The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

“The edge of the wilderness was close by. The American continent stretched endlessly West, and it was full of mystery for them. It stood dark and threatening, over their shoulders night and day, for out in Indian tribes marauded from time to time, and Reverend Parris had parishioners who had lost relatives to these heathen” (Miller,5). In the beginning of the book, Reverend Paris one night found his niece and all her friends dancing (which is forbidden in this time period) in the woods, which is known to be the Devil’s playground. So right off the bat, it is looking very bad for the girls of Salem. Even after all of that, one of the girls was naked running through the forest, and that is very bad for a Puritan (Miller 3-8). Fear and suspicion

Now Abigail acts like she was a worker of the devil and wants to “come back to god”. Betty hearing this, wakes up screaming and they think everything is fine now. Hale asked who Abby say with the devil and she says Tituba. They go to Tituba’s shack and drag her out and start whipping her, and her not wanting to be whipped to death fake admits to doing it. (Miller 8-48) Tituba and all the girls have now admitted to seeing the devil and are naming off a bunch of names of people who they have “seen with the devil.” So now everyone is scared and freaking out which is really the start of the mass hysteria. It turns into everyone accusing others of being a witch. Whether it be because they don’t like them or just because they want their land. Either way they start accusing everyone, and the girls were seen as “proof.” So, if they didn’t like the person, when they were brought into court they would start screaming, falling or even “fainting.” (Miller

Abby knew what was going on, but the other girls thought that it was real because of the mass hysteria. Mary Warren (John Proctors’ Slave) would eventually go to the court because John made her because they took his wife to jail, and she would tell them it was all fake and explain kind of how the hysteria was tricking them. Which the court would believe at first but then wold turn on John and Giles and arrest John and Giles would be stoned to death. (Miller 123-145) Giles iconic last words were as he was getting stoned, and he said, “more weight.” Giles was a legend, and he was a real person and that was actually what happened. Johns' wife would try to convince him to false confess and save his wife, and so would Hale and ironically Paris. At first he does but then they want him to sign a piece of paper to try to convince everyone else to confess. They also want him to ruin Goody Nurse’s name and he refuses to, instead he admits to lying and gets killed. (Miller 123-145)

As they’re about to be hung, they all say their 10 commandments (which witches cannot do). They got killed anyways, which set people off and made them release it wasn’t true. That is the overview of “The Crucible” and how mass hysteria got lots of people killed or in jail. (Miller