Rebecca Nursing Case Essay

So once again, she appeared to be safe from the courts. But soon the seven judges of the court, who knew the governor very well after being personally appointed to the position by him, talked to him (Wilson 1) (EB 1). They convinced him to not go against their decision because it made them look bad, so Sir William Phips took away Rebecca Nurse’s reprieve. Within a few months she was hanged (Wilson

During this series of court proceedings and examinations by the upper level of the court system, Elizabeth Clarke, Anne Weste, Elizabeth Gooding, Rebecca Weste, Hellen Clarke, and Anne Leech were all accused of witchcraft. Of these six women, only Elizabeth Gooding pleaded innocent to the accusations of witchcraft. Anne Weste had previously been convicted for witchcraft and was now a repeated offender, which carries a harsher sentencing. In the examinations, we see that these women are built up to be witches based on the English stereotype of witches. All of the women are accused of and admit to having a familiar spirit which they nurse with their own bodies.

The results of the trial in Stamford was that Mercy Disborough was temporarily convicted of witchcraft while Goody Clawson was acquitted. The consequences for Mercy Disborough were that despite months and jail and continued peer accusation, she was acquitted. The consequences for the townspeople are blurrier, but it is evident that persistent hysteria was not one of them. The results of the trial in Stamford were largely reigned in from the massive hysteria and mass convictions associated with contemporary witch trials by the law.

In The Crucible Rebecca Nurse throughout the entire witchcraft situation is the only one making a good choice and staying levelheaded. She has a very good reputation throughout the village and has given a lot of charity. Rebecca Nurse realizes that the reason the kids are acting this way is because that's how kids are. She thinks all of the accusations about witchcraft are false. Rebecca Nurse is very down to earth with the children and would never accuse them of anything.

This court, these accusations of witchcraft, are not fuelled by the desire for justice, but to exact revenge and acquire power. All of these denunciations of people as witches were lies. Had I opened my eyes and not foolishly believed these falsehoods, fallen victim to the wily Abigail’s web of lies, perhaps these people would have never been condemned? How could I allow God’s court to be a place of such injustice? I once prided myself on my intelligence and purity of spirit, but it is apparent that I am not a noble fighter against the devil but an ignorant mortal, not worthy of the post I hold.

Preceding the Salem witch trails, the court fell under attack. Those who made confessions began to recant them. Though they played a direct role in the executions of innocent people, they insisted that they only made accusations out of force. In Document 77, Margaret Jacobs describes the ordeal of how she was told to either confess or be hanged. In another record, “Declaration of Mary Osgood, Mary Tyler, Deliverance Dane, Abigail Barker, Sarah Wilson, and Hannah Tyler,” the girls contend, “There was no other way to save our lives, as the case was then circumstanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such and such persons as the afflicted represented us to be; they out of tenderness and pity persuaded us to confess what we did confess”

During the late fifteenth century the medieval Catholic Church was in war with a supernatural element, witchcraft. Witchcraft was seen as the devil’s way to corrupt faith in God. Citizens were fearful that friends and family in their community were practicing witchcraft leading to creation of the Malleus Maleficarum. The Malleus Maleficarum was guide used to help identify suspected witches, especially women. The guide was a sense of protection to the community against witchcraft.

The Crucible The horrible acts of the Salem witch trials were a product of ignorance negligence. The town was filled with corrupt people that had personal vendettas against each other, creating tension in the town. To make matters worse, the prospect of witches was introduced to the town. This increased tension between people as more and more people were accused of witchcraft for sending out their “spirits” against the so-called “victim.” The ignorance of the people led to the “landblasting” of many innocent people that were accused as witches.

In doing so, the court believed this and she was found guilty of witchcraft. She was put to jail and is now serving a sentence. Rebecca Nurse is not the only character who was judged unfairly in this play. In my lifetime, I have been judged unfairly many times.

Similarities Between Rebecca Nurse and I “Why it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot.” Rebecca Nurse stated in act IV of The Crucible. Rebecca was a woman of the truth. She refused to falsely state that she was a witch, even if it would save her life.

Speaker: The speaker is Rebecca Nurse, who is a respectable figure in Salem and the wife of Francis Nurse. 9.b. Audience: The audience is Parris, Putnam, and the other

Rebecca is accused for murdering the seven children of Ann Putnam who have died long before any questioning arose. Following this accusation, which is one of many that are false, Rebecca would go through the court process of either admitting to her actions as a witch or

It is through her reputation and vast experience that the town of Salem looks to Rebecca for local guidance. Her importance in the town goes beyond just problem solving and providing sympathy as she is also looked on upon as an upholding, role model citizen. This is mentioned a number of times by several people, but Hale puts in his reaction to Rebecca’s wrongful conviction: “Believe me, Mr. Nurse, if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole green world from burning” (Miller 858). To have someone outside of Salem make such a remark about Rebecca’s conviction speaks volumes in regards to her character.

This magnanimous, sensible woman refuses to follow the hysteria even to save her own life. Nurse,s charity becomes apparent in Act one when reverand John Hale comments on her reputation outside Salem. Nurse's magnanimous personality is emphasised even more in act 3 when Hale says "If Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothings left to stop the whole green world from burning". This quote marks the point in the play where Hale realizes that innocent people are being accused of witchcraft. Rebecca Nurs refuses to abandon her moral code, even when facing death.

However, records from the Salem trials show that her original convicted crime was not witchcraft, but having an “independence of mind”, and being an “unsubmissive character”. She was “…indicted for the bewitching of certain persons” and blamed for a smallpox outbreak that she had ‘caused’ by