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