True Crimes In The Crucible

Rebecca Nurse was blamed for the death of all of Ann Putnam’s children, except for one. The events also caused numerous people to be convicted of witchcraft, some of them being executed. Two of the most notable people convicted in the play were John Procter, condemned for adultery and later hung, and Tituba, who confessed, saving her own life.

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.

(Shelley 94) The Crucible featured a trial in the third act where several characters accuse Abigail Williams, the main antagonist, of deceiving the court by falsely accusing people of witchcraft. As their evidence they present a follower to one of the girls, Mary Warren, to provide witness testimony to this. Abigail interferes by accusing her of witchcraft. As the trial goes on Mary Warren collapses under pressure and continues to go along with the game since she feared death.

It’s crazy that all it takes is two girls lying about witchcraft and several innocent people lose their lives. This theme stands out today because if you lie in court you are punished, but if you tell the truth you are not punished as heavily. Things back then are extremely different than how things are in the world

Both The Crucible and McCarthyism have many similarities that relate them in many ways. They parallel in creating Hysteria, false claims and accusations, as well as crimes that were impossible to be proven. In both the Salem Witch Trials and The McCarthyism Era, people were accusing innocent people for serious crimes. “I did wrong to withhold these names.”

n The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, the play involved various themes. A very popular theme in the play is lies and deceit. The small town of Salem was all fouled that witchery was happening by a group of girls. Many people got involved in the court cases, and some people had very bad consequences then just being blamed. Lying only leads to the truth being told and having worse consequences for the people committing the lies.

Why did people believe in witches and why was witchcraft a crime? By: Kaya Saito Introduction This essay is about why people believed in witches and how witchcraft was a crime. This essay is split into 3 different parts the belief, explaining the belief, and witchcraft crimes. The Witches are from the 16th century to the 17th century in Europe. Witches were usually women sometimes men who made an agreement with the devil to help by causing harm and bringing suffering to innocent people.

A question that’s been asked throughout the ages; are people good, evil or are they just misguided. The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600’s, early 1700’s, where countless innocent people lost their lives due to false accusations of being a witch. During this time in the provincial town of Salem, Massachusetts, the mass hysteria over witchcraft had everyone in the small puritan town turning on one another. Their religious beliefs and intolerance during this time lead the puritans to extreme decisions about their neighbors. If one were to give into desires of any kind that did not follow the strict limitations of their religious faith, they were considered to be “evil”; they were doing the Devil’s work.

Eventually, as stated in Document A, Bridget Bishop was the first witch to be hanged in the Salem Witch Trials on June 10, 1692. However, Parris happens to be the father of an “afflicted” girl that was enticed by a witch named Tituba. The one thing can be inferred from this document though is that Parris’s experience with witches most likely altered his opinion to be negative towards these people. Despite his bias, Document C supports the conclusion of family ties being the cause of the Salem Witch Trials. Parris most likely obscures these women’s personage in order to protect his daughter from witches.

Since the beginning of time people have gone through trials in court to either be proven innocent or guilty. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller a massive number of people were being convicted in Salem, Massachusetts because of the witch trials. The law of the land states that everyone is above suspicion until they are demonstrated to be guilty by legitimate evidence; in the play the Crucible if a person was accused of an unlawful act they were summons for being a witch and working for the devil without proper confirmation. Citizens in Salem were imposed to establish their innocent or be put to death, which caused conflicting issues in the village.

In the book Witches the Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer, there was a religion, puritanism, and they believed in witches. They accused people for being aligned with the devil. It started with two girls who had symptoms of histyeria and others who were not sick also joined the. Nineteen people were wrongly accused of being witches and executed. Later in the book it stated that many of the people that accused those who died, lied.

During the witch trials, the accused were interrogated and forced to plead guilty of witchcraft or die. Most pleaded guilty just to save their life, but they were also forced to give up the names of other “witches”. Blaming others could also direct the blame from the accused to someone else, this way the accused could escape the pain and shame of being called a witch. In Cotton Mather Biography, it is stated that, “As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confesses to being witches.” This portrays the on going snowball effect of blaming other people of witchcraft.

There is a lot of connections for The Crucible to the 21st century. In the 1690’s it was when the salem witch trials started up. They was blaming people for being witches and people would get hanged for it. Some even took advantage of it, they would lie if they didn 't get what they wanted from the person so they would say that person is switch and they would be hung.

In conclusion, the characters of Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams influenced and shaped the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams and Putnam started the first accusations which led to widespread fear of witchcraft in the village. This same fear was exploited by Williams and Putnam in order to achieve their selfish motives. Without these characters, the Salem Witch Trials might have never occured which brings us to realize how much damage vengeance and wealth can cause. All in all, Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam’s grudges and selfish intentions were what caused Salem Witch Trials and the destruction of several innocent

When you are blacklisted this meant for many that their promising careers would terminate. The Crucible is a story about a town accusing people of being witches if you were found to be a “witch” you were hang. After learning about McCarthyism, it is apparent that people had many ulterior motives for their actions, also conflicts and groups of people become apparent. McCarthyism shed light to my eyes that there was more to Salem. Many people had ulterior motives their motives profited themselves.