The witch hunts of Scotland were said to have occurred for a plethora of reasons. In the reading entitled ‘The Devil and the Domestic: Witchcraft, Quarrels and Women’s Work in Scotland’ authored by Lauren Martin, Martin states that women were more like to be persecuted for committing the crime of witchcraft. She explains this by discussing the relationship between what was considered women’s work and the devil. Furthermore, Martin stipulates that this was a result of the quarrels that occurred between women over work. This led women to often be the accusers and accused (Martin, 74).
Causing many suspicion of demonic activity throughout the salem village, hysteria spread quickly as the population ascended to witchcraft creating the act of cynicism. Most conducted these suspicions though dissecting their physical and mental image meaning that most of the civilians would convert to supernatural explanations in order to assume the act of demonic possession and I quote “Good also had a reputation for holding a grudge and for muttering curses against those who crossed her, which would have alarmed her neighbours, not least because many people believed that such curses would work” ( The Salem Witch Hunt, p.69). This quote taken from Sarah Good’s bibliography confirms the suspicions of witchcraft as these sign were depicted as supernatural to the puritans perspective. Being fearful of the devil, most puritans believed that the abnormal should endure punishment as for these acts were created against the church law leading to christian ignorance and disbelief and I quote “They also show how easily people could become convicted that hostile neighbours were wielding occult forces against them”(The Salem Witch Hunt, p.69).
In both The Crucible and in modern day witch hunts, witch hunts are caused out of fear or for personal gain. Jill Schonebelen wrote a research paper on Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights. Throughout this article, it mentions the persecution of witches today in communities around the globe, mentioning the flashbacks of similar strategies that were used in the past, doing different types of tortures. In Modern days, recent generations have abandoned wonderful traditions. Rather, recollecting others with distasteful memories such as witchcraft.
The witch hunts were an act of mass hysteria within the community. I believe that scapegoating is so common in both literature and the real world is because it is such an easy thing to do if you have enough authority/power and the desire for
Have you ever feared of being attacked in the middle of the night. Paul Revere on the night of April 18,1775. Revere was galloping on a horse to lexington to save lives. There are similarities and differences between, the historical account of Paul Revere and the fictional portrayal “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, In both the historical account of paul revere and the fictional portrayal the lanterns meaning was the same.the people who hung the lanterns were different.
In the Crucible, the Red Scare, Monsters and the Witch, “personal relationships between many” are hindered and changed in tragedy (Miller 3). In Witch, a family is split apart based in the belief of witchcraft. Salem, Red Scare, and in Monsters all have multitudes of people divided among each other, due to the thought that they could be different. The “sincerity of your confession” (Miller 4) was based of “blaming others” or by using “spectral evidence”(Miller 4); One person blames another or they required some form of evidence ,which is evident in the array of resources and constant during an according time span. In times of all these assemblage, the state of the area has “lost its mind”(Miller 4) and used any excuse to blame someone; In which all have a connection of “buried pubic terrors.”
In the words of Richelle E. Goodrich, “Vengeance is a monster of appetite, forever bloodthirsty and never filled.” Arthur Miller recognized this sinful inclination as it commonly circulated during the anti-communist, “Red Scare.” He corresponds this period to the 1692, Salem Witch Trials, another frightening occasion where wicked accusations loomed over civilians. At least 200 people were thought to practice witchcraft and around 20 were executed on account of this. Without a doubt, both incidents prove how quick someone can act upon bitter motives, specifically by spreading unscrupulous lies for the sake of getting even.
There were a variety of Witch Hunts throughout history. From the Holocaust to the KKK, all of the Witch Hunts have something in common, for example genocide and humiliation of innocent people. Witch Hunts are related to the world because they can occur at anytime on small or large scale. For example 127,000 Us citizens form Japanese Decent, 1942 relocation of all of the Japanese Decent were forced to move to concentration camps and not only did the US put Japanese in camps but so did Canada, and Canada places 23,000 Canadians of Japanese decent to camp. The survivors of these camps were paid 20,000 each in reparations.
According to Wikipedia, A witch hunt is “a search for people labelled “witches” or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic or mass hysteria.” Whereas, the definition of a modern day witch-hunt is “an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.” Many theories come about when people think of the causes of witch hunt. Back in the day, witch-hunts were fueled by greed and fear, but also had a huge motivation from jealousy. Modern day witch-hunts are fueled by fear of the unknown.
Can the similar type of instinctive prejudice and panic that seized a small Massachusetts settlement more than 300 years ago take over the thoughts in the prevailing society triggering “witch hunts”? The goal of these actions was to alienate particular members of our civilization, and arouse condemnation of those who may have diverse beliefs, attitudes and practices. Citizens of this community began to establish separate policies and condemnations of hostility for any person who does not go along with the existing social behaviors and trends. To get a better view on the matter, I would like to go review four separate eras in our history. The Salem Witch trials, the Holocaust, The Red Scare, and current Middle Eastern terrorist groups.
In times in hysteria and crisis, people will do all they can do to redirect blame from themselves. This is exemplified in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, and “Half Hanged Mary”, by Margaret Atwood. The Crucible is a story about a Puritan village that experiences a major crisis in which people, predominantly women, are believed to be witches. This causes a series of events in which people are hanged, simply for being alive. Half Hanged Mary is a poem about a woman who is hanged for being a witch, but does not die.
A modern-day witch-hunt in America is discrimination and exclusion against ethnic/race in populations and communities, and when people with any type of authority seem to act differently towards anyone in those groups. In “Salem (and other) Witch-Hunts” fear played a role in the witch-hunts by scaring/forcing the Japanese American people out of their homes and placing them into internet camps (Kubic). Fear can be used to manipulate people into doing what you want them to do by scaring/threatening them. In “McCarthyism” a fear was spreading that there was communism and soviet influence on America's institutions and this made people believe and accuse people of the government (USHistory.org). In the article, “Brain Hacking: Why Social Engineering
The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because no one wanted to be punished or killed. In Document B, Act 1 of The Crucible, Reverend Hale arrives to see who is behind all of the witchcraft. When he asks the girls to give him, the names of the people they saw with the Devil. “Abigail: I want to open myself. I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus!”
A witch hunt is an attempt to find, blame or punish a certain group of people who are being blamed for something, most of the time it's simply because of their opinions and not because they actually did something wrong. In the play,”The Crucible”, Arthur Miller picks apart and dives into the Salem Witch Trials and how they were wrongfully conducted under the said “law.” The characters manipulated the whole society of their village into believing the nonsense idea of witchcraft and who was a witch based on their personal opinions and theories. The Free Speech Center in their article “Miller was influential playwright post-World War II” stated, “ During the tense and hard time of McCarthyism, Arthur Miller was inspired to write a play reflecting
We’re hunting Communists” the government is chasing after Communist but hurting people in the meantime. In “Half Hanged Mary” the town hangs a woman called by Mary Webster for witchcraft. “Under stress, a society will always scapegoat a person or a group of people” in hopes to get rid of a huge issue at stake, not thinking of the damages of the people not associated with the problem. A presentable text to justify this statement is The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this story a small village in Salem, Massachusetts has a scare of witchcraft.
