To keep themselves out of trouble the girls said other women in the community were practicing witchcraft. The girls chose various names and for no particular reason on who they chose to blame for practicing witchcraft. Most of the accused were women, and to get them to confess to witchcraft different types of torture were used. No one came forward to defend these individuals and although they were innocent, often times the torture would be so immense they had no choice but to confess and say they were indeed a witch. The individuals who were accused had two options; one was to plead guilty and live a shameful life, or they could plead not guilty and die a horrible death.
They were a slave, a very sick old woman, and the town beggar. Surely no one would miss these bottom feeders of society. The people of Salem wanted to live comfortable lives and anyone who interfered were hated. The easiest way to get rid of these “annoyances” would have been to get them arrested and play off the hysteria of the town to get these people out of their lives. The unstable conditions of Salem were also a cause of the Salem Witch Trials (Interpretation G).
Tensions increased in the communities because people wanted ownership of land. Certain families wanted to own more land, so they accused others of witchcraft so they could be executed. Women were mostly accused of witchcraft rather than men. Male dominance and social structures couldn’t be changed, and Puritans feared women being in power. Witches were described as “outspoken” and were said to be widows who received land and money from their dead husbands.
Though the accused witches were not strictly female, the accused were predominantly women and more specifically older women, older women were seen as more fragile and impressionable so the devil could convince them to do his dirty work quiet easily.POV Two Dominican monks, Kramer and Sprenger, wrote a handbook used to identify witches by the Inquisition. In this book they explained that women are more credulous and carnal then men so they are more often found to be the devil’s workers. They think they know what they know because they are men and view women as a weaker sex. They are biased against women and are clearly sexist as they chose to blame women for being
He attempts to grab the older sister, and she fought with him to get away from his grip he then proceeds to the other sister attacking her and throwing her onto the ground and begins raping her. Being a man of color talking to a white woman could be one the worst crimes any African American male could commit back in 17th century. Since he did not write his own confession, the validity of the story is questionable. It is very possible that the author could have made up his own version on what happened on that fateful day. Although the confession of Joseph Mountain sounds convincing if the reader were to examine the confession through a critical lens on the unfair treatment of African Americans judicially, Joseph Mountain life history and the authorship of the confession one would come to the conclusion that Joseph Mountain was
Analytical Essay on the individual living in Salem in The Crucible Being a part of the Salem community was something dangerous because no matter what you did, you were bound to be accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible, it starts out with Tituba being accused, Reverend Parris’ slave, because of her coming from Barbados, being of low social status in the town, and because the girls needed someone to blame it on. Tituba was then being whipped, so she needed to accuse someone else. In this case she was accusing out of fear for her life; she then accuses Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. These two women were two poor women of low social status and here they are being accused.
Miller argues that Salem’s teachings to the people amongst one another was wrong doing with the fact that few people such as Abigail saw them as too drastic or immorally wrong. Abigail’s hatred for Salem led to an eventual downfall of the town as it came to witchcraft. Another example of religious criticism
Is Abigail Williams a Victim or Villain? We have been studying the text The Crucible by Author Miller and I am going to study in detail weather Abigail Williams is a victim, or truly the villain. Abby is the villain and some may put it down to some of the "reddish work" she has seen but is it? In Act One Abigail is willing to lie to everyone to save her own, Abby is certain "[they] danced" and nothing else, even though we know that is not all they did. Abby threatens the girls, forcing them to tell the story according to the way which incriminates her the least.
To alert her town of immoral behaviour, she writes anonymous letters to people in her town who she feels needs guidance, but Miss Strangeworth’s idea of guidance is insensitive and cruel. Miss Strangeworth carries qualities of a
I noticed the greed of Mr. Putnam, the jealousy of Mrs. Putnam and the power hungry desire of the girls who are so used to being controlled in their lives. These unsavoury characteristics may have stayed hidden had the accusations never begun as a way for the girls to protect their reputations. As the conflicts festered, along with hidden resentment in conjunction with the hysteria of witchcraft, people began to attribute their losses and misfortune to the use of black magic by their neighbours. Once this started, the ripple effect, or guilt by association was dramatic. In the case of Salem, conflict did bring out the worst in people.