Mental Illness In Salem Witch Trials

As mentioned earlier, it was believed that Tituba influenced Abigail and Betty to believe in witchcraft and try to perform it. They had random seizures, acted trance-like, and screamed. It got a lot of confused attention until that confusion turned into the belief of witches. Within a month, the people of Salem tried to get rid of the evil religiously. Tituba was questioned and she mentioned witch conspiracies in Salem.

Sermon of Rae My people, I am here to inform you that our neighboring city of Salem, has discovered a witch. It was late last night when the news broke out. Strange behavior was seen in the children of Salem village early this morning. They described it as an attack, being choked, and thrown to the ground. The witch has escaped their village and is now lost somewhere in Massachusetts.

Mystery Mania: Research Essay The Salem Witch trials were known as the largest witch trial in history. At that time, supernatural beings and Satan were considered part of everyday life, so when an epidemic of fits of madness broke out within the nation, mostly targeting young girls, people began to panic and blamed all this on the practice of black magic. A total of about two-dozen people were trialed and executed. But was it really because of witchcraft that people were having fits, and what were the strange sightings around the town of Salem? A few scientific theories began to emerge as more research was done, and what it seemed to come to was that the supposed witchcraft victims were either suffering from medical infection or hysteria.

Critical Analysis How many people in the world have lied before? Lying is something everyone has done whether they admit to it or not. In the play the Crucible written by Arthur Miller it is based intolerably on lies. It is about a group of girls in Salem, Massachusetts who were caught dancing in the woods. Talks about witches were then brought up and the girls began falsely accusing people of being witches.

In January 1692 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts a mass hysteria broke out. Eight girls began showing signs of a strange and unknown illness, with symptoms of delirium, impaired speech, convulsions, and screaming. The villagers wanted an explanation, so the doctor diagnosed the girls with bewitchment. Soon, accusations were being thrown out left and right. This lead to over 150 citizens accused of witchcraft, then sent to jail.

Among the groups labeled witches, most practitioners were women, and women were the primary leaders (The vulnerability of women to witchcraft Accusations- by Christian Day, 1992, n.d). Certain people to practice supernatural forces of evil that can hurt others with return - especially faith in the loyalty - had reached had appeared extensively in colonial New England in the 14th century Europe. In addition, the Salem Village (Massachusetts) War between France and England in the American colonies in the harsh realities including sequelae 1689 lives in rural Puritan society in recent smallpox epidemic, Native American tribes and Salem Village (Salem Witch Trials, n.d).

In the year 1692 the famous Salem Witch Trials occurred in Salem Massachusetts. The scare of witchcraft began with a small group of teenage girls, who claimed to be possessed by the devil. They believed that people’s spirits would come after them, and try to torment them. Hysteria broke out among the people in the town of Salem, and other parts of Massachusetts. Trials occurred for months to scrutinize who was considered a “witch” in the eyes of the judges and teenage girls.

It reveals how people commit cruel acts out of selfish intentions. In this situation, the girls claim to “come to Heaven’s side” by pointing fingers at others for witchcraft, although they were only doing so to get themselves out of their own trouble. These acts of cruelty reflect upon the evil motives of the perpetrators that become more common after it is done once, as seen through the continuous trials and suspicions, which acts as one of the most major conflicts in the play. Without these cruel accusations, there would be neither plot nor ending. With this same situation, it can be concluded that accusations become more frequent during an interval of time when there are more people accusing.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller shows what the people in the town of Salem went through during the witch trials. Reverend Hale, a character in the story is an expert in the dark arts, and is in Salem to find out if there are witches. Upon arrival he faces many difficult scenarios for even an expert like himself. Reverend Hale’s feelings are tried throughout the entirety of his visit in Salem; his opinions change with every new stone overturned. When Hale is initially interviewing Betty Parris and Abigail he uncovers a certain turn of events to persuade him to believe witches are loose in Salem.

Abigail starts acting. Abigail says “But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary (224).” She is pretending Mary is possessed so she doesn’t get in trouble. She raises chaos to save herself from being exposed to the court as a liar. Abigail Williams shows that misunderstandings and lying can cause chaos, when she

The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 when a group of young girls in Salem Village when they were claimed to be possessed by a devil. They then accused local women of witchcraft. The concept of the Salem Witch Trials soon emerged to Europe. It then spread to the later colonization of North America colonies. Tens of thousands of innocent people were killed.

The Salem Witch trials were started in 1692. According to History.com, a group of girls claimed to be possessed with the devil and that they were practicing witchcraft. This event may have caused the trials to begin. With the mix of the belief of the underworld and witches, the rumors began and spread like wildfire. Many people believed the girls and demanded for the people who were “possessed” to be killed a the spirit removed from the body and let free.

Many books were created during the time period of the witch hunts, one book in particular which was created around 1486 named “Malleus Maleficarum” which translates to Hammer of Witches(University of Pennsylvania). This fifteenth century book was essentially a handbook for identifying witches. These witch trials would commonly occur in Central Europe, Germany, France, and Switzerland(Lambert). These frequencies of the trials varied overtime(Lambert). For example, “The Burning times” which had occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was the peak of the witch trial executions during the time compared to, the beginnings of the trials that occurred in France and Germany.

The mass mentality of the people made the problem soon become out of hand. More and more women and some men were accused; the numbers soon grew to over fifty supposed witches. Many of the accusations were made by the three original girls who were afflicted. However, some historians believe that the parents of the girls were telling them who to accuse as revenge (@rbeatricebrooks). By the end of May 1692, local prisons were full and over one hundred people were on the charge of witchcraft.

In 1692 the beginning of the Salem witch trials began. A few decades later a similar occurrence happened in 1950 with the spread of McCarthyism. What started both the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism was the spread of fear and mass hysteria. Puritans during 1692 believed that the new world should be a holy place with freedom to practice your own personal religion. When witchcraft came around the puritans noticed strange behavior between the young teenage girls for example being choked by an invisible force or falling out on the floor as if possessed.