In “The Crucible”, the girls accused people of being witches just to make themselves look better to others to gain respect. “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller 196). The direct quote from “The Crucible” means children who are overtaken by social fears have the power to control the life or death of a single individual, by accusing them of witchcraft. Many women were killed in the town of Salem during the trials and the ones who weren't killed had their reputations forever lowered. Everyone who was charged by McCarthy had his or her own reputation diminished also.
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.
John Proctor was definitely not a man without mistakes, but I believe that he did more good than bad in the end. Some of his actions were bad, but you have to look at the situation he was in. John Proctor was a victim of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. In the book, The Crucible, a young group of girls are accusing people around the town as being bonded with the devil.
What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? Throughout the 17th century, New England, witchcraft was a crime punishable by death. The people believed that everyone was going to hell, unless they worked hard, but that was only a portion of the work. Anyone was a suspect of witchcraft, it could have been the married women, it could have been the person walking next to you, or even the most Christianized person, you could have known. People were condemned of performing witchcraft by false accusations which were led by marital status, and depth of belief, which may have been the causes of the Salem hysteria.
This was added to the so-called evidence against the accused, and often was the settling argument in their demise. A total of one hundred seventy-five people were accused. Out of the one hundred seventy-five, nineteen were hanged, one of which was a man. The Salem Witch Trials are, to this day, a famous tale of the way communities can fail as a result of superstitions. Three hundred years later, no one really can say what in heaven (or hell) possessed the 'witches' of Salem--or their accusers In witchcraft's colorful lore, one episode stands out in black and white.
These times also had many differences. People in the Salem Witch Trials were in the 1600's-a very naive time- while people during the time of McCarthyism lived in the 1950's. Citizens of America in the 1600's were scared of one thing, the devil. The churches wanted to rid their town of anyone who associated with him by being hanged. In the 1950's, however, people were terrified of the red Communists coming to take over their beloved country.
I personally have experienced a witch hunt, which had gradually stalked its way into my life as the courts had done to idealized characters Taul, 2 such as Rebecca and Proctor. In my situation, I had done something with “friends” that I could not take back, and the truth, receiving punishment in itself, was nothing compared to the punishment my mind would torture me with upon the utterance of a lie. I could easily make the reference to the character Dimmesdale in Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. His truth would hurt
Miller makes her a young woman of eighteen or nineteen and invents an adulterous relationship between her and John Proctor in order to motivate her of John and his wife Elizabeth. The actual manner of the trials was outrageous, but no more outrageous than the conduct of ordinary criminal trials in England at that time. In any case, it is a little werid or ridiculous to ask the question of fair trial: how can there be a “fair trial” for a crime which not only has not been committed, but is impossible? The Salem “witches” suffered something that may be worse than persecution: they were hanged because some were accused with hysteria. And they choose to die, everyone could have saved themselves by “confession,” they would not say that they were witches when they were
An easy accusation of one’s name could tarnish their reputation and ruin their career. This happens to many citizens in Salem when they are charged with the involvement of witchcraft and do not wish to confess to such an outrageous allegation in honor of their good name. The Crucible is a perfect depiction in how intolerance and paranoia of the supernatural can tear a community apart. The devil and sorcery is used as a scapegoat to cover up ones personal mistakes and bad coincidences. If there is something wrong with the plants or the animals keep dying, it must be the work of black magic.
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.