Salem's Puritan Beliefs In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

A town's religious beliefs influenced the killing of many innocent people. From 1692 to 1963 the town of Salem in Massachusetts went into a mass hysteria. What was the source of this hysteria? Witches. Throughout its history, Salem was a very Puritan town, practically a theocracy. Due to this the town often forbade many acts, especially for women. So whenever someone would act differently they would be looked down upon and feared by some. This is what was ultimately the reason for the Salem witch trials which took place in real life and The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Salem's Puritan beliefs influenced the hysteria of the witch trials because the town feared what the devil would do to the town. They feared what god would do to them if they let

They feared if they didn't stop the evil from the devil and the people he influenced things would get worse. We see this in The Crucible when Hale says “We cannot look to superstition in this. The devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone”(Miller 38). Hale explains that the town cannot just let the devil keep doing his acts, if they continued things would only get worse in town. This fear of the town deteriorating caused the trials and accusations to be hasty. Without this fear surrounding the Devil, they wouldn’t have thought much of strange events. In “The Lessons Of Salem, " people took advantage of this fear. The people who accused Martha Carrier “Shrieked that they had seen the devil whispering into carriers ear”(Shapiro 112). The people who were accusing people of witchcraft held convincing acts the people believed. Fear wasn't the only thing that influenced the trials, the town's respect for god also played a big part in the

This mindset made the town of Salem believe that strange events were all linked to the devil. We see this in “The Lessons of Salem” where it says “Allen Toothmaker testified that several of his cattle had suffered strange deaths soon after he and carrier had an argument”(Shapiro 111). Even though the deaths of these cattle were totally coincidental the court used it as evidence of witchcraft. Courts even used people's personal items as evidence such as in the case of Elizabeth Proctor. When searching for evidence Cheever says “ This hard proof! I find here a poppet Goody Proctor keeps”(Miller 75). They view a single poppet with a needle as hard evidence which eventually leads to her