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Mental Illness In The Crucible

993 Words4 Pages

Ruby Blickle
Mr. Glorfield
English 11
15 December 2022
Witchcraft or Illness?
Whenever there is an unanswered question, many people will jump to extreme conclusions. This was shown in The Crucible, which is set during the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a time of chaos, murder, and confusion. Many people were falsely accused of witchcraft, and there was no actual evidence of witchcraft. However, there is a lot of evidence pointing at many different probable causes. These causes give more of an explanation to how those accused were not actually witches. Therefore, the Salem Witch trials were not cause by actual witchery, but were caused by mental illness, epilepsy, and fungus.
To start, there has been a lot of research …show more content…

During this time, many Native American wars and raids were happening constantly. All That’s Interesting shows “Some of the ‘afflicted girls’ who accused women of ‘bewitching’ them had actually witnessed some earlier raids prior to making their claims.” (ATI, 9). This explains how PTSD could have come from the girls witnessing this. There is also evidence that some of them had witnessed a recent raid before the start of the witch trials. This would have put extra anxiety and fear on the other untreated mental illnesses they were already experiencing. Therefore, the PTSD that these girls had was ignored and made them lash out in this …show more content…

There has been a lot of research on this topic, and it does an excellent job of explaining what could have happened. Dr Linnda Caporael notes, “Ergotism forms in rye after a severe winter and a damp spring—conditions that Caporael and other historians claim were present in 1691 and therefore affected the rye harvested for consumption in 1692.” (Lohnes, 3). In further information, it shows that the rye that was infected was used to make bread. This bread was then given out to the town and could have affected many people. There is not a lot of information on how many people were infected, but there were symptoms reported that

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