish to say that one is a witch, it was more of what the public would suspect as church and public appearances were mandatory to show how faithful and abiding one

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