eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Abigail's Obsession With Proctor In The Crucible By Arthur Miller How Arthur Miller Created a Myth of the Male "Witch Hunt - The Mary Sue Among the main effects of the papal judicial institution known as the Inquisition was in fact the restraint and reduction of witch trials that resulted from the strictness of its rules. Read the document introduction and transcript and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer these questions. Miller presents the idea that vengeance ruins peoples lives or reputation so that you can get what you want and be satisfied. This is highly similar to the homicides that led to rise of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. The inevitable need for a scapegoat, for someone to hold accountable for misfortune, seems to be ingrained in the human psyche. The witch trials offer a window into the anxieties and social tensions that accompanied New England's increasing integration into . Also the fact people would accuse people of witchcraft which would then accuse other people of witchcraft and etc. Indeed, Miller uses witchcraft and the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for situations wherein those who are in power accuse those who challenge them of suspect behavior in order to destroy them. In an article called The Single Greatest Witch Hunt in American History, For real by Stacy Schiff, a small village in Massachusetts is being accused of being involved with witchcraft and they are testing people and most are giving into the stronger people just to get out of trouble. In the 11th century attitudes toward witchcraft and sorcery began to change, a process that would radically transform the Western perception of witchcraft and associate it with heresy and the Devil. So for a brief explanation, McCarthyism was carried out under senator Joseph McCarthy during 1950-1954 against alleged communist in the US government and in other institutions. In The Crucible, with Hales transformation Miller is emphasizing that humanity will always seek redemption, the truth will triumph the lies, and people will constantly try. Accusations originated with the ill-will of the accuser, or, more often, the accusers fear of someone having ill-will toward him. The Salem witch scare had complex social roots beyond the communitys religious convictions. Miller argues that the fundamental nature of Salem's construction made it a community where the Witch Trials were inevitable. Miller sums up his experience with the benefit of hindsight: "I am glad that I managed to write The Crucible, but looking back I have often wished I'd had the temperament to do an absurd comedy, which is what the situation deserved. These courts reduced the number of witch trials significantly by 1600, half a century before legal theory, legislation, and theology began to dismiss the notion of witchcraft in France and other countries. It was also, and as importantly, a long overdue opportunity for every-one so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims.'. Most of the factors influencing the widespread witch hunts over the course of the early modern period can be summarized under two headings; salvation and scapegoating.. This definitely often refers to a courtroom trial in particular. As exemplified in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, witch trials took place. In Act 1, what explanation does Miller give as to why the witch hunts ", In their book Salem Possessed, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum remark upon the prominent place the Salem witch trials have in America's cultural consciousness. King James VI of Scotland, a monarch notorious for his role in Scotlands witch-hunting craze, believed that he had been personally targeted by witches who conjured dangerous storms while he sailed across the North Sea to Denmark. It might have been as simple as one person blaming his misfortune on another. A witch hunt is surprisingly efficient in dealing with all offenders because once the movement gains momentum, people are accused left and right for many reasons, such as protecting . They viewed their difficulties through a theological lens, and rather than attribute the blame to chance, misfortune, or simply nature; they thought that they were the Devils fault in collaboration with witches. The Salem Witch Trials were a product of this fear and uncertainty that eventually overwhelmed the village for more than a year. How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials. While she enjoys any topic relating to history, culture, and the humanities, she is most interested in Ancient Greece and Rome, the Ancient Near East, Irish history, colonization and de-colonization, Jewish and Christian history, and the Early modern period. How Long Will Joe Goldbergs Rampage Be Left Unchecked? According to Edinburgh Live's Hilary Mitchell, Scotland experienced four major witch hunts between roughly 1590 and 1727, when Janet Horne, the last Scot to be executed for witchcraft, was . By the 14th century, fear of heresy and of Satan had added charges of diabolism to the usual indictment of witches, maleficium (malevolent sorcery). The term 'witch-hunt' has become entrenched in our vocabulary and our consciousness to mean, metaphorically, any act which purposely seeks out to punish those who hold unpopular views or opinions which are deemed to be subversive and a threat to the natural order. Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible? But Tituba recanted her confession, and Parris never paid the fine, presumably in retaliation for her recantation. It tells the story of when King Saul sought the Witch of Endor to summon the dead prophet Samuel's spirit to help him defeat the Philistine army. Analysis. Older women were more frequently accused of casting malicious spells than were younger women, because they had had more time to establish a bad reputation, and the process from suspicion to conviction often took so long that a woman might have aged considerably before charges were actually advanced. Arthur Miller felt as if it were a . While the European witch hunts had more or less declined by the mid to late 17th century, they increased in the American Colonies, particularly in Puritan societies. Many critics described Death of a Salesman as the first great American tragedy, and Miller gained an associated eminence as a man who understood the deep essence of the United States. By the late 16th century, many prosperous and professional people in western Europe were accused, so that the leaders of society began to have a personal interest in checking the hunts. Moving crabwise across the profusion of evidence, I sensed that I had at last found something of myself in it, and a play began to accumulate around this man. Because accusations and trials of witches took place in both ecclesiastical and secular courts, the law played at least as important a role as religion in the witch hunts. It certainly was not deemed to be a threat, even by the leaders of the Catholic Church, who simply denied its existence. The responsibility for the witch hunts can be distributed among theologians, legal theorists, and the practices of secular and ecclesiastical courts. At first, this lead society to a poor place of illogical reasoning and punishments, but overall gave a lasting lesson of how to deal with conflicts in the future. Those who were unhappy with their lot and envious towards of who were not now had the chance to voice their suspicions and take revenge against them. In the late 1940s early 1950s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy made the grandiose pledge to uncover a communist plot to overthrow democracy in United States. Its hard to imagine that there was once a time when witches were not seen as cackling women with pointed hats, black cats, and bubbling cauldrons. The latter was the greatest evil of the system, for a victim might be forced to name acquaintances, who were in turn coerced into naming others, creating a long chain of accusations. Parris in the Salem Village church conflict. Those who did believe saw witchcraft as something to be availed of at best and dismissed at worst. In the play some girls get in trouble for dancing in the woods. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! In pointing out this paradox, Miller suggests that the witch hunts exposed the failure of the Puritan theocracy. Largely because of that mistake, he is buffeted by a couple of elements shaped to suit the underlying narrative of Millers story, and thus not found in primary sources. Arthur Miller's allegorical play, The Crucible, was written in 1956 about the historic witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem Witch Trials - Events, Facts & Victims - HISTORY Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, which forms the basis of many Americans' knowledge of the trials, takes liberties with the story. Puritan Americans viewed physical wants and desires as a threat to society and work of the Devil. The decline of witch hunts, like their origins, was gradual. Tituba and The Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Why were the leaders of Salem's clerical and civil community ready to condemn to death 19 people who refused to acknowledge being witches based on spectral evidence and the hysterical words of young girls? Current PhD Biblical Studies, BA Classics and Religion. Ecclesiastical and civil authorities usually tried to restrain witch trials and rarely manipulated witch hunts to obtain money or power. In this remarkably observed gesture of a troubled young girl, I believed, a play became possible. That John Proctor the sinner might overturn his paralyzing personal guilt and become the most forthright voice against the madness around him was a reassurance to me, and, I suppose, an inspiration: it demonstrated that a clear moral outcry could still spring even from an ambiguously unblemished soul. But there was one entry in Upham in which the thousands of pieces I had come across were jogged into place. We do not know if the enslavement of Tituba was the settlement of a debt, though that story has been accepted by some. There is no source before the latter half of the 19th century, including transcripts of testimony in the examinations and trials, that supports the idea that Tituba and the girls who were accusers practiced any magic together. Along with this older tradition, attitudes toward witches and the witch hunts of the 14th18th centuries stemmed from a long history of the churchs theological and legal attacks on heretics. After the magistrates finished their examination of Tituba, she was sent to jail. These allegations would have important implications for the future because they were part of a broader pattern of hostility toward and persecution of marginalized groups. This is important because a large mass of innocent people were killed due to their race. Both of these historic elements, however, were shaped by Miller into a story about a married man tormented by an orphaned, libidinous teenage girl seeking to punish him for a sexual transgression she participated consensually in. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. Why might their age make them particularly susceptible to accusations of strange behavior? They believed in short that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world. In the long run it may be better simply to describe the witch hunts than to try to explain them, since the explanations are so diverse and complicated. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation, war, conflict, climate change, and economic recession are all some of the factors that influenced the witch hunts across the two continents in various ways. The current preoccupation with men being falsely accused of harassment or assault, like so many other accepted truths can be traced to a moment in time during which a version of the idea was created and then absorbed into the culture. Anyone who failed to subscribe to Puritan social norms could become vulnerable and villainized, branded as an outsider, and cast in the role of the Other. These included those that were unmarried, childless, or defiant women on the fringes of society, the elderly, people suffering from a mental illness, people with a disability, and so forth.