When Hale comes and visits John and Elizabeth Proctor; he wants to investigate the people who are accused in court. Elizabeth and Proctor are astonished when Hale mentions that Rebecca Nurse has been accused of witchcraft. In the Crucible Rebecca Nurse is pictured as a saint throughout the play. The first clue that shows Hale is beginning to notice something wrong is when Rebecca’s been charged by saying “God forbid such a one be charged” (Miller 1210). Towards the end of Act II he starts to have some suspicion on what is going on because now Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft.
The Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1492 was caused by a variety of factors including the Puritans of Salem's inability to admit any wrongdoing on their part and tendency to blame all wrongdoing on the devil. This, along with their fundamentalist values, created an environment of paranoia towards witchcraft. Also, people of influence were saying that there were witches in Salem. As teenagers living in as strict of a society as the Puritans had, the accusers would rather have gone to the extreme of accusing innocent people of witchcraft than admitting to any misbehavior on their part. When one accuser cried witch, the others were willing to do the same and in a way began to believe their own lies.
Another person, named Samuel Sewall, wrote a petition about the Salem witchcraft hysteria beliefs. In his petition, he describes how God should repent his sins, and he asks for forgiveness because he realizes that the witchcraft in Salem did not exist (Document A). Not only did the Salem witchcraft affect beliefs/morals, but it also affected justice. The Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692 had a significant effect on justice in America because it changed the thought of many laws and the way people were
The fear generates distrust among one another and causes false accusation. These accusations are mainly towards women. When a woman does something out of the ordinary or when something happen because of natural causes she is automatically accused of witchcraft, for example when Mrs. Putnam accuses Rebecca Nurse for the death of her babies. Town’s people usually see those things as a threat to them and the only way to get rid of these women who show any kind of witchcraft is to exterminate by hanging them. As we look back on time we see that communism was a big threat to us after World War II.
Is the devil loose in Salem? At the time of the Salem witch trails, witchcraft was seen as work of the devil. In such an orthodox time and especially in such a strict religion such as the Puritan religion, witchcraft was strictly forbidden. However, with so many accusations made concerning witchcraft, how can one tell if witchcraft was actually used in a certain situation? And was the devil really loose in Salem?
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.
Motives in The Crucible Arthur Miller's The Crucible describes the hysteria surrounding the witchcraft trials that take place in Puritan Massachusetts at end of the seventeenth century. Many of the witchcraft accusations that swept through Salem during this time contained hidden motives that would directly benefit the accuser. Whether one gained land, power, or status by a false accusation, these trials turned neighbors and the whole community against each one another. The incentive of vengeance, desire for wealth, and demand for power fueled the Salam witch hunts of 1692. Fueled by vengeance and jealously of Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams determines that the only way she can have John Proctor to herself is by killing Elizabeth, or accusing her of witchcraft.
Instead, she meant that she wasn’t ready to be hung. In the Puritan religion, they believe that “children should be seen not heard” yet, that’s how the accusations of witchcraft were started. In the beginning of Act One, Parris says, “There is a party in the church. I am not blind; there is a faction and a party.” With verbal irony, Miller also used dramatic irony as a way to show how the lies about witchcraft impacted Salem. Dramatic irony, is used when the audience knows something that the characters in the play do not.
The puritans did not separate Church and State. The puritans lived by a moral code. They believed that sinful people should be punished. The puritans saw it as they were doing the will of God by riding the world of such demonic acts or lifestyles. Finding witches seemed to become a crusade.
Outline Introduction: * Betrayal and deception play a big role in the play Macbeth, it tells us that you never know who you can trust or not. * The Three Witches, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth show us how someone that you once could trust, turns into someone you don’t recognize in a second. . First Main Point: The Witches * display evil power * change Macbeth into an evil man * not trusted Second Main Point: Macbeth * he betrays Duncan * betrays Banquo * became a murderer Third Main Point: Lady Macbeth * plans to kill Duncan to take over the throne for Macbeth * talking in her sleep, expressing the murder * deceives her king Conclusion: * good turns to evil, trust turn to betrayal