Something that is easy to believe is that when people are thrust in to unappealing situations they will find someone to blame and ask that the accused pay for the suffering they inflicted. During the dead of winter, when the Parris family had little funds, food, or firewood, the young daughter of the reverend, Betty Parris, “started to behave very strangely” (Margulies and Rosaler 5). Soon after, her cousin began to behave just as strangely. It is likely that the stress that the Reverend Parris had about the economic state of the village, and his family, for he had been denied pay by the church, had been unwittingly passed on to the children in his house along with his strict Puritan …show more content…
In fact, it is likely that the girls only were continuing to carry out what the adults around them had planted to idea of. And these were events that, once set in motion, continued to escalate in severity. The tough economic times, sickness, and confessions and accusations made out of the fear and hopefulness of the accused were what kept the Salem Witch Trials from declining, or even never happening. These were not the first witch hunts in the world, and with belief in witchcraft stemming from religion, and with the Puritans being so devout, witchcraft as a crime was seen as likely. There is scripture from that reads “Do not allow a sorceress to