Role of Fear in Salem Witch Trials Essay

Americans (“Salem Witch Trials”, 2015). Puritan way of life was taking a more liberal turn (“Salem Witch Trials”, 2015). Considering the Puritan culture’s emphasis on religion, logically, they would look to a religious mechanism to deal with this problem. Ideas of superstition, ever present in Puritan culture and recorded in books such as A Discourse on the Damned Art of Witchcraft, provided ammunition necessary to cope with the changes in such an appalling manner as the Salem Witch Hunt (Hill,…

The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and were known as one of the worst outbreaks to happen in New England, due to the fact that Salem magistrates jailed and executed more people compared to any other witchcraft trial in New England. Religion and gender both played a huge role during the Salem Witch Trials in the seventeenth century, as religion was one of the major driving forces behind the trials as Samuel Parris’ sermons about the devil made people paranoid and helped spreading the…

Salem Witch Trials What is the cause of and the effects behind their actions during the Salem Witch Trials? Thesis The infamous “Salem Witch Trials” occurred during the turn of 17th century in Salem, Massachusetts in which many of the citizens were “17th Century Colonial American Puritans who were devoted to God and community” (King, Mixon 680). In this current state, the remaining citizens, non- Puritans were the ones condemned as a witch due to their rebellious attitude towards this Puritan…

the Mayflower Compact. This particular settlement was a refuge for Puritan’s looking to separate themselves from the Anglican church. With religion playing such a major role in their society, it was natural that their government would be heavily influenced by religion. This contributed to the escalation of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, an event where over two-hundred people were accused of practicing witchcraft and twenty people were hanged due to these accusations. Later in American history,…

Religion, repression, and revenge all play vital roles in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, by motivating the citizens’ accusations, rebellion, and mass hysteria. Without these elements, the witch trials would not have taken place. The religion of the Puritans, and their theocratic society caused the witch trials to worsen, citizens to make drastic choices, and fed the spread of mass hysteria throughout Salem. Since no separation between church and state existed, the people were forced to…

The Salem Witch Trials began in the spring of 1692 after a group of young girls claimed that they were being possessed by the devil and blamed several local women of witchcraft. (Salem Witch Trials) Panic spread throughout Massachusetts and a special court gathered to hear the variety of widespread cases. About 150 men and women were later accused in the following months and the hysteria continued. However, by September of 1692, public opinion began to turn away from these trials and later the…

The Trials Encounter Politics The citizens of Salem were not exclusively affected by the witch trials— the authorities were shaken as well. At first, judges involved in the trials placed blame on “the trickery of Satan,” releasing themselves from any feelings of guilt. They eventually recognized their mistakes, and on January 14, 1697 proclaimed a Day of Fasting, where twelve jurors admitted they had condemned people without proper evidence. We do hereby signify to all in general (and to the…

In the village of Salem an envious girl, Abigail Williams and her followers started what was one of the greatest mass hysteria of the time. Abigail, a very selfish and manipulative liar, was found dancing in the forest with a group of other young women and this is what sparked it all. After the incident, many of the villagers began to think the girls were possessed with the devil. The accused girls then began to confess to being possessed and started to accuse other villagers of being witches…

A Reputation Threads through Salem A relatively calm town was deserted in response to madness and mayhem. Who was accountable for this? Abigail Williams. Abigail was a teen girl in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts. Her lustful fantasies towards John Proctor and suspicious behavior in the woods is what drove her and a small group of her companions to start sporadically accusing innocent people of witchcraft. These allegations started shortly after Abigail’s uncle and the town’s local…

Puritanistic Salem, Massachusetts. A society’s actions are combustible when imposed by factors that bring about unwanted differences. A comparative society to Salem was the United States in the 1950s, when fear of Communism possessed numerous Americans and compelled them to violently lash out against innocent people. Like the United States in the mid-twentieth century, Salem is renowned for handling change…