What do the characters in the play believe about witches? believed to have inspired Shakespeares Macbeth, Eve, Pandora and Plato: How Greek Myth Shaped the First Christian Woman, How Leonardo da Vincis Notebooks Transcend Time, Marco Polo: Renowned Merchant, Explorer & Travel Writer, How Protestant Reformation Shaped Modern Education, Macbeth: Why the King of Scotland was More Than a Shakespearan Despot. Salem Witch Trials - Events, Facts & Victims - HISTORY The Crucible: Questions & Answers | SparkNotes The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and recounts one such witch hunt. The hunts were not pursuits of individuals already identified as witches but efforts to identify those who were witches. The play is set in Puritan Society in the late 1600s in Salem, where most people are devout Christians and hold a strong belief of both God and the Devil. Women were certainly more likely than men to be economically and politically powerless, but that generalization is too broad to be helpful, for it holds true for societies in periods where witchcraft is absent. Any source of witchcraft must be destroyed . In his commentary, Miller names a variety of reasons for the injustice and atrocity which were the essential elements of the witch-hunts. 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. However, many were guilty of caving into their own weaknesses and only feared to be caught in their acts of hypocrisy. In this lesson, students will explore the characteristics of the Puritan community in Salem, learn about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and try to . Among others, it argued that those guilty of witchcraft should be punished, and equated sorcery with heresy. We have been advised by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a Malefactor, accused of Witchcraft as well as Murder, and Executed in this place more than Forty Years ago, did then give Notice of, An Horrible PLOT & against the Country by WITCHCRAFT, and a Foundation of WITCHCRAFT then laid, which if it were not seasonably discovered, would probably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches in the Country. Sometimes this magic was believed to work through simple causation as a form of technology. The so-called 'confessions' by many of the accusers were an effort for them to purge themselves, as it were, of sin and thus find redemption. The first hanging for witchcraft in New England was in 1647, after the witch hunts had already abated in Europe, though a peculiar outbreak in Sweden in 166876 bore some similarity to that in New England. Maleficium was a threat not only to individuals but also to public order, for a community wracked by suspicions about witches could split asunder. In Spain, Portugal, and southern Italy, witch prosecutions seldom occurred, and executions were very rare. The Rev. As Miller puts it: 'Land-lust which had been expressed before by constant bickering over boundaries and deeds, could now be elevated to the arena of morality; one could cry witch against one's neighbor and feel perfectly justified in the bargain.'. The American and European witch hunts of the early modern era had a significant impact on Western societys history, politics, and culture. Also during the McCarthyism era and the witch trials innocent lives were ruined when people were forced to accuse others or be accused themselves. why did the witch-hunts occur? Studying the American and European witch hunts today serves as a reminder of how hardship can bring out the very worst in people, turning neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. He also portrays the accusers as teenagers when many were in fact much younger. Arthur Miller wrote this play to symbolize 1950s McCarthyism. The witch hunts varied enormously in place and in time, but they were united by a common and coherent theological and legal worldview. Therefore, to create unity, one also had to exclude and prohibit those who could threaten it. 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. Latest answer posted November 22, 2020 at 10:36:50 AM. The responsibility for the witch hunts can be distributed among theologians, legal theorists, and the practices of secular and ecclesiastical courts. Local courts were more credulous and therefore more likely to be strict and even violent in their treatment of supposed witches than were regional or superior courts. What is a quote said by John Proctor in Act 3 in which he reveals his sin of adultery? Witches were considered Satan's followers, members of an antichurch and an antistate, the sworn enemies of Christian society in the Middle Ages, and a "counter-state" in the early modern period. Furthermore, people could now freely express their hatreds for neighbors and take vengeance under the the guise of an attempt to identify those who communed with the devil. Like the Spanish colonies, the English colonies repeated the European stereotype with a few minor differences. Miller wrote the play during the . Widely influential, it was reprinted numerous times. Parris. What Caused the Salem Witch Trials? - JSTOR Daily In Boston, he married and later became a minister. According to author Carol F. Karlsen . The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials - Smithsonian Magazine Maryse Cond, a French Caribbean writer, published "I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem" which argues that Tituba was of Black African heritage. The third girl was Ann Putnam Jr., who was the daughter of a key supporter of Rev. The next spring, the trials ended and various imprisoned individuals were released once their fines were paid. It was from a report written by the Reverend Samuel Parris, who was one of the chief instigators of the witch-hunt. Latest answer posted December 16, 2019 at 7:31:02 AM. For example, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, an episode of Rod Serlings Twilight Zone series, may provide students and teachers an opportunity to examine the phenomenon of mass hysteria. As Headley points out, he cites his relationships as instrumental to his writing of The Crucible in an essay he wrote about his process for The New Yorker: I visited Salem for the first time on a dismal spring day in 1952; it was a sidetracked town then, with abandoned factories and vacant stores. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. Arrest warrants were also issued for Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Although the lurid trials at Salem (now in Massachusetts) continue to draw much attention from American authors, they were only a swirl in the backwater of the witch hunts. In act 4 of The Crucible, why does John Proctor decide to confess but refuse to sign a written confession? But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. These can all be related back to The Crucible, in the way in which each character experienced. 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. Girls had specific roles in society and were expected to follow the rules of the church without question, so when they acted out and danced or strayed from the church, chaos was unavoidable. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller presents a city named Salem, with contradicting people. The "parochial snobbery" as well as a "predilection for minding. What was it about the time period that made such hysteria, and ultimately tragedy, possible. A Conspectus On 'Witch Hunt' | Merriam-Webster As the trials wore on, Miller traveled between Massachusetts and New York, researching what he saw as a clear correlation between the Red Scare and the Salem witch trials, both of which depended on a mass hysteria propelled by fear. The 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Jill Schonebelen wrote a research paper on Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights. (Include at least one play by an American dramatist.). The accusations were usually made by the alleged victims themselves, rather than by priests, lords, judges, or other elites. Successful prosecution of one witch sometimes led to a local hunt for others, but larger hunts and regional panics were confined (with some exceptions) to the years from the 1590s to 1640s. Soon, people feared, communist ways would come to the United States and would quickly corrupt the government system. How Does Arthur Miller Use Witch Hunts In The Crucible. Fear, accusations, and doing things for personal gain is a natural human instinct. The legal use of torture declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, and there was a general retreat from religious intensity following the wars of religion (from the 1560s to 1640s). But Tituba recanted her confession, and Parris never paid the fine, presumably in retaliation for her recantation. While any number of marginalized groups could, in theory, have served as a scapegoat, the shift in attitudes towards witchcraft as heresy created the conditions that allowed populations to turn upon those accused of witchcraft instead. Thus creating the different movements to bring awareness to the situations and hope that the citizens will work to change and or stop these homicides from happening. Parris. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. In response to the mass hysteria over this communist infiltration, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. The same person may have enslaved John Indian; they both disappear from all known records after Tituba's release. They [residents of Salem] carried about an innate resistance, even of persecution. Perhaps the most intense reason why Salem had to be the birthplace for the witch trials resided in the idea of the authenticity and self- certainty that gripped Salem. Tituba would not likely have been directly involved in the growing church conflict involving Rev. It was also believed that they rode through the air at night to sabbats (secret meetings), where they engaged in sexual orgies and even had sex with Satan; that they changed shapes (from human to animal or from one human form to another); that they often had familiar spirits in the form of animals; and that they kidnapped and murdered children for the purpose of eating them or rendering their fat for magical ointments. Across New England, where witch trials occurred somewhat regularly from 1638 until 1725, women vastly outnumbered men in the ranks of the accused and executed. They simply used accusations of witchcraft and magic to prove their moral and doctrinal superiority over the other side. It certainly was not deemed to be a threat, even by the leaders of the Catholic Church, who simply denied its existence. In his telling, witch hunts are perpetrated by the marginalized rather than upon them, since, when sex is involved, women are inclined toward group-malice, sexual irrationality, and wholesale invention. The Crucible: McCarthyism and a Historical View of Witch Hunts In other words, there was how things actually happened during the Salem Witch Trials, and there was how Miller wrote about them, taking lots of liberties to tell this story through a prism that made sense to him. The breakdown in the social order during the various different conflicts of this period added to the atmosphere of fear and led to the inevitable need for scapegoating. Parris and his wife. One of the more infuriating things about this #TimesUp moment is that there are far too many men continuing to be more concerned with the hypothetical possibility of false accusations (even though most of the accusations either come from multiple women corroborating stories about the same person, or have been confirmed by the accused themselves in self-serving apologies) than they are with the suffering of victims of sexual harassment, assault, or abuse. In France in 1022 a group of heretics in Orlans was accused of orgy, infanticide, invocations of demons, and use of the dead childrens ashes in a blasphemous parody of the Eucharist. Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible? They believe that witches work with the devil and that they can see the devil and his followers. ", Latest answer posted October 02, 2020 at 10:46:39 AM. eNotes Editorial, 6 June 2016, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-reasons-miller-gives-salem-witch-hunts-360670. 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. The North Berwick trials serve as one of the more famous examples of witches being held responsible for bad weather. A crucible can mean either an instrument of heating or a severe trial. Arthur Miller felt as if it were a . Tituba is depicted in Miller's drama as initiating witchcraft as play among the girls of Salem Village. Salem, of course, serves as the perfect example of this fanaticism and scapegoating taken to the extreme. "What are the reasons Miller gives for the Salem witch hunts?" They were a wide cultural, social, political phenomenon. Tituba and The Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Devil was deeply and widely feared as the greatest enemy of Christ, keenly intent on destroying soul, life, family, community, church, and state. The settlers of New England faced innumerable struggles and hardships. ThoughtCo. A fire, a fire is burning! In a piece over at The Daily Beast, Maria Dahvana Headley writes about Arthur Millers history with Marilyn Monroe, and how that affected his plays, which perpetuated very specific ideas about women through the American literary canon. Log in here. One theory which could explain the apparent madness of the trial and judicial hangings may be found in the bread the settlers were eating. No satisfactory explanation for the preponderance of women among the accused has appeared. Christian theologians and academics entwined together the superstitious worries people held about the supernatural with Christian doctrine. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! The early modern period was a time of calamity, plagues, and wars, while fear and uncertainty were rife. The drastic effects of the Little Ice Age reached a height between 1560 and 1650, which happened to be the same period in which the number of European witch hunts reached their height. A few histories mention a daughter, Violet, who remained with the Parris family. The effects of conflicts such as the Thirty Years War were exacerbated by the drastic Little Ice Age with which they coincided, especially in regard to the European witch hunts. One interesting connection would be to teach the play along with a film that is very much about McCarthyismJohn Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Drawing on research on the witch trials he had conducted while an undergraduate, Miller composed The Crucible in the early 1950s. In Act 1, what explanation does Miller give as to why the witch hunts In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, what does the author mean by his statement that "the Salem tragedy developed from a paradox"? Tituba herself went into a fit, claiming to be afflicted. "In Act 1, what explanation does Miller give as to why the witch hunts developed in such a community in The Crucible?" Poor, poor men and their cold wives and their not being able to help being drawn to younger women only to ruin their lives, too. Cotton Mathers account of the witch trials reinforced colonial New Englanders view of themselves as a chosen generation of men. List their beliefs. Those who did believe saw witchcraft as something to be availed of at best and dismissed at worst. 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. The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation heightened the fear of witchcraft by promoting the idea of personal piety (the individual alone with his or her Bible and God), which enhanced individualism while downplaying community. They believed that witches were quite real and a gateway into the dark side, the Devil and all that. 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. As students examine historical materials with an eye to their dramatic potential, they also explore the psychological and sociological questions that so fascinated Miller: Aligns withCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8- Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information. This definitely often refers to a courtroom trial in particular. By Katie BrownCurrent PhD Biblical Studies, BA Classics and ReligionKatie is a postgraduate research student in Trinity College Dublin, where she also received her Bachelor's Degree in Classical Civilisation and World Religions and Theology.
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