The Puritan community in The Crucible was vulnerable in many ways and susceptible to irrational and panicky accusations of the Salem Witch Hunts because of their strict and constricting ways. The children in the community are treated very poorly and less than everyone else in the town. As the Salem Witch Hunts were essentially started by the children the fact that they were treated as lesser beings contributed to the communities demise. “He (Reverend Parris) regarded them as young adults, an until this strange crisis he, like the rest of Salem, never conceived that the children were anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at their sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak,” (Miller 3). Miller foreshadows the Witch Hunts to come.
One significant effect was how people stopped believing in witchcraft after the Salem Witch Trials. This saved many lives and allowed people who were dishonest about the whole situation come out and tell the truth. During the witchcraft hysteria, Ann Putnam had the opportunity to come out and regret everything she had done to cause the death of many innocent people (Document C). She, along with many others, was truthfully apologetic about the whole scenario and read her speech before the congregation (Document C). Another person, named Samuel Sewall, wrote a petition about the Salem witchcraft hysteria beliefs.
In Arthur Miller’s most well known play, the Crucible, Miller relates the tragic hysteria of the 17th Century Salem Witch Trials to the hype of communism in the 1950’s. Miller demonstrates that when authorities become corrupted by fear of suspicion and fear of mistrust, members of society purge their emotions on others and use them as scapegoats. As the play progresses Miller illustrates that there is something to be gained from standing up for one’s beliefs, no matter what the costs may be. To ‘stand up’ is defined as one or more people siding with and defending a point of view or belief. This is shown through the fates of the falsely accused John Proctor, Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse.
The women who were acting out on being affected by witches was all to get social respect which they did not get because the only respect women in the past got was over the children in her home. People in the society never valued women as much as they did value men. The teenage girls spoke up in church and they criticized the minister. People started thinking that those girls were touched by witches. The minister in the church was scared since the young girls tried to speak and fight for their rights.
In the early Modern Ages, scholars overwhelmingly rejected the notion of witchcraft, as this would have threatened the monopoly of the Church[3]. The construction and imposition of witchcraft as a crime started in the 1480s. The Malleus Maleficarum written by Heinrich Krämer and Jacob Sprenger[4]were the “instigators of the systematic persecution”[5] of witches. Malleus argued that witches were supported by the devil (with whom they had a sexual compact) and attended Sabbaths[6]; making witchcraft a heresy. These ideas were then widely supported and imposed upon people by theologians and lawyers[7] making diabolic interference central to the idea of witchcraft.
When the trials began, many accused others of witchcraft and this lead to them accusing even more. The new news of the entire witchcraft epidemic in Salem left many disturbed and trying to eliminate the bad of the town. The novel allows the reader to reflect on the life of the Salem people and understand the happenings. One example is the reflection of the lives of teenage girls in the puritan society, sent by God to marry and have a family, lacking the happiness of teen hood. Thus, explaining a
He isn’t viewed as a very uplifting person throughout the town of Salem. Parris believed he was the best at what he does. In Act I Parris is standing over his daughter Betty’s bed. The reader seems to think that Parris is feeling uneasy because of his daughter’s condition although it is because of how he will look to the town. “There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit.
The absence of a fair and honest trial for the prosecuted in the small Protestant town is thought to be approached in a different manner today. And although in some situations this may be true, the past still dwells. The initial start of the hysteria originated in Salem Village in 1692. The instigators, Abigail Williams and her cousin Betty Parris were constantly faced with boredom, along with other young people of the Puritan communities because of the adult’s beliefs that the young adults should be doing things of a higher maturity level and not spending their time with play, engaged in magic and voodoo led by their servant, Tituba. started having fits described as “beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect.”1 During one of the girl’s outbreaks, they would yell strange sayings and throw things around the room.
They both changed the church by limiting its power over land and many followers of the church ran from the church joining either the Church of England or joining the protestant reformation. They both gave the people a choice from just being a catholic they could be a part of the Church of England or become a protestant. Their choices affected everyone that came after them day we are affected by these men’s choices. Although these men are alike in some ways they are very different. Luther wrote the “95 Theses” because he saw that the church was doing wrong and he decided that it should be changed.
It causes people to believe that the plague was a punishment from God. And this causes the church to weaken, because Christians began to lose faith in religion. It was as if the plague took everything out of them and all they wanted to do was survival. The mood during that time was very dark and in showed in everyday life. Before the plague death was accepted and welcome.