The Crucible4

A detailed Summary of The Crucible4

There are several similarities and differences between the 1996 movie The Crucible and the truth about what happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Even though there were differences between the movie The Crucible and the actual Salem Witch Trials, the movie summarized the trials very well. Ever since Increase Mather and thirteen or fourteen other pastors signed what was called the Cases of Conscience document, the village of Salem was in major controversy. The farms around there hadn't been farmed in months and the village wasn't looking good. Some of the Puritans blamed this on the witches (A Village Possessed).

It was late one night when two girls by the names of Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams went out into the woods to a camp fire where they found a dozen other girls their age in a circle led by a person named Tituba (The Crucible). Every girl was acting a little strange, but Elizabeth and Abigail were acting a little stranger. Right when things got out of hand, the girls were discovered by Rev. Samuel Parris, pastor of Salem Village and father of Elizabeth Parris. All of the girls scattered and so did Tituba. The true side of the story is that the two girls had made a homemade crystal ball and

In October, Rev. Increase Mather, who still believed in witchcraft, questioned the evidence used in the Salem Witch Trials. He questioned the evidence with his Cases of Conscience. Like in most criminal cases, Mather argued from the print, "the evidence...ought to be as clear as in any other crimes of a capital nature" (A Village Possessed). But how could a person catch a witch when witchcraft was supernatural? The crime was not the damage caused, it was the act of making a pact with the devil, which no one actually witnessed. Mather claimed that there was not any substantial evidence to hold the witches.

dropped the white of an egg over it trying to see if they had any visions. Like a lot of the other girls in the village, Abigail and Elizabeth were trying to see into the future to learn who their husbands would be and to see what their husbands would do for a living. The girls went ahead and did this even though they knew that playing with the occult practice of fortune telling was forbidden. The girls knew that tampering with the business of God could "open the door to Satan (Rice Jr.)." It was just a coincidence that something went very wrong that day.

Finally Massachusetts's governor William Phips stood up and said there could be no further imprisonments or executions. Most of the people who were accused were freed, and the ones who were convicted were pardoned. One of the strangest things to me was that one of the first to be accused, and who confessed, Tituba, was set free.

Years after 1692 the people of Salem Village got on with their lives. Elizabeth Parris got married, and so did Mary Wolcott. Both girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, left Salem Village. No one ever knew what happened to Abigail. It was said that she never regained her sanity and was "followed with diabolical molestation to her death" (Rice). Ann Putnam n

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Approximate Word count = 1264
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels