Tituba was questioned about her role. Crucible by Arthur Miller Act 1 Flashcards | Quizlet 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. Both the Catholic and Protestant churches, striving to maintain a tight grasp on their clergy, each made clear that they alone could offer a priceless, invaluable commodity; Salvation. 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. It all began in 1692 and 1693 when Salem in the United States . Under the rules of the colony, similar to rules in England, even someone found innocent had to pay for expenses incurred to imprison and feed them before they could be released. Like the Inquisition, the Parlement of Paris (the supreme court of northern France) severely restrained the witch hunts. It might have been as simple as one person blaming his misfortune on another. Salem witch trials, (June 1692-May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted "witches" to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). Miller transforms Tituba, a young Native American girl, into an African slave who led a group of young women into the forest to participate in magic rites. Soon, people feared, communist ways would come to the United States and would quickly corrupt the government system. 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. Also, the clergy in authority expounded punishment, rather than penitence and forgiveness, for those deemed witches. "What are the reasons Miller gives for the Salem witch hunts?" Elizabeth Proctor had been the orphaned Abigails mistress, and they had lived together in the same small house until Elizabeth fired the girl. Aligns with CCSS RL.11-12.3 - Analyze the impact of the authors choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama. 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. Which is how we get to guys like Liam Neeson, Woody Allen, and today, Alec Baldwin, as well as women like Mika Brzezinski and Wendy Williams bending over backwards to find reasons not to believe the women coming forward about the harassment and assault theyve experienced. If witchcraft existed, as people believed it did, then it was an absolute necessity to extirpate it before it destroyed the world. Biography of Elizabeth Parris, Accuser in the Salem Witch Trials, A Brief History of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, Biography of Rebecca Nurse, Victim of the Salem Witch Trials, Profile of Elizabeth How, Persecuted Salem Witch, Rev. The legal use of torture declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, and there was a general retreat from religious intensity following the wars of religion (from the 1560s to 1640s). Emailus. Whether she was aware of the political conflicts around Massachusetts' status as a colony is not known. Perhaps the most intense reason why Salem had to be the birthplace for the witch trials resided in the idea of the authenticity and self- certainty that gripped Salem. Resentment and fear of the power of the hag, a woman released from the constraints of virginity and then of maternal duties, has been frequently described in Mediterranean cultures. One theory which could explain the apparent madness of the trial and judicial hangings may be found in the bread the settlers were eating. George Burroughs and the Salem Witch Trials, Mary Easty: Hanged as a Witch in Salem, 1692, M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School. One of the more infuriating things about this #TimesUp moment is that there are far too many men continuing to be more concerned with the hypothetical possibility of false accusations (even though most of the accusations either come from multiple women corroborating stories about the same person, or have been confirmed by the accused themselves in self-serving apologies) than they are with the suffering of victims of sexual harassment, assault, or abuse. Their father had, of course, been persecuted in England. Even though the clergy and judges in the Middle Ages were skeptical of accusations of witchcraft, the period 130030 can be seen as the beginning of witch trials. Prosecutions of witches in Austria, Poland, and Hungary took place as late as the 18th century. A detailed study of a timeline accompanies their close reading of The Crucible. More differences existed among Protestants and among Catholics than between the two religious groups, and regions in which Protestant-Catholic tensions were high did not produce significantly more trials than other regions. 1692 Salem Witch Trial Education | Salem, MA History John Hale, were called in by Parris. 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. How can history be dramatic, and how can drama bring history to life? With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. What is it about this particular tragic segment of American history that appeals to the creative imagination? This pattern took shape in 10501300, which was also an era of enormous reform, reorganization, and centralization in both the ecclesiastical and secular aspects of society, an important aspect of which was suppressing dissent. The witch hunts provided this outlet. 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). If witchcraft existed, as people believed it did, then it was an absolute necessity to extirpate it before it destroyed the world. In the 11th century attitudes toward witchcraft and sorcery began to change, a process that would radically transform the Western perception of witchcraft and associate it with heresy and the Devil. How does Abigail turn the court against Mary Warren in The Crucible? 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. Witch Hunts In Arthur Miller's The Crucible. The notorious Spanish Inquisition formed due to the Counter-Reformation focused little on pursuing those accused of witchcraft, having concluded that witches were much less dangerous than their usual targets, namely converted Jews and Muslims. Witchcraft | Definition, History, Varieties, & Facts | Britannica The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches. Become a subscriber and support the site! 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. Scapegoating can be viewed as the main reason behind the American witch hunts. In the 1960's few individuals primarily a band of girls accused innocent people of practicing witchery. 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. Analysis. The witch executions occurred in the early modern period, the time in Western history when capital punishment and torture were most widespread. The events in Salem and other towns in New England took place in a region of isolated villages and towns. Furthermore, people could now freely express their hatreds for neighbors and take vengeance under the the guise of an attempt to identify those who communed with the devil. Their acts were seen as patriotic and holy. Also during the McCarthyism era and the witch trials innocent lives were ruined when people were forced to accuse others or be accused themselves. 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. Latest answer posted December 16, 2019 at 7:31:02 AM. The economic theories of the Salem events tend to be two-fold: the first attributes the witchcraft trials to an economic downturn caused by a "little ice age" that lasted from 1550-1800; the second cites socioeconomic issues in Salem itself. 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 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. The accusers is constitutionally finding scapegoats to back up their culpability. Those include fear, personal motives, unfair treatment of the accused, and accusers. An author named Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible based of the true events of the Salem witch trials. As the trials wore on, Miller traveled between Massachusetts and New York, researching what he saw as a clear correlation between the Red Scare and the Salem witch trials, both of which depended on a mass hysteria propelled by fear. Lewis, Jone Johnson. How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, witch hunts empowered towns and consumed people's lives with fear. They simply used accusations of witchcraft and magic to prove their moral and doctrinal superiority over the other side. Societies under a lot of stress will always give into taunters. This tendency to believe in the certainty of one's convictions as well as the belief that their practices of exclusion were justified among the cultural conditions of Salem. Tituba was among the first three people accused of being a witch during the Salem witch trials of 1692.
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