Ignorance of medical and scientific explanations: Puritan attitudes towards the witch trials were largely governed by the authoritative figures present at the time. Any medical explanation given was disregarded, thus showcasing how the villagers’ views could be easily manipulated. They chose to only consider two possible extremes for the cause of this outbreak; either the women were possessed or they were fabricating such behaviors. Chadwick Hansen describes the behavior of the bewitched being a 'neurotic syndrome '. It was known patients experiencing this disorder turned "their mental worries into physical symptoms such as blindness, paralysis of various parts of the body, choking, fainting, or attacks of pain"(The …show more content…
5. Evidently from the documents, the most frequently recurring phenomena the accusers felt was the witch 's presence awakening them in their slumber and in some cases said to be sitting on their chests choking them. The bewitchment of animals and creatures being another apparent part of testimonies. For instance, John Louder states "And some tyme after that I being not very well stayed at whome on a Lords day and on the after noon of s 'd day the dores being shutt I did see a black pig in the Roome Comeing towards mee soe I went towards itt to kick it and it vanished away,"(Bridget Bishop,TSB-4,11). He also "...did see a black thing Jump into the window and came & stood Just before my face, upon the bar the body of itt looked like a Munky only the feete ware like a Cocks feete w 'th Claws and the face somewhat more like a mans than a Munkies," which threatened him as well. The accused were also known to cause the death and sickness of children during the epidemic outbreak of allegations. In particular, we make take the case of Samuel Gray who stated "the child that before was a very Likely thriveing Child #[before] did pine away and was never well, althow it Lived some moneths after, yet in a sad Condition and soe dye,"(Bridget Bishop,TSB-4,9)the reason being it was an aftermath of Bishop 's presence
Hobbs accused Bishop of attending and taking part in the meeting of the witches. John Cook testified that approximately six year earlier, Bishop had assaulted him with a blow to the head and on a separate occasion, made an apple that he was holding, fly out of his hand just by walking into the room. Another testified, fourteens years previously, while sleeping, he was awaken to Bishop in his bedroom, even though his doors were locked. She was standing next to a cradle where his child was lying. He testified that Bishop vanished but came back later and assaulted him.
The accusations started when Reverend Parris caught the girls dancing in the woods. Betty pretended to be sick and blame it on the witches. Abigail and the girls accused many people to be witches. The people that were accused were, Tituba, three local beggar women, Giles Corey, and his wife, Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, and his wife, Elizabeth.
Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam had illnesses that the a doctor just couldn't be explain. The girls would cry, fall down, and have fits. They first accused a slave named Tituba, said that a man came to her and told her to sign a book. Authorities believed that it was the Devil himself that told Tituba to follow his orders. In March, they accused Martha Corey, a well respected citizen of the community.
Throughout the wintry months of 1691 and 1692 in Salem Village, Tituba, Reverend Samuel Parris’s South American slave, and a group of young girls gathered to foretell their futures and tell sinister stories, practices forbidden by God. Infamously, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth “Betty” Parris, the reverend’s daughter, took part in this foreboding custom, despite their susceptibility to fear. “Social and Political Issues” outlines the events that ensued from their actions. The text explains, “Elizabeth instantly felt as if someone was pinching and suffocating her; she then began to hallucinate… The other girls were seized by the same sensations, so doctors were called to examine them.
This evidence helps explain the jealousy and boredom the young girls experienced during this period of time, Another possible cause for the Salem witch trials was that the girls were great liars and
In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.
People in the town of Salem are all furious and upset with the current witch trial that are taking place. The prosecution that the court has provided is that Abigail, Mary, Danforth, and Hale all provided factual information and truthful evidence to those that have been accused of witchcraft. They are trying to prove that those accused are practicing and using witchcraft, and that the accusers are trustworthy, reliable people who have no reason to be doubted. The main problem with the previous trial were caused by Abigail, Mary, Danforth, and Hale. Abigail Williams is an unreliable and untrustworthy person.
Doctor William Griggs declared all those afflicted bewitched and the village agreed with this statement. Indian slave couple Tituba and John were accused in the making of the witch-cake which all those afflicted had had. Tituba was reverend Parris slave, caretaker of Abigail and Betty. February 25 and 28 Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good also accused as the tormentors. The first three women to be accused witches were not originally born in Salem and Tituba was also linked towards the Indian war.
During the demandings time of the late 1990s, a settlement in Massachusetts called Salem murdered people who they suspected to be witches and wizards. The Salem Witch trials interesting enough began when a group of girls were playing a game. After they finished playing the game, they started to act strangely. When the parents brought in a doctor to check on their children, the healer couldn’t find anything wrong with the girls who were unwell. Many modern theories suggest that they could been suffering from mental illness, child abuse or epilepsy.
The girls soon began to bring in other girls to play with them, curious to see what their social status could be (“The “Afflicted””). The notorious Salem Witch Trials began when Abigail, Betty, and others became ill and Dr William Griggs diagnosed the girls of being under a dark hold (Yost). The girls began to accuse older, more vulnerable, women of intoxicating them with dark magic. Williams herself filed a total of 41 complaints accusing others of witchcraft, testified in seven cases, and was involved in seventeen capital cases (Yost). Abigail moved on from accusing the lowly outcasts of Puritan society to the more influential and respected men and women.
“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by
Men and women also had different takes on sin. Women were more likely to read their sins as a pact with the devil no matter how severe the sin was whereas men paid close attention to the sin as an individual moment of weakness in which they would be able to return to their relationship with God. Believing that they could turn to the devil themselves, women were more likely to then accept that other women could be equally demonized.
Like Abigail utterly told liars about how Elizabeth spirit had stabbed her at the dinner table but actually Abigail framed Goody Proctor with the doll Mary Warren had made as evidence to stable herself. Also Abigail accused Mary Warren for working with the devil in the setting of act three in the courtroom. The girls in courtroom acted as if Mary spirit was attacking them ,to scare her back to their side. Giles Corey also accused Thomas Putnam for being gluttonous for more land and therefore accusing his neighbors for it.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about what happened during the Salem Witch Trials. It gives insight about what people had to deal with in this situation and how they handled it. The trials were basically a big test which helped figuring out whether or not people were guilty of witchcraft. This is an example of what a crucible is. In our world today we still have crucibles and even though they are different than back then, they all relate to each other because of what influence they have on people.
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.