ipl-logo

Why Is Salem Witch Hunt Still Relevant Today

1088 Words5 Pages

Throughout history there have been many events which fit into the criteria of a witch hunt, literally and metaphorically. From the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 portrayed in The Crucible and McCarthyism during WW2, to modern day issues such as terrorism witch hunts have plagued history. Today, these “witch hunts” have gotten more realistic and are backed up by actual threats to society. Although, they are still related to the original witch hunts of Salem as there are many people searching for large amounts of a certain type of people. However, modern day witch hunts clearly have the same cause/ effect as the actual Salem witch trials.

In The Crucible, the whole court system of Salem actually to people who are accused of witchcraft. The judges …show more content…

In Document A, Ann Putnam testifies “What is your name for I will complaine of you tho you be a Minister: if you be a wizzard…and Immediately I was tortured by him being Racked and allmost choaked by him: and he tempted me to write in his book which I Refused with loud out cries…” (Doc A). In this section of Document A, Ann Putnam is testifying that the ghost of a minister was attacking her and trying to get her to sign his book, which would make her work for the devil. Document C says “That the play works on a wider allegorical level is suggested by the frequency with which it has been performed since the 1950s and by the way that it has been applied to a wide number of similar situations in different cultures and periods.” This shows how relevant Miller's The Crucible is to real world …show more content…

“One group feels they can or should assert power over another. Whether it is to cover something up and get off free, like the girls in the Salem trials. Or if it is to boost your approval ratings like Joseph McCarthy during his "communist hunt". “There's always some type of gain in the exploitation of others.” (Doc F). Witch hunts, no matter the time period always are caused by a group of people looking for something to gain by blaming others. “Americans, the most optimistic of people, now faced unnerving official terror warnings? Their television screens broadcasted alerts.” This shows how these witch hunts have affected people throughout

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast The Salem Witch Trials

    2240 Words  | 9 Pages

    While witch trials were on the decline across Europe and the American Colonies by the end of the 17th century, there remained a dangerous remnant in some regions, where the social context could easily spark another panic. This essay will compare the Salem village witch trials of the early 1690s to those in Scotland, with particular emphasis on the case of Christian Shaw in Renfrewshire in the late 1690s: two areas in which a sudden resurgence in witchcraft accusations can be seen. It should be noted that witchcraft cases in Scotland were highly varied, and the cases used here cannot be taken as standard across Scotland during the period. Both societies were highly religiously centred, with doctrine permeating every aspect of life, making them

    Read More

  • The Crucible Vs Modern Day Witch Hunt Analysis

    199 Words  | 1 Pages

    In both The Crucible and in modern day witch hunts, witch hunts are caused out of fear or for personal gain. Jill Schonebelen wrote a research paper on Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights. Throughout this article, it mentions the persecution of witches today in communities around the globe, mentioning the flashbacks of similar strategies that were used in the past, doing different types of tortures. In Modern days, recent generations have abandoned wonderful traditions. Rather, recollecting others with distasteful memories such as witchcraft.

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between The Crucible And Fahrenheit 451

    469 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ray Bradbury is the author of Fahrenheit 451, which was published in 1953. It's based off a world where having or reading a book is a crime. The main character Guy Montag is awakening the reality of books. He had been hiding his investigation about the true meaning of books but was caught. The chase led him to a new city with people like him.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible

    192 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the Salem witch trials to show how a society can become flawed and corrupt, leading to an inevitably witch hunt and hive mindset. These mindsets have still carried on in modern day society. The community of Salem was run under a strict theocracy, where religious leaders held immense power and threat to the common people. With the large fear of the unknown and wide belief in apparitions and entities this added to and heightened the chaos of these witch trials. During the trials an unjust court is shown immediately in the first hearing, the presumption of innocence was ignored and all of the evidence was based on hearsay and rumors.

    Read More

  • How Did The Japanese Internment Camps Vary Throughout History

    729 Words  | 3 Pages

    There were a variety of Witch Hunts throughout history. From the Holocaust to the KKK, all of the Witch Hunts have something in common, for example genocide and humiliation of innocent people. Witch Hunts are related to the world because they can occur at anytime on small or large scale. For example 127,000 Us citizens form Japanese Decent, 1942 relocation of all of the Japanese Decent were forced to move to concentration camps and not only did the US put Japanese in camps but so did Canada, and Canada places 23,000 Canadians of Japanese decent to camp. The survivors of these camps were paid 20,000 each in reparations.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials In 1692

    894 Words  | 4 Pages

    The events in Salem in 1692, were but one chapter in a long story of witch hunts that began in Europe between 1300 and 1330 and ended in the late 18th century (britannica). In the Spring of 1692, paranoia broke out that is much too familiar to us today. Adolescent girls, in an effort to shift blame for their own delinquent behavior, used their current social climate to start a wave of mass hysteria and panic that involved multiple communities. Salem Village was half of the overall Salem community, and the other half was the more influential Salem Town (britannica). Salem Village leaders, that included the minister, the doctor, and the magistrates supported the girls unsubstantiated and otherwise false claims against villagers.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

    884 Words  | 4 Pages

    Soon, people feared, communist ways would come to the United States and would quickly corrupt the government system. Senator McCarthy rose to power during this time by creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion based on false claims of communist activity. Conventional wisdom has it that mankind has evolved so far that the idea of targeting innocents is no longer an issue; however, Senator McCarthy and targeting of innocent Muslims after 9/11 remind us that witch hunts still exists in modern times. One way The Crucible witch hunt

    Read More

  • Paranoia Salem Witch Trials

    677 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is also depicted in the McCarthy hearings, for accused communists were pressured to give up the other communists. In the article “Wikidot: McCarthy’s Communist Witch Hunt” by unknown, it is mentioned that “During the Red Scare, McCarthy had employees of many companies sign loyalty oaths that stated they were not a communist or sympathized with any communists and the best way to get around any further questioning was to shove the blame towards another person.” This exemplifies the fact that blame was always shifted to someone else, causing the issues to last far too

    Read More

  • The Crucible Dbq Analysis

    1039 Words  | 5 Pages

    In times of fear and hysteria in the U.S. it is mass chaos and it only gets worse and worse. During the time of both the witch-hunt eras, whether for communist or actual witches, they prove to have many similarities between them. Both of these times were full of confusion and lying which lead to the temporary downfall of the authority at that time. Joseph McCarthy proved to be a factor in this time and add on to the chaos that was America. Arthur Miller wrote about these times in a book called The Crucible, based on the witch trial era.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Justified Analysis

    1716 Words  | 7 Pages

    The first known witch hunts took place in the early 1300’s (Wallenfeldt). As early as the 1400’s, prominent and trustworthy European figures like the pope released pamphlets on finding and persecuting witches (Saari 13-15). The Salem Witch Trials weren’t even the first to occur in America; a woman in Boston had been hung for witchcraft shortly before the Salem trials began. The people of Salem even cited the Boston trials as proof for their accusations; because their afflicted girls had the same symptoms as those in Boston, then clearly both must have been telling the truth (Alexander 194). It would make sense for Salem residents to look to past events to try and understand their current situation, since this is something that happens frequently through history and even

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trial Essay

    1729 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Salem Witch Trials occurred during a time where tensions were high and strong Puritanical beliefs ruled the way of thinking. Salem-Village was a relatively isolate area, being far enough away from any other town that they had to travel to the town of Salem a few miles away through the woods just to be able to go to church. This seclusion led to mass paranoia and a fear that they were in constant danger of the devil’s influence. The fears brought about by these circumstances caused a massive witch hunt incited by the accusations against several inhabitants, mainly by a small group of young girls claiming to have been tortured or bewitched by various villagers. By the end of trials, hundreds of people had been accused and twenty had been

    Read More

  • How Does Arthur Miller Present Hysteria In The Crucible

    707 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.

    Read More

  • Witchcraft Hysteria Research Paper

    547 Words  | 3 Pages

    To genuinely understand the issue of witchcraft hysteria in New England, a general background, namely the underlying causes for the persecution of witches, should be taken into consideration. With no doubt, the witch hunts were a highly complex movement and thus there is no way to justify them by delving into one specific cause that touched them off, namely a religious drive in the case of this thesis. As Pavlac puts it, none of the theories are perfect and the way they are perceived by historians tends to vary, although they were based on credible data (Pavlac 4). The European hunts generally took place from 1400 to 1800 and many political, psychological, sociological and economic changes took place within those years. The best way to deal

    Read More

  • Examples Of Innocence In The Crucible

    784 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Unfair Stereotypes In The Crucible And Mccarthy Era

    1254 Words  | 6 Pages

    Before Salem, “ America’s first witch hunt hysteria swept through another colonial New England town” (Klein, 2012). This means As a result, when the accusation of witchcraft arose in Salem, the fear, already instilled in the citizens, was magnified. This means, that when the first accusations were made, people had no reason for disbelief as they all believed the threat to be a real. The original accusations lead to the fear of witchcraft to grow and terrorize the town, as the threat became more real with confessions. This fear amplification was also evident during the Red Scare.

    Read More

More about Why Is Salem Witch Hunt Still Relevant Today

Open Document