The witchcraft hysteria
In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, the superstition of witches existed in a society of strong puritan beliefs. Anybody who acted out of the ordinary was accused of being a witch, and then the accused would actually be forgiven if they admitted it and told the court of anyone else that was with the devil. This was one of the main themes of the play entitled, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this play a group of young girls act up and are then accused of being witches. These girls then blamed other people in order to get out of trouble, and even pretended to be “bewitched” in front of the court during the trial. This leads into the deaths of some innocent people who were accused and automatically found guilty. I believe, in many ways the people of Salem were responsible for the witch hysteria in Salem.The person with the most influence was Abigail. Abigail had an affair with John Proctor.
The ignorance and superstition of the people of Salem were responsible for the witch hysteria. I believe that this kind of hysteria could never exist in a society like the one I live in today. Today’s courts are much better than the church/courts of the late 1600’s. Another thing to consider. is that our Declaration of Independence states that we have freedom of religion. Therefore, even if someone was a “witch” and didn’t harm anybody, they would receive more trouble from the press than from the law. Elizabeth Proctor, John’s wife, then fired Abigail. Abigail was jealous because of John’s lack of attention. So Abigail, a few other girls, and a servant from the Caribbean named Tituba danced around in the woods hoping a spell would kill Proctor’s wife. Reverend Parris, Abigail’s uncle, sees them and reports them to the courts. When Abigail is questioned about this, she denies the
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Approximate Word count = 632
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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