How Witch Was Persecuted Essay

It last theory is that the afflicted girls accused the victims because they wanted revenge, but it is unlikely for children to hold a grudge with so many people. Most of the accusers came from high families, “Was some of the witch hunting the result of that big fight between Reverend Parris and the members of his congregation who refused to pay his salary”(- Schanzer 113)? Could it be that the parents of the accusers were malicious and fervently wanted to purposely cause their enemies to be condemned to death. It is quite a possibility due to the fact that people were not as friendly with each other as they are today. “But in the trials, neighbors also testified against neighbors, bringing up grievances as a way of getting revenge”(-Spiritual Travels).

During The Crucible, the Witch Trials caused many court hearings. A good deal of the court hearings consisted of people over exaggerating outbursts of demons inside of them just to get somebody convicted. The Witch Trails also affected the church in many ways. Reverend Parris’ already had a wicked reputation as their minister, and the trials made it even worse. People wanted him out of the church.

All through history millions of individuals have been shunned, arrested, brutally tortured, prosecuted, and persecuted as witches. One would think that post colonization of the United States these unjust acts to human kind would have ended, but that was not so. In 1692 the Salem Witch Trials took place, an event that was a major catastrophe in United States history. It began when a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts declared that they were possessed by the devil and made accusations that several older women were practicing witchcraft and fraternizing with the Devil.

She is lying a lot, for example, she says “Elizabeth Proctor is an envious, gossipy liar!”. She says things about other people, witch are lies, to distract from herself. She is lying about the meeting in the woods, witchcraft and about his love for John Proctor. On account of Abigail other people died in the play, because she shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. In the end she steals money for saving John from the death.

One woman even said she felt like it was a vampire bite instead of a bug. As ridiculous as this sounds in sent America into a state of fear. Just as it did to the people of Salem during the trials. There has been many cases of mass hysteria and it still happens today. The Salem witch trials is a warning of what can happen if we panic instead of

The author, Arthur Miller, wrote “The Crucible” that tells us the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. The society in Salem in 1692 was full of McCarthyism and fear because they thought their other citizens are doing witchcraft. Miller tells us that ignorance and fear combined can destroy a town’s social well-being. On the play, “The Crucible”, the citizens of Salem’s reacted with fear when they hear that someone has a sign of being a witch.

In the fervor of the witch trials, Abigail is put on a pedestal by the people of Salem and treated as though she has a direct connection with the Divine. Through cold calculation, Abigail carefully selects the people that she accuses in order to establish her credibility. Thus, she first accuses the town’s social deviants, as she knows the court is already predisposed to convict them. Soon a mere accusation from her becomes enough reason to convict even important, influential people. Abigail uses the witch hysteria that consumes Salem to secure herself from accusation, and gain control of the trials by accusing respectable people, before moving on to Elizabeth, and then in her desperation, she manipulates Mary Warren into eventually accusing John.

The emotions of people can be blinding and problematic. The emotions a person feels can cause people to do unimaginable things to themselves and other people. Throughout the book, people's emotions bring out the worst of the people of Salem. The people of Salem begin accusing people of witchcraft for their own personal vendettas and gain. In the book “ The Crucible” by Arthur Miller the people demonstrate, When reason fails, emotions control and results in the destruction of what is morally right or good.

parsonage. Even though the oppressed girls were among the main accusers during the trials, many historiographers believe the deranged girls parents, particularly Thomas Putnam and Reverend Samuel Parris, were inciting the situation with the girls and purposely influencing them to accuse certain people in the community they were not particularly fond of, to gain revenge or just out of spite. Cotton Mather was the minister of the Salem church, and truly believed in witchcraft. He had decided to investigate the unusual behavior of the children who belonged to John Goodwin, a Mason.

People in the Red Scare were often accused of being communist oftenly when someone was accused of being a communist, people would accuse other people just to not be accused as an communist. This is the same for the salem witch trials. In this book the townspeople of Salem have been put in a state of mass hysteria. Abigail Williams attempts to survive using deceit,power and control over people.

One of the main causes of the salem witch trials was the belief in the Occult. The puritans strongly believed in the existence of witches and warlocks or things from the underworld. All of these creatures were blamed for all of the bad things happening to their crops and lives. Due to this belief, they were inclined to make some of the most improbable explanations to the situations that were occurring. Multiple cases were filed after the 9-year old Elizabeth and 11-year old Abigail were diagnosed.

The idea of witches stemmed from religious folks believing that the Devil could give certain people, known as witches, the power to harm others in return for their loyalty (Smithsonian). Due to the popularity of religion and supernatural beliefs, many people believed that the source of evil was the Devil. This idea appeared in Europe as early as the 14th century and it was quite popular in New England colonies. Villagers often blamed unfortunate things upon the Devil and other spectral sources of evil due to their lack of knowledge.

If someone wanted land and they couldn 't get it, they would say that they are a witch and the person would get hung. A lot of people died because of getting blamed on about being a witch. But in “The Crucible” the character Abigail would blame anyone that got in the way of her and John Proctor, she was obsessed with him. There is a lot of movies that can relate to the

Many have heard of the Salem witch trials but not a lot of people know of how truly insane the accusations during them were. Neighbors were accusing each other on no known facts. They would make up stories saying someone is a witch just because they did not like that particular person. Everyone that was accused was guilty until proven innocent; instead of what is said today, which is innocent until proven guilty. No one was safe from being accused.

The Devil would have people whom were called witches that made a vow to worship and serve him(Lambert). This derogatory term of witch soon spread around Europe among this time. The calumniation of fear was building up amongst local neighbors in fact. With these fearful terms and news about witches it was when the trials were soon to occur. 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).