European witchcraft

Torture played a critical role in the development of witchcraft from the thirteenth century and the centuries to follow. The use of torture had been very limited and was almost always illegal in the early Middle Ages, but attitudes on torture to get confessions from witches began to change by the beginning of the fourteenth century. Torture was universally condemned by early canonists such as St. Augustine and by Popes such as Gregory the Great and Nicholas I. However the use of torture was…

would become accused of witchcraft and working with the devil. While Abigail Williams played a big role within the accusations the fear would rise within the people, such as Mary Warren. The fear of being accused as a witch is portrayed during a trial in which Abigail claims to see evil birds coming from Mary Warren (The Crucible, Act 3). The fear of being executed takes over the mind of the girl and accuses John Proctor as devils works, in order to not be accused of witchcraft from Abigail (The…

Salem Witch trials In 1692 many people were accused of witchcraft. It was a group of girls that started it all and from there on many innocent people were killed. What were the main causes for the salem witch trials I believe that the cause for the salem witch trials were that there was an economic downfall and the strong belief for witches. In 1692 the average size of farmland was at an all time low from, it started at 250 acres and dropped down to 120 acres (Salem Evidence C). This shows…

and logical decisions. The mistakes and the consequences that occur in the Puritan region of Salem can be seen as the result of one’s obscurity. The Salem Witch Trails are seen as events that executed and accused many people of using or practicing witchcraft. Despise being an event that resulted in the loss of many innocent lives, humanity can learn from these mistakes. Through the books and articles that were written throughout history, historians and students alike can dissect the events and…

The mass hysteria of witchcraft led to the assumptions that witches were present among the innocent because of direct admission of some and visions of witches by others which is illustrated in the hearing of the first accused witches. In the event of the Salem Witch Trials, dozens of innocent people were put to their death for truly grotesque reasons. One morning in January of 1692, two girls by the names of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams began experiencing anomalous fits, eventually leading…

One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime...Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims - and they do testify, the children certainly do testify. (100) When the only…

of friends. Early in the play, Betty who is the Reverend’s daughter is ill due to some type of unnatural cause. She is found to be struck down the spirits of witches, spurring the hunt of said witches. None of the girls making the accusations of witchcraft ever saw any witches, but rather accused whomever they felt was not on their side. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the characters’ irrational behavior furthers the play’s…

She thought she was preventing evil when she was actually creating it. In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth is a very neat and caring lady that lives in a small town that her grandfather built up. She is sending out anonymous letters to people of the town and alerting them of the Evil that is in the world. Miss Strangeworth doesn’t realize that she is really tearing apart the town and the trust of the people all because of her letters. She is an evil…

to be in a grey area of neutrality; he has opinions on certain matters but would rather remain uninvolved. His passivity is further depicted through the fact that he deliberately does not tell the community that Abigail confessed to him that no witchcraft was occurring that night in the…

You may find that the Salem witch hunt indirectly compares with the witch hunt of today, the Me Too movement. The one thing the two parallels share almost interchangeably is the act of accusing others without proper evidence against them. With that said, the witch hunt of 1692 took place in a small town called Salem. It all started when a group of girls who were caught dancing naked in the woods by Reverend Parris. This kind of dancing is frowned upon by the church because it is viewed as a…