...responsible is Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, during the World War II era. During that time Hitler’s ideology and lack of social responsibility towards the citizens led to the death of millions of people. The citizens of Germany were incapable of taking responsibility and standing up for the millions of people that suffered and died. The society of WWII Germany is similar to that of Salem’s in The Crucible written by Arthur Miller because one of the larger issues in the community is the lack of social responsibility from the citizens and judicial system causing the hysteria and deaths in the Salem witch trials of 1692....
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...is based on the Salem witch trials and shows how people react in mass hysteria. The mass hysteria was caused by the religious belief that witches were in the town of Salem. A story that was made up by the girls in the village to save themselves the punishment of dancing in the woods. Religion was used in the crucible to manipulate in many ways such as misinterpreting religion, manipulation through lies, and to enforce the strict rules that held the community together. The play of the Crucible is based on the real witch trials in Salem. Arthur Miller changed the real events to fit with the play better. Like the ages of the girls, making them older to fit in his time. The author also did a great...
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...that reputation in salem is important. Every character in Salem cares to show their moralities during witch trials. There are those however, who try to preserve it more than others, particularly Parris, Danforth, and Elizabeth. All three uphold themselves to be the truth, and are well respected individuals. Knowing its importance, all three want to maintain a good reputation. A good reputation in salem can be defined as having proper discipline and the following of “God's Law”. without these central traits, you are seen as unworthy of going to heaven, which terrified the people of salem. Parris leaned more towards his job as minister rather than family. The only reason for such attention to his daughter, Betty, was because she was involved in an activity that could have potentially ruined his job as minister of salem. He goes on to tell his niece Abigail that his ministry is at “stake” if his enemies come to find out whether there is witchery happening in his own home, and they will “ruin” him. He makes Abigail feel guilty for her potential involvement in the woods. As well as stating to her how her actions will affect his character in the...
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...consequences The Salem witch trials were once known as “the devil’s magic” because of the witchcraft being used. Mary easty a victim of prosecution during the witch trials said “I never complied, but prayed against [Satan] all my days… I will say it, if it was my last time, I’m clear of all this sin”. These accusations led to consequences therefore, result as vicious prosecutions. During that time, the Salem witch trials were very prejudiced toward anyone. The circumstances that induced to the Salem witch trials were irrational. It all started “during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft.”...
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...Ryan Hasenbeck American Experience Family Feud in Salem In 1692, nineteen people were tried and executed as witches and hundreds more spent months in jail as accused witches. No one knows what exactly caused these Salem Witch Trials, but there are many theories ranging from the most ignored girls of Salem wanting power to actual witchcraft. The most likely theory about these trials however, is that there was a rivalry in Salem politics. Two families, the Putnams and the Porters dominated Salem politics, and there is evidence that the Witch Trials were a method used by one family to attack the other. A power struggle between the two most powerful families in Salem evidently caused the hysteria of the witch trials because the Putnams felt overshadowed by the Porters, the Minister supported by the Putnams was losing power, and there is a relationship in the location of the accusers of witchcraft verses the accused and defenders of the accused. Salem was a very split colony, dominated by two powerful families, the Porters, and the Putnams who lived in their shadow. There is evidence that proves...
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...Self-preservation and the downfall of Salem Self-preservation is the act of protecting one’s self. It is often correlated with pain and fear and it is regarded as a basic human instinct. People often use self-preservation to protect their image and reputation in society, thus potentially having to lie and hurt someone else’s status in the process. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, many characters demonstrate self-preservation to avoid the consequences of their own actions. This results in prolonging the witch trials in the town of Salem, causing the destruction of the community. Reverend Samuel Parris is a prime example of a character that uses self-preservation throughout the play to maintain his high position in society. When he realizes that his daughter Betty and his niece Abigail danced in the woods and potentially performed witchcraft, he knows it can hurt his reputation to be associated with them, especially if the rumours of their blasphemous actions are proven to be true. In act one Parris speaks with Abigail and says, “I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character" (Miller 11). The townsfolk already question his values and see him as an unfit minister for the town. Parris is afraid that the actions of his rebellious daughter and niece will destroy the name he has worked to build over the years and thus give the community...
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...The novel The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials dating back to 1692. During that time many people, specifically young girls became sick with an unknown illness, and many accusers blamed the illnesses on the work of the devil. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of accusations and prosecutions of many people who were believed to be involved in witchcraft. There were at least 20 people, innocent or guilty, executed for the claim of being a witch. Although the theory is not proven, no one will understand the case that caused the epidemic in the late 1600’s. It began when a young girl named Betty fell ill to an unknown origin in Salem, Massachusetts in the year of 1692. Her father Reverend Samuel Parris was a man known for his efforts of demanding citizens and God to his side. He was not overly...
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...Arthur Miller describes the Salem witch trials. The play begins with Abigail Williams and her friends dancing in the woods. In an attempt to get John Proctor, after he ended their affair, Abigail curses his wife Elizabeth. The rumor of witchcraft is triggered when Abigail’s friends, Betty Parris and Ruth Putnam are both unable to move or talk when they became frightened when Reverend Parris found the group in the woods. Reverend Hale, a believed expert in witchcraft...
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...Have you ever wondered who is really responsible for the Salem Witch Trials? Three people, three people is all it took to have 20+ people hanged, why? for pride, lust, and selfishness. John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Bridget Bishop, Martha Corey, and Giles Corey died because of the lies that Abigail Williams told to escape from being hanged for dancing in the forest naked. Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Reverend Parris are responsible for the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams, the first to start up lies that would later end up having 20+ people hanged. She kept lying just to save herself. She doesn’t care about anyone else and she is pure evil. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” She would kill her friends or anyone from telling the truth about what happened in the forest. “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it.” Abby has a way with words, she knows how to lie and she is good at it. “I never sold myself! I’m a good girl! I’m a proper girl!” She is nothing but pure evil and selfish nonetheless. Abby had 20+ people executed simply because she wished to have a man that was not...
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...Salem witch trials This research paper is to show the events of the Salem witch trail of 1692 and how it affected American literature. Authors who were inspired to tell the story have written multiple books. The authors wrote about how the resident turned on each other to get what they wanted, and the strict supersticous religious practice they followed. And to tell the personal conflicts that had existed throughout the community. The Salem witch trail began in February 1692 due to a group of teenage girls playing fortune-telling game to see whom their future husband would be. They were caught in the act of fortunetelling game witch is not acceptable in there puritan society. After these event Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr, Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren and Elizabeth Booth started to show symptoms. The symptom the girls started to experience fits, hiding under furniture, uncontrollable pain and experiencing fever. In February Samuel Parris called for doctor to come and check if there was anything medically wrong with the girls. The doctor was unable to find any problems with the girls. The doctor later suggested that The girls might be bewitched. The girls later began to name people who they believed bewitched them. They named the social outcast of Salem. They accused three women, the three women they accused were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn and a slave named Tituba. These women were seen as easy target to...
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...In the play The Crucible many residents of Salem and neighboring areas were striked with terror as news of witchcraft circulated through one fateful night. Reverend Parris strolled upon his neice and her friends dancing in the forest. As the news got around town , many names were thrown around by Abigail and Parris to pretect her and the Parris name. Though many people were blamed and hung for "being a witch", one person I believe should not have been accused was Elizabeth Proctor. She was accused of witchcraft by Abigail. Abigail disliked Elizabeth strongly because she was married to John and Abigail loved him. Abigail wanted Elizabeth dead so she wouldn't be in the way of her and John. She never comitted a crime, she knew abigail was after her. "It is her dearest hope, John, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name- I am no Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osburn, drunk and half-witted. She'd dare not call out such a farmer's wife but there be a monstrous profit in it. She thinks to take my place." Arthur Miller. One person certainly was the reason for the trails, Abigail Williams. She was a liar and very manipulative. She lied to everyone about what happened in the forest and she named off people who had no connection with witchcraft just to save her own name. She had no remorse for anyone. She wanted Elizabeth to be hung so she could be with John. She threatened her friends and would not let them...
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...The Salem Witchcraft trials in Massachusetts during 1692 resulted in nineteen innocent men and women being hanged, one man pressed to death, and in the deaths of more than seventeen who died in jail. It all began at the end of 1691 when a few girls in the town began to experiment with magic by gathering around a crystal ball to try to find the answer to questions such as “what trade their sweet harts should be of “. This conjuring took place in the Parris household where a woman named Tituba, an Indian slave, headed the rituals. Soon after they had begun to practice these rituals, girls who had been involved, including the Master Parris’ daughter and niece, became sick. They had constant fits, twitched, cried, made odd noises, and huddled in corners. The family called in doctors, and they were treated for many illnesses. Nothing helped. Many weeks later after running out of reasons for their strange behavior, all of their symptoms seemed to lead to one belief, “The evil hand is upon them.” They were possessed by the Devil. At first the families of the children could not find anyone to accuse for being the witch responsible for possessing the children. Then, late in February of 1692, Parris’ neighbor, Mary Sibley recommended that Parris’ slaves, Tituba and John Indian, should work a spell to try to find the culprits. Even after trying this solution the girls’ condition worsened, and the people responsible still had not been found. The girls began to see hazy shadows...
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...Based on the text from our textbook, “The Crucible” seems to be a pretty accurate portrayal of the Salem witch trials. According to American History Volume I, “The most famous outbreak…was in Salem, Massachusetts, where adolescent girls began to exhibit strange behavior and leveled accusations of witchcraft against several West Indian servants steeped in voodoo lore. The hysteria they produced spread throughout the town, and before it was over hundreds of people (most of them women) were accused of witchcraft (86).”In the beginning of “The Crucible,” we see a group of girls with a slave named Tituba dancing and carrying out voodoo or witchcraft. Women seemed to be the main partakers in real life so the movie got that part right. The part that the movie was not based on real events was the whole affair between John Proctor and Abagail Williams. Back then, that would have looked bad on the Proctor family and Abagail. The whole family and Abagail probably would have been exiled from the church and maybe even from the...
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...Salem Revisited In 1692, the town of Salem Massachusetts turned on each other. They accused their own neighbors of witchcraft. Between June and September of 1692, nineteen people were unjustly executed by hanging, one crushed to death by stones, and many more incarcerated after trials had found them guilty of acts of sorcery. The trials have been researched and looked at many different ways for years. Scholars and students alike continue to be intrigued by the trials and continue to seek answers for how a small town could do this to itself. Every scholarly discipline contributes to what could be the possible answer from ergot poisoning to the psycho-social factor among Africans and American Indians. The road that leads to Salem comes from Europe where witch-hunts rose and fell. The reasons behind the trials themselves are complex. While economics, socioeconomic class issues, tainted food supply, property disputes, and congregational feuds are all listed as causes, the clergy and its congregation are what fueled the accusations and thereby deaths of many town citizens. Witchcraft and sorcery have long attracted the attention of historians and other scholars with the spotlight aimed at 14th-17th century Europe. During the 14th-17th centuries, thousands were executed but to try to be a number to it would be futile. There have been those who have been able to calculate those executed for witchcraft in small towns but the sheer number of countries a part of the craze makes it...
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...The Crucible: Movie Review The Crucible, originally a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953, was converted to a movie in 1996 directed by Nicholas Hytner. Hytner's film was released in theaters on December 13th in the year 1996. The Crucible’s genre is Historical period drama. Starring in this film is Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor, the protagonist in this story, and Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams, the antagonist in this story. Other important characters in this story are Reverend Parris played by Bruce Davison, Reverend Hale played by Rob Campbell, Giles Corey played by Peter Vaughan, Mary Warren played by Karron Graves, Tituba played by Charlayne Woodard and various other members of the cast. The setting of The Crucible is the same as...
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