Puritans 'Irony In The Crucible'

Richard Godbeer presented an excellent picture on how puritan life was structured, how it functioned, and how they perceived the super natural in this novel. Reading "Escaping Salem," I was thrown several different scenarios displaying how witchcraft was addressed in early puritan society and how they reacted towards it. The supposedly bewitching of Katherine Branch showed the reader how the people of Stamford and the court system handled the act of witchcraft. After reading this novel, I can say that I do believe the accused in the Stamford witchcraft trial received a fair trial.

Fear has become part of humanity as humans evolve over time. Since the beginning of time humans have always been feared of the unknown. This fear of the unknown has given humans a drive to progress to be better. In the past there have been societies that take wrongful advantage of this fear by creating mass hysteria by religious, political, and social activities such as the Puritans in Salem. The famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller demonstrates this mass hysteria which has led people of Salem in wrongful accusations and death of twenty individual citizens of Salem for witchcraft.

Prior to suspensions of witchcraft, politics were at the heart of the conflicts of Salem. The Putnams did not have a good relationship with the villagers; their objectives for the town made matters worse. Another factor for the town’s frustration was the contract Reverend Parris received. At the time, ministers in the town were placed to work under contracts. The contracts for ministers was often accompanied by a moderate salary, a house, and free firewood.

Though he is a simply farmer, he stood up for what he believed in and exposed the girls foolish acts to cause hysteria in the community. Due to his opposition of the majority of the puritans, he faces relentless persecution when he denounces the insanity of the court proceedings of his religious community. In the puritan town of Salem hysteria and religious insanity broke lose

Boer and Nissenbaum believed that he could be one of what caused the witch trials because he was given wealth by Thomas Putnam, his father, who did not give any to his children from the first marriage after he had died. This caused resentment by Thomas Putnam Jr. and his siblings towards Joseph Putnam and his mother. Reverend Parris is partly to blame for this mass hysteria. His role as a minister was greatly debated as the whole village split into two factions that were the Pro-Parris and Anti-Parris.

They killed 19 people in similar ways, but the last person wouldn’t go to trial, so they stoned him. Within the year, the Salem Witch Trials were a very important event, because not only did most of the people convicted died, but because many people went about their day feeling vulnerable

In his book, “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (1702),” clergyman John Hale comes forth to confront the recent events going on at the time. Initially, Hale alludes to the questionable actions and activities of the townspeople being accused of witchcrafts, and being imprisoned as punishment. In addition, he discloses how everyone suspicious will be accused, not even young children are safe from the hands of this fate. Hale’s purpose of publishing this book was to describe the incident of the Witch Trials, and to reveal his experience of the trials, since his own wife was accused. By employing a didactic tone, Hale relays the actions of the past that targeted the Puritans and those wrongly accused of witchcrafts, so this occurrence

Nineteen people were hung due to false judgement by human nature and society. Taking place in a small village called Salem, inside of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a depressing seventeenth century, was a movement that would challenge the nation’s religious and psychological beliefs. Innocent people were being accused of witchcraft, when rather they were just ill or not taken care of properly by family and friends. Thought to be caused by stress, fear, and panic, the Salem Witch Trials was an event that changed the nation’s view on mental illness because of false assumptions and mischievous behavior. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of false accusations of witchcraft taking place in Salem, which during the seventeenth century, was apart of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Due to the theocratic state in "The Crucible", many were forced to adapt while others decided to revolt. Abigail, a girl who just wanted to gain possession of her companion became the cause of many innocent people being hanged. In "The Crucible" we gain sight of dramatic irony where the reader knows the truth, Abigail is not a victim rather the antagonist in the story but the characters are not aware of this instead unconsciously believing she is a helpless girl being attacked by the powerful devil. Fate has not been in her favor as she loses her parents in front of her very eyes scarring her for life. The actions she takes and the outcome it creates cannot be pardoned due to the way she has become from this tragic event.

The youngest “witch” to be hung, was a 5-year old little girl. Most of the women accused of being a witch, were accused by their own family. The Witch Trials went across 24 settlements

A few years later the Putnam’s petitioned the town in an effort to obtain political independence for the village, and the Porters opposed them. The arrival of Reverend Parris intensified the Putnam-Porter conflict. I think the two families accurately symbolize and correlate with the division between Salem Village and Salem Town. Joseph Putman who arrived in Salem in the Early 1640’s was a large land owner. As his family continued to expand, the Putman land was broken up into smaller and smaller tracts.

The accused were simply your everyday people who were disliked by most of the town or were just simply pointed at. For example,

When analysing the factors that lead to the Salem witch trials we must first examine the numerous economic reasons. It can be argued the main source of economic tension was caused by King William's War (1688–97) it ravaged upstate regions, sending a flood of refugees into the county of Essex, especially Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This created a strain on Salem's resources and aggravated existing rivalries. Salem village had a lot of farmland but Salem Town did not and thus made Salem Town dependent on the village for food.

In Salem, Massachusetts a series of hearings and prosecutions started, commonly known as the Salem Witchcraft Trials. The witchcraft trials in Salem became a big concern after two-hundred innocent people were accused and twenty people were executed. Many people of Salem believed the court was just in accusing all these victims. A seldom amount of people went against the court in saying that the court was a fraud and that the decisions were biased being made. Abigail Williams held all the power in the court and determined who was “guilty” or not.

Despite their deeply religious values, the members of the Puritan Society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are equally as sinful as the rest of the world. The Puritans, known for coming to God when given any matter at hand, lay blame on the Devil, regardless of their contradictory values. By putting blame on him for their wrongdoings, the Devil earns power by the Puritans resorting to involving him in a situation whenever any one thing goes wrong. Power is defined by one’s reputation, status, wealth, gender, and age.