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Salem witch trials jealousy
Fears and feuds in salem witch trials
The salem witch trials puritans
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Salem witch trials jealousy
Fears and feuds in salem witch trials
The salem witch trials puritans
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Salem witch trials jealousy
One reason the witch trials transpired was a result of jealousy. The accusers were primarily single women over the age of 16 (Document B). The ones who were accused primarily were married women over the age of 21 (Document B). The accusing women may have been envious of the other women’s marriage.
One thing that might have caused the witch trials is profit, “ Mary Walcott ,Anns step cousin ,named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This almost proves that she might have been accusing people for money/profit. “Abigail Williams, fingered 41 different witches for attacking her; Ann Putnam Jr. accused 53;her servant Mercy Lewis named 54; and a girl named Mary Walcott who was Ann’s step-cousin, named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This means they were fervently,maliciously, wanted to abolish some of these people,and that most of the accusers stated accused more than 40 people. “Not all witches are human beings.
In this essay I will be explaining two central ideas of The Crucible and explaining those central ideas develop over the course of the play. One big central idea is false accusing of people, which is accusing someone of what they didn't do, and that's forbidden in Salem. My second central idea is standing up for what you believe in, and there is a lot of that In The Crucible. Those are my two central ideas that I will be explaining in this essay to you. In the story The Crucible there were significant amounts false accusing, including Abigail and her friends false accusing enormous amounts of people in her town.
Scapegoating began taking place everywhere and soon chaos broke out. People were accusing other simply because they, themselves, had been accused and they wanted to blame to be passed on to someone else. Accusations were being made at enemies and those that someone had a grudge on - rarely were accusations made in an honest manner. “Any unlikeable characterist could get someone accused of witchcraft” (“Five Myths about the Salem Witch Trials”). A great level of paranoia grew around the town of Salem because one never knew when he/she would be accused of the witchcraft.
The events that took place leading up to the witch trials were Bacon’s Rebellion, The Little ice age, and the puritan control of the church and state. Bacon’s rebellion was a rebellion in Virginia against Governor William Berkeley for his failure to address the colonists safety. The Little ice age was a very religious time for the settlers, who thought they were being punished by God. Puritan control of the church and state led people to believe that men were superior and women were evil beings. The witch trials of 1692 were not only motivated by the stringent restrictions of the Puritan faith, but also by the misogynistic social structure that provoked mass hysteria among the sexes.
One character in The Crucible that shows fear and expectation as a motivation is John Proctor. John Proctor shows fear when Elizabeth displays depression, he wants Elizabeth to trust him that he loves her and does not love Abigail. John tells the court that he committed lechery for a couple reasons. The first is so Elizabeth will trust him again and the second is so that the courts stop believing Abigail. John wants Elizabeth to know that he loves her and he would do anything to prove it, he also wished the courts would stop trusting Abigail.
Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials.
Arthur Miller was the author of the Crucible who wrote this in 1953 in response to the second red scare of communism in the United States. He used the Salem Witch Trials to compare the situation happening at home where many people were accusing others of being communists. In the play people are accused of witchcraft and given unfair trials much like what was happening in the 50’s. Because lying had more benefits than honesty, many people in the play decided to lie and confess to witchcraft in order to stay alive.
The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because no one wanted to be punished or killed. In Document B, Act 1 of The Crucible, Reverend Hale arrives to see who is behind all of the witchcraft. When he asks the girls to give him, the names of the people they saw with the Devil. “Abigail: I want to open myself. I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus!”
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.
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.
As a French Proverb states, “greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth”. People are consumed with wanting more and more rather than knowing what they need in life. The human race constantly carries on this pattern of greed. A theme of greed is shown in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
Who's to Blame For the Salem Witch Trails? In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and John Proctor are responsible for the witch trials. Not only is Abigail one of the characters responsible for the witch trails, but she is the one who instigated the witchcraft fervor within Salem. John is one of the characters responsible for the trails because he has an affair with Abigail.
The play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller demonstrates the implications of a society in complete chaos over an irrational fear of witchcraft in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Fear plays an immense role in the way people make their decisions, such as when the characters of Danforth and Mary Warren resort to hypocrisy when no other options remain. Danforth and Mary Warren both embody hypocrisy, as seen when Mary says she cannot lie anymore and then lies when she becomes scared for her life, and Danforth when saying lying will send a person to Hell, but then forcing people to choose between lying and death. Mary Warren exemplifies hypocrisy extraordinarily well in the scene when she and Proctor travel to the courthouse so she can confess that the girls have pretended everything and they never actually saw spirits.
In the Crucible by Aurther Miller there were many themes shown in the text. One of the most common themes presented in the book is Betrayal. Betrayal happens a lot through out life. Betrayal is when you go against someone who you were for at first. People often deal with Betrayal through out everyday life.