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.
In the whole event of the witch trials, a few people were able to thrive upon the hysteria and use it to their advantage. But overall the town fell apart due to the blaming of witchcraft made upon innocent people.
The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism were definitely both great examples of how histeria and paranoia can affect a population. People were terrified for their lives and the lives of other people that were important to them. As soon as something happened that startled the churches or McCarthy and his workers they stepped in. They started questioning innocent
In this essay I will explore the ways Shakespeare and Browning portray a range of disturbed characters throughout their literature. It is vital to remember that Shakespeare’s audience (in the 1600s ) and Browning's audience (in the 1800s) would have been highly intrigued by plays that involve the concept of 'witchcraft' and many other notions that raise suspicion. Likewise the modern contemporary audience who would be fascinated and aroused, embracing the characters motions and ambitions. On the other hand Shakespeare's and Browning's audience were more interested but fearful of the 'unknown'. In their day and age these characters would be judged by many factors including social and cultural backgrounds, crimes committed and personal traits.
Many people did not know each other and sometimes if a person does not make a good first impression on someone then there could be problems ahead between them and so when they see the person again then they could make a witch accusation to get back at them. They all had differences and some liked them and others didn’t. A person’s gender was also a social factor because they saw women with power and property as unacceptable. They believed that men were the leaders of the household and women as properties that were to do everything that a woman should do in the 1690s. Many of the accusers were men.
Throughout the story he uses elaborate description to portray an image of fear to his readers. To bring more fear into the story he used a dark and gloomy setting which to many people would be a scary place where many supernatural things could happen. Throughout the nineteenth century was a period of spiritual confusion many people believed in ghosts because the supernatural couldn’t be explained. Even though scientists tried to come up with theories about the supernatural they couldn’t. To many people trains were also part of the supernatural because they
Throughout the story we see John’s character, and the way other people see him. In the beginning of the story it does not seem like John is a good person. It seems this way because we learn that Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is one of the girls that were accusing people of witch craft. Even though he had the affair, we see John tell Abigail that he had made a mistake.
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.
Therefore the witches could foretell Macbeth’s fate and his downfall. Although, the witches were not completely honest, Macbeths' actions were more ambitious and destructive than the witches, since Macbeth used violence to advance in the game of power taking harmful actions to the advance to the next. Proving, that Macbeths' actions fed his ambitions and led him to his downfall. Secondly, the witches told Macbeth the apparitions as if they were complete truths not just mere predictions. The witches mislead Macbeth into believe a certain fate that could possibly have been a false truth.
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller can be superficially interpreted as a play that takes place during an era when witches posed a threat to people. With the villagers of Salem being a strictly religious puritan, any malicious event would have been considered to be the act of the devil and therefore were sought to be terminated immediately. It was during the early year of 1692 when mass hysteria rapidly spread throughout the people of Salem; with people being accused of consorting with devils and casting spells. These honest people were mainly middle-aged women who were childless or who were abandoned by their husbands. This trend undoubtedly represents the theme of empowerment and gender in the play.