Role of Fear in Salem Witch Trials Essay

Arthur Miller’s classic, The Crucible, establishes a dramatized story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The story targets the Salem witch trials and reveals the drama that circulates the city. Influenced by events during various time periods, the play connects similar characteristics between the story and society. Although Miller has caused controversy regarding witchcraft activity and a mockery of McCarthyism, he successfully constructs the realities people suffered and lived through…

The Salem Witch Trials can simply be described as the following: a dark period in history where unwarranted persecution and ignorance ran amuck in human society. This phrase summarizes the gist of many historical opinions generated by this horrific event. However, this phrase implies that witch hunts abruptly stopped after this dramatic and sickening period in history, unfortunately this assumption is false. The witch trials of Salem involved the execution of twenty residents, and the…

Crucible Essay In today’s society, people who don’t learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat that same mistake again. This is clearly evident in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, as well as the Red Scare era. Fear itself can lead to illogical thinking, paranoia, and irrational decisions that result in dire consequences because people are driven to do everything they can to feel the sense of safety. Arthur Miller and so many others had to endure many struggles that were brought upon…

"Fear breeds superstition ; Superstition breeds fear" Surely the Devil had come to SALEM in 1692 (Independance Hall Association, 1). For a year people were blamed for witchery and caused a great mass of their population to become fearful of everyone. The superstition began to grow amongst the townspeople and slowly everyone became involved. In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail shows fear breeding superstition and Parris, Cheever, Herrick, and Giles show superstition breeding…

vengeance, and bad deeds. Self-respect and Reputation: Pg. 10, 11, 26 ; In a theocratic Salem, to be associated with witchcraft would hurt your reputation. At the very end, John refuses to sign his testimony because of self-respect. If he dares to sign, he will lose the only thing he has which is his name, he has already given up his soul. If he…

In Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England, Elizabeth Reis thoroughly discussed how the Puritan religion played a role in shaping the lives of the Puritan individuals. Puritanism had stressed women as having the role of only obeying their husband and tending to both the children and the household. Women who followed the Puritan religion were supposed to abide by the standards determined by God; those who did not abide were condemned as the ones who were found to be greatly…

In The Crucible there are many factors that lead to the start of the witch trials, one of the main things was the imperfection of mankind/ human flaws which was a huge theme showed consistently throughout the book. The people of Salem held many flaws some being greedy, lying for their own good, and fear. The whole town of Salem was a greedy community and this was really shown through with Reverand Parris. Many characters in The Crucible also exhibited the flaw of lying for their own good, but…

“The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692” (Nick T. 1). In my opinion, it is ironic that the accusations were started by three young girls. Why anyone would take accusations of this sort seriously is incomprehensible. However, these girls, “screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions” (Nick T. 2). Of course, it did not help matters when, “the local doctor blamed the supernatural and proclaimed that the community had a witch in its midst” (Nick…

The Salem witch trials were a series of trials that took place after what is known as a witch hunt took place in the city of Salem. Several people were persecuted and executed after being accused of witchcraft. People were not the only victims. Animals were also persecuted as witches. These accusations seem absurd and preposterous, but at the time ,witchcraft was a very dangerous thing to be accused of and many paid with their lives. The question is, what made these people go along with…

The Salem witch trials was a series of trials held in Salem, Massachusetts around the time of 1692 where twenty people were hanged for practicing witchcraft and mass hysteria was amongst the townspeople of Salem. The Crucible by Arthur Miller goes a step further and creates a play set in Salem during this time period. Chaos is loose among the townspeople, the court is not properly doing the job of acting as a fair judicial system. In the play during the mass hysteria, three people by the names…