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Salem witch trials and historical analysis
Salem witch trials and historical analysis
Salem witch trials and historical analysis
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On February 29, 1692, issued warrants were released for Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba for witchcraft. Good, a beggar, and Osborne, a poor elderly woman, both claimed they were innocent and Tituba, a Caribbean slave from Elizabeth Parris’ family, confessed to being a witch. Tituba not only confessed to doing witchcraft but that there was a whole coven of witches in Salem, making her not the only one. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams were experiencing tremors, spasms, fits and crying while throwing things. All of this made everyone suspicious about witchcraft.
During the Salem Witch Trials a lot of people were accused of using witchcraft. As a result many people died for other people’s lies, rumors, and selfishness. There is one person that really caused and is most to blame for all the chaos, her name is Abigail. Abigail is to blame for all that has happened in the Witch Trials, the reason for that is because of all the accusing and lying she has done. In addition, it all leads up to her for instance, she used a doll to accuse people of witchcraft.
Have you ever read a book, and thought this would be a wonderful movie? Well, that’s not always the case due to when someone watches a movie that’s based on a book, nine times out of ten they come home disappointed. Although, in certain cases, the book and the movie come close to being the same. The crucible play and movie are fairly similar in numerous aspects and one could watch the movie and understand the main points of the play.
Fear, it causes people to be blinded by the truth. People can’t tell right from wrong. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show how no one could see what was right. During the 1950’s communism was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire, then it slowly made its way over to the U.S. This was known as The Red Scare.
The Crucible: Historical Accuracy The Crucible is a 1996 film (originally written as a play) based on the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. The story is based on actual events and takes place in Salem in the year 1692, opening with a group of young girls who are caught dancing around a fire in the woods. To keep out of trouble, the girls then accuse other townspeople of forcing them to dance. This begins the witch hysteria and leads to wild accusations, trials, and executions of many innocent people.
Both McCarthyism and the Crucible had a crime that had very limited evidence and could not be fully proven without a confession. This is one of the biggest parallels because of how it was handled in both the real life events and in the story. Instead of being suspicious of the easily falsified evidence, people trusted it full heartedly. Even though, during his first speech on the subject, McCarthy stated he had “a list of two hundred and five” names and then changed it multiple times people didn’t get suspicious. It went to “the names of 57 communists who are in the State Department” for the president, then “in the following weeks, McCarthy bumped this number up to 81 and then shaved it down to 10”(document C).
In 1692, in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, there was a group of young girls who were accused of being bewitched. The girls behaved in abnormal ways. The strange behavior began after Reverend Parris caught them in the woods with Tituba, who was Parris’s slave from Barbados. The girls called witchcraft on Tituba and she confessed and named two other women with the devil, including Sarah Osburne and Sarah Good. With Tituba's confession, the young girls, scared of getting in trouble, claimed to see other women and men contributing with the devil.
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written in response to the abuses of power under McCarthyism, a period in the 1950s when the United States government conducted a witch hunt for supposed communists. The play draws parallels between the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Massachusetts and the Red Scare and its investigations in the 1950s. McCarthyism led to the false accusations of thousands of people, and those accused lost their jobs. Similarly, the Salem witch trials had false accusations that led to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds. We can see another parallel in more modern situations where people use their power to prosecute others.
In the play, The Crucible, Salem, Massachusetts, along with the United States during McCarthyism, is engulfed with paranoia. Although both situations include different causes, their effects are strikingly similar. For instance, throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is being shown repeatedly accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Her actions begin sending the small town into a panic as they throw people into jail and hang them in an effort to try and cleanse the town from any aspect of evil. Similarly, throughout 1950-1954, Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people within the United States Government of being a member of the Communist party.
People would accuse others for doing witchcraft just to get revenge, land, or to take the blame off of them (History.com). In the events of this it caused nineteen people to be executed by hanging, burning at the stake, or being crushed by rocks. In total 150 men, women, and children were accused and were awaiting trial before the end of it.(History.com) The Salem Witch Trials came to an end in May of 1693 when William Phips pardoned all and
In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge.
Reasons Behind The Crucible Arthur Miller’s main purpose in writing The Crucible was to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials and to warn against government propaganda. At the time that The Crucible was published, America had a huge fear of communism. Anyone accused of having ties with the communist party was shunned. It much resembled the Salem Witch Trials in how the government, or leader of the time, used fear against the people to gain power. For example, Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Reverend Parris in how they both lead the people into the belief that there were intruders in their mists that had plans to sabotage the community.
Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.
Salem, Massachusetts, USA and occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned and even more accused; but not pursued by the authorities. 29 were convicted of witchcraft but only 19 were hanged. The best known trials were in the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
