The Causes Of Passions In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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. Many practicing Christians, at the time, believed that the Devil could persuade people to use the powers that he gave them to harm others. The Salem Witch Trials occurred because of resource struggles, many women were accused and tortured, and in the end the Governor realized that it was a big mistake. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1).

In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.

It is stated in the Bible, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’’ (Exodus 22:18 King James). This is presumably the reason that the town of Salem first thought of the idea of witchcraft when the girls were ill. Salem was a very religious town, following the Bible in every way they could, so when there was talk of witchcraft, they followed what they were taught and what they believed in which was not allowing a witch to live.

Do you want to be hanged because you are practicing witchcraft? The Salem Witch Trial Hysteria happened in the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The story is that the people of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. The Puritans thought that they were going to be like a “city upon a hill” which meant they thought that they were going to make it look like they were more perfect than everyone else and they were closer to God. They made it like this because they believed that every word in the Bible was the true word of God and was to be followed to the exact letter of every word. But do you want to know what caused the Salem Witch Trials hysteria? There was three causes of the salem witch trials hysteria. These were, the people of Salem, Massachusetts were practicing witchcraft, the devil was possesing people, and there were people in Salem, Massachusetts

Arthur Miller’s main purpose in writing The Crucible was to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials and to warn against government propaganda. At the time that The Crucible was published, America had a huge fear of communism. Anyone accused of having ties with the communist party was shunned. It much resembled the Salem Witch Trials in how the government, or leader of the time, used fear against the people to gain power. For example, Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Reverend Parris in how they both lead the people into the belief that there were intruders in their mists that had plans to sabotage the community.

The years of 1692 and 1693 were a terrible time in Salem Massachusetts. The presence of the devil was in Salem. People living there were practicing witchcraft. Young women were barking like dogs and acting strangely. All this behavior would lead to what became known as the Salem witch trials.The Salem witch trials took place because of people practicing witchcraft and they were not witches.This resulted in the imprisonment /execution of more than 200 people.

The people who preside over the trials are corrupt. People who were accused of witchcraft are wrongfully indicted, and those transgressions must be justified. Danforth is the governor of Massachusetts who thinks of himself as a fair man. Thomas Putnam who has grudges against the people of Salem, and Abigail is a shameless liar who leads the accusations against the people of Salem. What the people of Salem have seen as demonic possessions of the girls is nothing more than an act of deception. The accused people of Salem are all innocent and have nothing to do with neither witchcraft nor convening with the devil. The accusers cannot present concrete evidences, and their wrongful convictions must be further scrutinized.

Living in Colonial America is very different than any other part in the world, especially when they didn’t know what’s around them. Colonial America was very hard for the new pilgrims. Not only is it hard when they didn’t have houses set up, but also life was made harder during the winter when it was freezing outside. After they set up different town's life began to become a little easier. In the town of Salem, the Witch trials popped up around 1692 and made life hard again. Even though times were hard in Colonial America the Salem witch trials made it harder because of the danger it caused in the town of Salem.

What caused the people of Salem to go into a hysteria and accuse each other of witchcraft in 1692? It could have been a number of factors could have caused the Salem Witch Trials Hysteria of 1692. A hysteria is when a group of people experience something with a heightened emotional state, often leading to fogged decision-making skills or inability to see logic. These factors would not have caused such an extreme situation on their own, but when together they created the worse case scenario for the people of Salem. These factors were local feuds, jealousy, religion-based anxiety, a case of hysteria, and upset over a fast economy change.

Also, the last cause of the Salem Witch Trial was the lack of knowledge of the people. People was just accusing other people of witchcraft, but the accusers did not have an idea of what was going on in the town. For example in Document A says “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” but the people really did not know who was a witch and who was not a witch. This is lack of knowledge because that was not coming for the Bible or something it was just a version of King James, Puritans let other influence their beliefs and did not give a good knowledge about witchcraft. Other example is in Document B when it talks about all the things that happened and that all of that according to the Puritans was “Witchery” that was lack of knowledge because people really did not know what was happening. People was just finding a reason for their bad luck. Because the people did not find a good reason, their beliefs came out and people started thinking about the witchcraft in Salem.

Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris, is the first to admit to dancing with the devil. Based on the background knowledge of the time, slaves were not considered part of the class system, so she was not valued as a community member. Tituba is conscious that she is in danger, “she is also very frightened because her slave sense has warned her that, as always, trouble in this house eventually lands on her back” (Miller, pg. 6). Tituba attempts to tell the truth about Abigail when she says, “You beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm” (Miller, pg. 44) but realizes that her word against Abigail will not stand. So, she decides to manipulate the situation by saying that the Devil has come to her and she has resisted his commands to kill Mr. Parris.

Around the time of theses trials there was something called The Little Ice Age going on. This ice age started in 1300 AD and ended in the 1800’s. The ice age had two phases, the first began around 1290 and ended in the late 1400’s. After the first phase there was a warm period that was in the 1500’s, but then the second phase started in the 1600’s and ended in the 1800’s. The reason the people needed someone to blame was because the coldest period was between 1645-1715, right around the time of the trials(eh-resources.org,1). They also blamed people because the villagers of Salem were depressed, dying, and just random bad things were

In the book The crucible by Arthur Miller, there was small town called Salem. It was faced with mass hysteria. This was caused by a group of girls acting crazy. They were acting as they were possessed by witches when they weren’t. This caused the small town so have fear and start blaming everyone else that they are witches. This then was causing mass hysteria because no one was trusting anyone else around the town. Everyone was out to get revenge. For example, John proctor stood by the truth stating “ A fire is burning! I hear the boot of lucifer, I see his face, it is my face and yours danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of

Who knew one seemingly innocent lie could cause 19 deaths and pit an entire town against itself? That’s exactly what happens in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Authors often use similar plot devices, and their favorite one is having their characters face a test. In a small town called Salem in early America, something terrible is happening. A small group of teenage puritans broke several rules and lied a seemingly innocent lie. That lie turns into a series of hearings where the defendant has two terrible choices. They can either lie and confess to witchcraft that they didn't commit, or hang. That one lie leads to 19 deaths. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, many characters made crucial decisions that led to the disaster

In The Crucible, the normal social and moral order is completely inverted. Salem was a secluded village in Massachusetts that was a strict, theocratic, hierarchical, patriarchal society where power and morality were two incredibly important aspects within the community. The men of Salem held all of the political power in the community and their rule was strengthened not only by the law but also by the hypothetical approval of God. However, the Salem witch trials empowered several individuals in The Crucible who were formerly marginalized and powerless and similarly inverted the normal moral order in Salem by forcing the characters in the play to make a decision between adhering to or abandoning their fundamental morals in order to survive or