Poor agricultural success, conflict with Native Americans, tension between different communities, and poverty were not what the Puritan communities envisioned when they set out. . The accusations of witchcraft - at a time when many peope did actively believe in the supernatural - become both a means and a cover for the pursuit of private conflicts. Why might their age make them particularly susceptible to accusations of strange behavior? While she was imprisoned, two others accused her of being one of two or three women whose specters they'd seen flying. Upon these people, the blame could be laid for all hardships endured by Puritan society. The visible role played by women in some heresies during this period may have contributed to the stereotype of the witch as female. Miller wrote The Crucible during the time America was concerned about the rising power of Communism in the Soviet Union on the heels of World War II. So for a brief explanation, McCarthyism was carried out under senator Joseph McCarthy during 1950-1954 against alleged communist in the US government and in other institutions. An author named Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible based of the true events of the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials end up being a crucible, that is, a time of great testing and purifying, for the townspeople. In each paragraph these traits will be further explained. In The Crucible, what message is Arthur Miller trying to get across to the reader? Other peers of Miller's, such as playwright Clifford Odets and actor Lee J. Cobb, also testified. Parris was, at the time he was in New Spain, not yet married and not yet a minister. The next spring, the trials ended and various imprisoned individuals were released once their fines were paid. Girls had specific roles in society and were expected to follow the rules of the church without question, so when they acted out and danced or strayed from the church, chaos was unavoidable. He tells the story of a man in a cold marriage who because of this is pushed into an affair with a much younger girl who then goes crazy and accuses him of wrongdoing. However, Spain did witness one of the largest witch trials on record. Arthur Miller in the play, The Crucible, suggests that people of society create a separation between outsiders and insiders of the town, often prosecuting the outsiders to make them stand out even more from society. In the play "The Crucible," Arthur Miller uses a great trial in the Salem witch trials to describe how he felt during the Red Scare in the 1950's. The Red Scare was a national hunt for Communists, or "Reds" as they were called. Classical authors such as Aeschylus, Horace, and Virgil described sorceresses, ghosts, furies, and harpies with hideous pale faces and crazed hair; clothed in rotting garments, they met at night and sacrificed both animals and humans. An additional activity would be to ask students to compare two or more recorded or live productions of Arthur Millers The Crucible to the written text. Moreover, the evidence does not indicate a close correlation between socioeconomic tension and witchcraft, though agrarian crises seem to have had some effect. The town of Salem in The Crucible, can relate to our nation today, through the way we target the Muslim religion as terrorist. Latest answer posted April 17, 2020 at 1:25:04 AM. A crucible can mean either an instrument of heating or a severe trial. The myths surrounding what happened in Salem make the true story that much more difficult to uncover. But Tituba recanted her confession, and Parris never paid the fine, presumably in retaliation for her recantation. As a result of such ideas, by the late 15th century, witches were considered as followers of the Devil. The hunts were not pursuits of individuals already identified as witches but efforts to identify those who were witches. Its origin lies in the establishment of a theocracy by the inhabitants of Salem, which combined state and religious power. No one was safe from persecutions, and the witch hunts for communism began. It certainly was not deemed to be a threat, even by the leaders of the Catholic Church, who simply denied its existence. Scrutiny of Miller's historical sources, which include biographies of key players (the accused and the accusers) and primary source transcripts of the Salem witch trials themselvesgive students a chance to trace the events embellished in the play back to historical Salem. They believe that witches work with the devil and that they can see the devil and his followers. Whether she was aware of Rev. They believed in short that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world. Indeed, Miller uses witchcraft and the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for situations wherein those who are in power accuse those who challenge them of suspect behavior in order to destroy them. How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials. The witch-trials provided release and the outcome was tragically unpleasant. In the play, the people of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 sought to destroy the devils influence by seeking and destroying witches. Through works of literature such as the Malleus, witches were broadly blamed for the effects of the Little Ice Age, thus becoming a scapegoat across the Western world. As Miller puts it: 'Land-lust which had been expressed before by constant bickering over boundaries and deeds, could now be elevated to the arena of morality; one could cry witch against one's neighbor and feel perfectly justified in the bargain.'. How can history be dramatic, and how can drama bring history to life? Like the Inquisition, the Parlement of Paris (the supreme court of northern France) severely restrained the witch hunts. Tituba herself is hardly mentioned in the records after her initial arrest, examination, and confession. Parris promised to pay the fee to allow Tituba to be released from prison. This unrest also contributed to the witch-hunting hysteria in another way. If witchcraft existed, as people believed it did, then it was an absolute necessity to extirpate it before it destroyed the world. They could now publicly state their own iniquities and were praised for seeking purification. The malevolent sorcery more often associated with men, such as harming crops and livestock, was rarer than that ascribed to women. During this time, witches and conspiring with the devil were frowned upon by the Puritan church, and were the cause of much fear and suspicion. A witch hunt is seen as an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. Whether she was aware of the political conflicts around Massachusetts' status as a colony is not known. Most scholars agree that the prosecutions were not driven by political or gender concerns; they were not attacks on backward, or rural, societies; they did not function to express or relieve local tensions; they were not a result of the rise of capitalism or other macroeconomic changes; they were not the result of changes in family structure or in the role of women in society; and they were not an effort by cultural elites to impose their views on the populace. Parris. This fabric of ideas was a fantasy. Part of their belief system was awareness for anything "evil". Elizabeth Proctor had been the orphaned Abigails mistress, and they had lived together in the same small house until Elizabeth fired the girl. In this lesson, students will explore the characteristics of the Puritan community in Salem, learn about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and try to . Salem was a pressure-cooker ready to explode. In 1964, Ann Petry published "Tituba of Salem Village", written for children 10 and older. If theyre that much trouble? Those who did believe saw witchcraft as something to be availed of at best and dismissed at worst. She included in her confession complicated tales of witchcraftall compatible with English folk beliefs, not voodoo as some have alleged. In about 1689, Tituba and John Indian seem to have married. However, the general consensus is that the witch hunts spanning the two continents resulted in the deaths of between 40,000 and 60,000 people. A " witchcraft craze " rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. With The Crucible, Miller extrapolated that, citing womens instability when it came to the instability of an entire community. What is the setting for Act 2? He also portrays the accusers as teenagers when many were in fact much younger. How do you think Miller uses setting to help create mood in Act I? The story of that peripheral village is one that has lodged itself into the cultural mindset of people everywhere as a cautionary tale against the dangers of extremism, groupthink, and false accusations, perhaps calling to mind Arthur Millers The Crucible or Cold War era McCarthyism. Conventional wisdom has it that mankind has evolved so far that the idea of targeting innocents is no longer an issue; however, Senator McCarthy and targeting of innocent Muslims after 9/11 remind us that witch hunts still exists in modern times. They believed that witches were quite real and a gateway into the dark side, the Devil and all that. In his telling, witch hunts are perpetrated by the marginalized rather than upon them, since, when sex is involved, women are inclined toward group-malice, sexual irrationality, and wholesale invention. In his telling, witch hunts are perpetrated by the marginalized rather than upon them, since, when sex is involved, women are inclined toward group-malice, sexual irrationality, and wholesale. Also during the McCarthyism era and the witch trials innocent lives were ruined when people were forced to accuse others or be accused themselves. Still creepy, but slightly less creepy? The next day, Betty and Abigail named Tituba as a cause of their behavior. The witch executions occurred in the early modern period, the time in Western history when capital punishment and torture were most widespread. In 1689 Parris was formally called as the minister, given a full deed to the parsonage, and the Salem Village church charter was signed. These stage directions allowed the reader to gain insight as to why Salem was able to serve as home to the witch hunts. Explanations of the witch hunts continue to vary, but recent research has shown some of these theories to be improbable or of negligible value. The differences between inhabitants were expressed as a battle between good and evil. Arthur Miller felt as if it were a . B.A. The theological worldviewderived from the early Christian fear of Satan and reinforced by the great effort to reform and conform that began in 1050was intensified again by the fears and animosities engendered by the Reformation of the 16th century. While she enjoys any topic relating to history, culture, and the humanities, she is most interested in Ancient Greece and Rome, the Ancient Near East, Irish history, colonization and de-colonization, Jewish and Christian history, and the Early modern period. The so-called 'confessions' by many of the accusers were an effort for them to purge themselves, as it were, of sin and thus find redemption. Students can make very profitable comparisons between the two tragic heroes: The Manchurian Candidates Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and The Crucible's John Proctor. Log in here. What was it about the time period that made such hysteria, and ultimately tragedy, possible. These can all be related back to The Crucible, in the way in which each character experienced. In the spring of 1692, two young girls from a seemingly inconsequential village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to display increasingly disturbing behavior, claiming strange visions and experiencing fits. And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! People thought without a trace of logic, accusing and punishing innocent, witches, left and right. Sometimes this magic was believed to work through simple causation as a form of technology. Indeed, Germany, one of the central countries of the Protestant Reformation, is often referred to as the focal point of the European witch hunts. When Samuel Parris moved to Boston from New Spain, he brought Tituba,John Indian, and a young boy with him as enslaved persons forced to work in a household. The first hanging for witchcraft in New England was in 1647, after the witch hunts had already abated in Europe, though a peculiar outbreak in Sweden in 166876 bore some similarity to that in New England. Miller supports his claim by describing how the young girls of Salem blame the outsiders of their town of witchcraft. Updated on January 31, 2020. "It would probably never have occurred to me to write a play about the Salem witch trials of 1692 had I not seen some astonishing correspondences with that calamity in the America of the late 40s and early 50s. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. In the writing of Arthur Miller he chose to place the focus of the book around the witch trials that took place in Salem in the 1400s. Ultimately, 19 individuals who had refused to admit guilt were hanged and another was pressed to death. In act 4 of The Crucible, why does John Proctor decide to confess but refuse to sign a written confession? Sarah Good claimed her innocence but implicated Tituba and Osborne. Parris beat Tituba to try to get a confession from her. The paradox lies in the fact that the rules which were created and adhered to in order to ensure unity 'were grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition.' Scapegoating can be viewed as the main reason behind the American witch hunts. eNotes Editorial, 6 June 2016, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-reasons-miller-gives-salem-witch-hunts-360670. The Crucible shows how fear can inspire hysteria, intolerance, and paranoia and mirrored what was happening in America in the 1950s when a different kind of witch hunt was afoot. This was a dissertation that endorsed witch-hunting and is believed to have inspired Shakespeares Macbeth. Miller wrote the play during the . But the events surrounding the witch trials of Salem in 1692 were not in any way unique or isolated. Wherefore The devil is now making one Attempt more upon us; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarld with unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encountered; an Attempt so Critical, that if we get well through, we shall soon Enjoy Halcyon Days, with all the Vultures of Hell Trodden under our Feet. why did the witch-hunts occur? In both The Crucible and in modern day witch hunts, witch hunts are caused out of fear or for personal gain. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Essential Quotes by Character: John Proctor, Critical Context (Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Literature Series), Critical Context (Comprehensive Guide to Drama). Cotton Mather, a prolific author and well-known preacher, wrote this account in 1693, a year after the trials ended. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. John Hale, were called in by Parris. He says they were caused by everyone being paranoid of the witches. In an article called The Single Greatest Witch Hunt in American History, For real by Stacy Schiff, a small village in Massachusetts is being accused of being involved with witchcraft and they are testing people and most are giving into the stronger people just to get out of trouble. The overwhelming majority of processes, however, went no farther than the rumour stage, for actually accusing someone of witchcraft was a dangerous and expensive business. (2021, January 5). Local feuds, for example, could prove detrimental to communities, as neighbors and families turned against each other and condemned their rivals to the pyre and the gallows. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. In Salem people were afraid of not appearing christian enough, meanwhile during the 50s Americans feared of being accused of communism. Children were often accusers (as they were at Salem), but they were sometimes also among the accused. Let us know your assignment type and we'll make sure to get you exactly the kind of answer you need. Tens of thousands of supposed witches mostly womenwere executed. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, what does the author mean by his statement that "the Salem tragedy developed from a paradox"? They [residents of Salem] carried about an innate resistance, even of persecution. Witch trials continued through the 14th and early 15th centuries, but with great inconsistency according to time and place. By directing blame for misfortune upon others, various populations across Europe succumbed to the mass panic and collective fear ignited by those in authority. What is it about this particular tragic segment of American history that appeals to the creative imagination? Also, the clergy in authority expounded punishment, rather than penitence and forgiveness, for those deemed witches. A fire, a fire is burning! In Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, witch hunts empowered towns and consumed peoples lives with fear. Witch hunts primarily target women and exploit India's caste system and culture of patriarchy. Emailus. The authors purpose is to point out that falsely accusing outsiders will not have a good outcome in order to convince the reader to not divide society. After an outbreak of hunts in France in 158788, increasingly skeptical judges began a series of restraining reforms marked by the requirement of obligatory appeal to the Parlement in cases of witchcraft, making accusations even more expensive and dangerous. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. As questions of, When witchcraft arose, the state began executing anyone affiliated with witchery. What part might this physical separation have played in turning neighbors against one another and stoking fears of demons? Thus creating the different movements to bring awareness to the situations and hope that the citizens will work to change and or stop these homicides from happening. Whereas womens sexuality has long since been tied to the idea of personal hysteria, Miller updated that by singling out womens desire for love and sex as a direct cause of mass hysteria. Scholars have attempted to answer these questions with a variety of economic and physiological theories. https://www.thoughtco.com/tituba-salem-witch-trials-3530572 (accessed March 4, 2023). The number of trials and executions varied widely according to time and place, but in fact no more than about 110,000 persons in all were tried for witchcraft, and no more than 40,000 to 60,000 executed. The ultimate purpose of such a system was to create unity and, therefore, to fight any force that sought to break it. In a piece over at The Daily Beast, Maria Dahvana Headley writes about Arthur Millers history with Marilyn Monroe, and how that affected his plays, which perpetuated very specific ideas about women through the American literary canon. Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. Most of the factors influencing the widespread witch hunts over the course of the early modern period can be summarized under two headings; salvation and scapegoating.. Little is known of Tituba's background or even origin. Already a member? In the final analysis, the witch-hunt was nothing more than an eruption of the tensions and fears which had been repressed by a society which believed that suffering was a virtue and that the expression of one's dissatisfaction with one's lot was a sin. The playwright sets that story as the catalyst for a larger, quite literal witch hunt, stoked into a frenzy by a mostly unprovoked confession of witchcraft spoken by a fantastically-minded woman of color whos been practicing sexy voodoo in the woods with the girls of Salem. Cotton Mathers account of the witch trials reinforced colonial New Englanders view of themselves as a chosen generation of men. all rights reserved, History U: Courses for High School Students, Cotton Mathers account of the Salem witch trials, 1693, Located on the lower level of the New-York Historical Society. Through Abigails and Titubas actions of self-protection at the expense of others, Miller reveals the dangers of mass hysteria and its motivation towards self-preservation and false accusations. The Little Ice Age was a period of climate change characterized by severe weather, famine, sequential epidemics, and chaos. Torture was not allowed in witch cases in Italy or Spain, but where used it often led to convictions and the identification of supposed accomplices. The play is about human weakness, hypocrisy, and vindictiveness. In the article Are You Now or Were You Ever, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions. ", Latest answer posted October 02, 2020 at 10:46:39 AM. Nevertheless, the reasons for the decline in the witch hunts are as difficult to discern as the reasons for their origins. They were a wide cultural, social, political phenomenon. Throughout this article, it mentions the persecution of witches today in communities around the globe, mentioning the flashbacks of similar strategies that were used in the past, doing different types of tortures.In Modern days, recent generations have abandoned wonderful traditions. In the article Fighting Modern-Day Witch Hunts In Indias Remote Northeast by Vikram Singh, who works for the New York Times, she, In Arthur Millers The Crucible, he shows a mass hysteria that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation, war, conflict, climate change, and economic recession are all some of the factors that influenced the witch hunts across the two continents in various ways. There have been many different "witch hunts" that have happened since 1692, that have shaped our world. What is a quote said by John Proctor in Act 3 in which he reveals his sin of adultery? He has wanted his Incarnate Legions to Persecute us, as the People of God have in the other Hemisphere been Persecuted: he has therefore drawn forth his more spiritual ones to make an attacque upon us. The emphasis on personal piety exacerbated the rigid characterization of people as either good or bad. It also aggravated feelings of guilt and the psychological tendency to project negative intentions onto others. Presumably, whoever paid the fine had become Tituba's enslaver. For many of them the witch-hunt provided an opportunity to release themselves from their own guilt and vent their impure thoughts under the cloak of seeking absolution. Headley proceeds to talk about Millers other works, and how they basically all tell the story of The Crucible (and of his own marriage and relationship to Monroe) in different ways. Lewis, Jone Johnson. It was from a report written by the Reverend Samuel Parris, who was one of the chief instigators of the witch-hunt. This is also the place Arthur Miller has written about in his book The Crucible. Across New England, where witch trials occurred somewhat regularly from 1638 until 1725, women vastly outnumbered men in the ranks of the accused and executed. He presents a situation of opposition where some characters are, In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, several innocent citizens were killed or harmed in some way for unjustified reasons. As exemplified in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, witch trials took place. Vengeful witch hunters left no time to spare when making accusations on their neighborhood enemies. The theory best supported by the evidence is that the increasing power of the centralized courts such as the Inquisition and the Parlement acted to begin a process of decriminalization of witchcraft. Margaret Atwoods theory that societies under a lot of stress will give in to a person or a group proves a struggle between weak people giving into stronger people. Another accusation that often accompanied maleficium was trafficking with evil spirits. Those who were unhappy with their lot and envious towards of who were not now had the chance to voice their suspicions and take revenge against them. In the play some girls get in trouble for dancing in the woods. Prior to the beginning of the early modern period, before the devastating impact of the Black Plague transformed European institutions and the political dynamic of the entire continent, many people throughout Europe may have believed in magic. As Headley points out, he cites his relationships as instrumental to his writing of The Crucible in an essay he wrote about his process for The New Yorker: I visited Salem for the first time on a dismal spring day in 1952; it was a sidetracked town then, with abandoned factories and vacant stores.
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