Salem Witch Trials Political Repression

For years authors and historian have developed numerous theories to elucidate why the Salem witch trials occurred, yet I have found that the most reasonable explanation for this tragedy is it was a product of the political repression in Salem’s community. In 1692, the village of Salem was inhabited by the Puritans and was ruled by a strict theocracy whose “function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction” (Miller 7). However, while the intentions of the church and state of Salem were for the good of the community, they inadvertently created a paradox in which repression and strict order influenced a wave of “spiraling panic” (Demos 198). In this time of civil unrest, panic and fear of sin people of all social classes soon found that …show more content…
By finding this crack in Salem’s church and state the “suspicions and the envy of the miserable towards the happy” that had brewed for years in people’s private thoughts “could and did burst out in general revenge” (Miller 7). The people were able to morph the rulings of the church in order to suit there needs, so that “common vengeance [wrote] the law” (Miller 77). In The Crucible, among many others, this behavior is seen in Thomas Putnam’s character since he “felt that his own name and the honor of his family had been smirched by the village, and he meant to right matters however he could” (Miller 15). However, John Demos emphasizes that this event was a “malignant form of group hysteria,” claiming that while everyone in the town acted out of their own benefit and individual reasons, the social political repression in Salem effecting and negatively impacted every citizen, causing panic and vengeance to spread all over the community (Demos