The Salem witch hunts were a sadistic series of false accusations that had people hanged with no evidence that they were guilty. For example, ” Anyone who suspected that some untoward event or development was the work of a witch, could bring the charge to a local magistrate. The magistrate would have the alleged evil-doer arrested and brought in for public interrogation, where the suspect was urged to confess. Whatever his or her response, if the charge of witchcraft was deemed to be credible, the accused was turned over to a superior court and brought before a grand jury.”(Kubic, Mike. commonlit.org. Commonlit, n.d. Web. 9 Jan. 2018. (-- removed HTML --) ), to put it differently, if someone had an inconveniently timed event and they believed
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In 1953 Arthur Miller wrote a play about the Salem Witch trials. The play was an allegory to the Red Scare that was cascading over the United States at the time. According to New York Times reporter Victor Navasky, “the playwright in Mr. Miller was originally drawn to think about the political and moral pressures of the domestic cold war years”. In every witch hunt the three major factors are fear, justice, and zealotry. Fear is being scared of the unknown, Justice is doing what you believe is right, and Zealotry is strong unwavering belief. An example of fear is when Elizabeth was getting scared of hanging for being a “witch”. Fear is a very human idea, but it destroys lives and reputations, by fueling a fear of the unknown. "In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and …show more content…
The newspaper “The Guardian” reported this “An exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush”( ), in other words, everyone had believed the preachers and they killed their children. Another quote is “A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat. If that didn't kill her, her mother warned her, then it would be a barbed-wire hanging”(the guardian), the mother wanted her daughter dead by poisoning instead of a barbed wire hanging, all this because the preachers said the children are witches. Zealots can be extreme they can go to great lengths to commit to their beliefs like the Nigerians killing their children for religious
In 1953 Arthur Miller wrote a play about the Salem Witch trials. The play was an allegory to the Red Scare that was cascading over the United States at the time. According to New York Times reporter Victor Navasky, “the playwright in Mr. Miller was originally drawn to think about the political and moral pressures of the domestic cold war years”. In every witch hunt the three major factors are fear, justice, and zealotry. Fear is being scared of the unknown, Justice is doing what you believe is right, and Zealotry is strong unwavering belief. An example of fear is when Elizabeth was getting scared of hanging for being a “witch”. Fear is a very human idea, but it destroys lives and reputations, by fueling a fear of the unknown. "In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and …show more content…
The newspaper “The Guardian” reported this “An exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush”( ), in other words, everyone had believed the preachers and they killed their children. Another quote is “A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat. If that didn't kill her, her mother warned her, then it would be a barbed-wire hanging”(the guardian), the mother wanted her daughter dead by poisoning instead of a barbed wire hanging, all this because the preachers said the children are witches. Zealots can be extreme they can go to great lengths to commit to their beliefs like the Nigerians killing their children for religious