Imagine that one Sunday morning, in early seventeenth century America, you wake to find the threat of a rainstorm later in the day looming in the sky. Not wanting to be caught on the road when the storm hits, your husband decides to skip church (just for today, of course) and try to get the harvest in before the frost hits. After watching him work in the fields for a long, hard day, you are relieved to find that the rain never came. But upon returning to your house, you find an official waiting to haul you off to court on cause of witchcraft- how could someone who doesn’t come to church love God? Caught off guard, you try to explain about the storm- but the rain never came, and why should you stay home from church just because your husband
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Women in Puritan society were expected to be submissive to men. During an argument between John and Elizabeth Proctor, Elizabeth dares to voice an opinion that is in opposition to John’s, and his reaction is unhappy to say the least: ¨’You will not judge me more, Elizabeth...Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband any more...You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman...your justice would freeze beer!’’ (Miller 52-53) Similarly, women must rely on their husbands for protection and financial support, and most are expected to absorb the same opinions as their husband (partially due to the fact that women were rarely educated during this time, so the men-who were only partly learned themselves- supplied the intellectual ideas of the household). Slaves and servants (particularly African slaves or those from Barbados, like Tituba) were expected to be obedient, and seen but not heard, as they were considered to be lower in society than the whites (the poor found themselves in the same circumstances).
It can thus be clearly seen how the problem with the Salem Witch Trials, and truly any situation where chaos reigns, the root of the problem centers on the minorities. Subordinates add to the disarray in a few ways: firstly, by acting as a middleman between the power-holders’ wishes and the end result; secondly, by providing an easy scapegoat; and lastly, by taking advantage of the potential power offered to them in the
Women in Puritan society were expected to be submissive to men. During an argument between John and Elizabeth Proctor, Elizabeth dares to voice an opinion that is in opposition to John’s, and his reaction is unhappy to say the least: ¨’You will not judge me more, Elizabeth...Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband any more...You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman...your justice would freeze beer!’’ (Miller 52-53) Similarly, women must rely on their husbands for protection and financial support, and most are expected to absorb the same opinions as their husband (partially due to the fact that women were rarely educated during this time, so the men-who were only partly learned themselves- supplied the intellectual ideas of the household). Slaves and servants (particularly African slaves or those from Barbados, like Tituba) were expected to be obedient, and seen but not heard, as they were considered to be lower in society than the whites (the poor found themselves in the same circumstances).
It can thus be clearly seen how the problem with the Salem Witch Trials, and truly any situation where chaos reigns, the root of the problem centers on the minorities. Subordinates add to the disarray in a few ways: firstly, by acting as a middleman between the power-holders’ wishes and the end result; secondly, by providing an easy scapegoat; and lastly, by taking advantage of the potential power offered to them in the