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The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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During the Salem Witch Trials, many people were accused of dealing with the devil and causing mischief among their neighbors and fellow citizens. These allegations caused rifts in the community and isolated nearly everyone from fear of being affected or accused themselves. Although it seems that they handled it as they saw fit, there are several ways that the community could’ve been a little more lenient. There are several courses of action that the Crucible should’ve taken that might have saved lives or more effectively condemned the accused: hold all court proceedings in private with an unbiased jury and judge, make sure all evidence was absolutely irrefutable in every aspect, also be sure to not to hold the accusers above the rest. Several people could’ve been spared and their personal standings upheld in Crucible, by Arthur Miller, if the trials would have been held in …show more content…

Many of the charges brought against people were based fact on pure hearsay; nearly no one had physical evidence to support their indictment. Mrs. Putnam several times charges people with the killing of seven of her babies, with nothing but her spoken word to back it up. “I knew it! Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times. I begged you, Thomas, did I not? I begged him no to call Osburn because I feared her. My babies shriveled in her hands!” (pg. 1156) Later on, the story continues to say that Goody Osburn will hang because she refuses to admit to witchcraft. If the courts proved that Goody Osburn had killed those children, there would be no problem with her hanging, but she was arrested and convicted simply by a few words. Truly if there would have been hard evidence to base the trials from, the characters from Crucible might have saved countless

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In the Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the Salem witch trials to show how a society can become flawed and corrupt, leading to an inevitably witch hunt and hive mindset. These mindsets have still carried on in modern day society. The community of Salem was run under a strict theocracy, where religious leaders held immense power and threat to the common people. With the large fear of the unknown and wide belief in apparitions and entities this added to and heightened the chaos of these witch trials. During the trials an unjust court is shown immediately in the first hearing, the presumption of innocence was ignored and all of the evidence was based on hearsay and rumors.

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During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.

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