My English III class just finished watching The Crucible based on the true story of the Salem Witch Trials. There are many factors that contributed to the trials, but I have found three in particular that stand out. The citizens of Salem's religion, their gullibility, and jealousy all led to the deaths of many innocent people.
Their puritanistic religion is the main reason the trials even began. The girls were extremely fearful of their strict religious elders. In the Puritan religion, all sins were to be punished. The girls obviously knew this and began to tell lies so that they would not be punished. After witnessing Tituba being whipped, they lied and accused other townspeople to save their own behinds and get the attention off of them. Puritans also saw any kind of witchcraft as a sign of being a follower of Satan. This was the greatest crime someone could commit, punishable by death.
Another prominent problem in the reasons behind the trials was the gullibility of everyone. Abigiail accused people of witchcraft, but she was just a teenager. The entire town took the word of a bunch of immature girls that
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Abigail Williams was jealous of Elizabeth Proctor because she was in love with her husband John. She took this jealousy and accused Elizabeth of being a witch in an attempt to get her killed. Although Abby played a key role in being jealous, she was not the only one. The Putnams were also a very jealous couple. Goody Putnam, whose seven out of eight children died, was jealous of Rebecca Nurse for having such a large family. Once she had the opportunity, she accused her of witchcraft knowing what the result would be. Mr. Putnam had a double dose of sinful behavior with jealousy and greed. His greed took over when he had the chance to accuse people of witchcraft so that he may acquire their land once they were executed. The Salem Witch Trials proved that jealousy is a powerfully dangerous