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Modern Day Witch Hunt Research Paper

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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. The witch hunts nowadays may not be the same as they used to be in the 15th century, but they still exist. During the 1950’s witch-hunts, people who were …show more content…

Abigail Williams and her friends were caught dancing in the forest, and words of witchcraft began to go around. In order to save themselves, they went around and falsely accused nineteen men and women of making deals with the devil and practicing witchcraft. In some instances, accusations were made on behalf of fear. The girls feared what would become of them, or what could happen to them. Abigail, in a sense, was their "leader", and anything she began to say or do, the other girls would follow along. Other times, the accusations were made on behalf of greed. Out of spite, Abigail accuses Goody (Elizabeth) Proctor of being a witch, due to the fact of a previously failed "relationship" with John Proctor. Though Abigail was the main character calling all of the shots, other characters, too, were driven by fear and greed. Mary Warren, another girl caught dancing in the woods, is on Abigail's side when word of witchcraft first comes about. But she later goes against her word because of John Proctor. When asked if her previous implications were true or not, Mary cracks under pressure and says that everything she had confessed under John Proctor was false. All of the accusations were made on a simple basis of fear of difference throughout the

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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.

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The only evidence needed to be gained to prove that someone is a witch is accusations, spectral evidence, and that the person can’t recite the lord's prayer. The main reason of the witch hunts were to prevent the work of the devil. If the person accused doesn’t confess to witchcraft they were put to death. If the person does confess they would sign a document writing down their confession which will be shown to the

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In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, indirect characterization takes place throughout the play. Indirect characterization is where one’s speech, appearance, or actions show their true self, rather than verbally being said. Many characters take on this in the play, but one particular character of note, is Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams gives off that she’s innocent and non guilty of incidents that have occurred, but in reality, she’s scared of potential consequences because she is responsible for the Salem Witch Trials.

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As Whitney mentioned, the witch hunts occurred in the 17th century were due to the fears of women becoming “economically and psychological” independent, and threatening the male control of property and social order. Those women were viewed as “discontent” meaning the refusal of accepting their predetermined social status (Whitney 85). In contrast, men who had high authority and social status like the Putmans and Parris could purposely manipulate women and instigated the public resentment to falsely accuse, and cruelly eliminate their enemies such as Rebecca and other accused witches. Certainly, the girls and women in the Putman and Parris’s families who made the false accusations of witches and witchcraft were wielded by

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It is known that witches have always involve moral panic in the public. Heksejagt represent the so-called search for witches and often led to line and mass hysteria. Historically witch hunt legally wrong in towns and cities as official hekseri proewe. Due to historical studies, the scope and intensity of witchcraft prosecutions now known to the public. In Europe and North America is considered the period 1450 to 1700 as the classical period of witch hunts, in which more than 40,000 executions took place (Ankarloo 55).

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John Proctor is then accused of witchcraft and is later sent to the rope. The girls also are a part of fear because Abigail threatens to kill them if they ever tell anyone that their acting is all fake. They are all scared so they play along with Abigail’s acting. Mary Warren eventually comes back to Abigail after Abigail successfully proves Mary Warren’s accusations false, which also leads to John being accused of witchcraft. Mary Warren and Abigail use fear to get away with their acts.

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I think you have a valid point but with so many people accused of rape, murder, etc... and the number of times someone has been falsely accused of one of these events, backed up logs of DNA tests to go through, evidence being lost or getting mixed up with another individual, so on and so on. I don't think we should have modern day witch hunts just because someone is accused of a crime that they may not have committed. Obviously, it isn't a quick process of being accused but there have been individuals who were convicted of crimes and released decades later, some even being exonerated after their death. We should work harder to get through cases, so that those who have done the crime are actually

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The community, being in a farmland, tension spread like wildfire. Abigail Williams was an instigator that was able to fool the community that they were being harassed by spirits. This led to many convictions that didn’t even have reasonable evidence to prove her torment.

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(I.465-472). Seeing Abigail cry, it suggests that Abigail’s affair with John Proctor has influenced her behavior in jealousy and lust as she strives for nothing more than her love for John Proctor. By only being heartbroken, Abigail is not to be fully blamed for the hysteria within the town as her actions are only based on desperate attempts to win John Proctor over, and no intentional harm whatsoever. However, on the other hand, Abigail cannot be excused with outside forces making her the way she is due to the fact that she has clearly had a choice in most of her decisions and actions throughout the witchcraft crisis. When Mary Warren, another girl involved in the forest incident, enters the court, she explains to Danforth, the judge, that the girls are lying and are only pretending to see spirits.

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Abigail forces the girls of Salem to dance in the woods with her to help conjure spirits and make the charm to kill Goody Proctor. Abigail threatens the girls right after Betty took fright by saying, “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.” (Miller, 144). Later on as the trials prolong Mary Warren turns on Abby and is telling the court that she lied. When Abigail then accuses Mary of witchcraft she turns back to Abby and obeys her once again.

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Abigail Williams is not your typical teenage girl. She is a girl that will drink blood to kill someone, accuse people of witchcraft, and have a affair. By looking at The Crucible, one can see that Abigail Williams develops the theme of reputation, which is important because people who fear losing their reputation spread hysteria. Protecting her reputation motivates Abigail Williams to accuse others of being a witch.

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