Children were often accusers (as they were at Salem), but they were sometimes also among the accused. Again, the so-called witches made for the perfect scapegoats. 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. This unrest also contributed to the witch-hunting hysteria in another way. Miller's extensive stage directions suggest several reasons why the Witch Trials had to take place in Salem. The Devil, whose central role in witchcraft beliefs made the Western tradition unique, was an absolute reality in both elite and popular culture, and failure to understand the prevailing terror of Satan has misled some modern researchers to regard witchcraft as a cover for political or gender conspiracies. His 17 June 2000 article inThe Guardian/The Observer, "Are You Now Or Were You Ever?,"describes the paranoia that swept America in that era and the moment his then-wife, Marilyn Monroe, became a bargaining chip in his own prosecution. 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. The visible role played by women in some heresies during this period may have contributed to the stereotype of the witch as female. Describe a relatively recent historical event that resembles the situation that unfolded in Salem. Tituba, also known as Tituba Indian, was an enslaved person and servant whose birth and death dates are unknown. Salem witch trials, (June 1692-May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted "witches" to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). Arrest warrants were also issued for Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. 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? Why is Thomas Putnam bitter in act 1 of The Crucible. The Puritans were marked by inflexibility and extremism. Also, the clergy in authority expounded punishment, rather than penitence and forgiveness, for those deemed witches. Parris was, at the time he was in New Spain, not yet married and not yet a minister. Little is known of Tituba's background or even origin. Why did Arthur Miller name his play "The Crucible"? Judicial torture, happily in abeyance since the end of the Roman period, was revived in the 12th and 13th centuries; other brutal and sadistic tortures occurred but were usually against the law. How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, he shows us four ingredients that create a mass hysteria. In the Near Eastin ancient Mesopotamia, Syria, Canaan, and Palestinebelief in the existence of evil spirits was universal, so that both religion and magic were thought to be needed to appease, offer protection from, or manipulate these spirits. As competition flared up following the Reformation, churches turned towards offering salvation from sin and evil to their congregations. Emailus. ThoughtCo, Jan. 5, 2021, thoughtco.com/tituba-salem-witch-trials-3530572. Therefore, to create unity, one also had to exclude and prohibit those who could threaten it. Men who brand women as dakan capitalize on deeply rooted superstitions and systems built on . Have a tip or story idea? The story in The Crucible begins with how the paranoia and the following witch hunt started in Salem. EDSITEment lesson Dramatizing History in Arthur Millers The Crucible, offers an engaging series of activities for students to examine the ways in which Miller interpreted the facts of the witch trials and successfully dramatized them. Among others, it argued that those guilty of witchcraft should be punished, and equated sorcery with heresy. For many peopleespecially New Englanders (wicked or not) and fans of Daniel Day-Lewis or Winona Ryder (stars of the 1996 movie version of Arthur Miller's The Crucible)17th-century Salem, Massachusetts, comes to mind when they hear the word witch hunt.The persecution of witches goes back to ancient times, but it was during the 16th and 17th centuries that witch hunts intensified. The differences between inhabitants were expressed as a battle between good and evil. Although, the play is fiction, Miller based the plot of his play on the historical event, the Salem Witch Trials.According to the the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century, The Crucible explores a mass hysteria that its residents must go through because of the witchcraft accusations made by young girls and many other people of the region.These accusations, we learn further in the novel, are not true and are purely for the purpose to put the blame of someone's mistakes or wrongdoings to someone else. And its this body of work, which students have been instructed to read at school for decades, that has permeated the culture and contributed to our modern version of blaming womens desires for societys ills. Whereas womens sexuality has long since been tied to the idea of personal hysteria, Miller updated that by singling out womens desire for love and sex as a direct cause of mass hysteria. How does Abigail turn the court against Mary Warren in The Crucible? Calling all K12 teachers: Join us July 1619 for the second annual Gilder Lehrman Teacher Symposium. The author writes in a satiric tone to mock the McCarthyism era of communism. Some of the trial takes place in the actual courtroom, but the metaphor extends beyond the courtroom scenes. The play is about human weakness, hypocrisy, and vindictiveness. Although some people undoubtedly practiced sorcery with the intent to harm, and some may actually have worshiped the Devil, in reality no one ever fit the concept of the witch. Nonetheless, the witchs crimes were defined in law. Witches were considered Satans 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. The Little Ice Age was a period of climate change characterized by severe weather, famine, sequential epidemics, and chaos. 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. B.A. 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. Although accusations of witchcraft in contemporary cultures provide a means to express or resolve social tensions, these accusations had different consequences in premodern Western society where the mixture of irrational fear and a persecuting mentality led to the emergence of the witch hunts. 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. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Essential Quotes by Character: John Proctor, Critical Context (Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Literature Series), Critical Context (Comprehensive Guide to Drama). The Salem witch trials end up being a crucible, that is, a time of great testing and purifying, for the townspeople. Arthur Millers play The Crucible, which forms the basis of many Americans knowledge of the trials, takes liberties with the story. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, what does the author mean by his statement that "the Salem tragedy developed from a paradox". Millers play helps one understand what the Salem Witch Trials did to peoples emotions and mentalities. This fabric of ideas was a fantasy. Instead, they were just one very small chapter in the much longer story of the witch hunts that took place all across Europe and America in the early modern period, with the European witch hunts reaching a height between 1560 and 1650. Miller cites the reason for the witch-hunts to be "a preserve of manifestation of the panic which set among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom" and "a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins." What does the overture imply about human nature? 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. 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. Although the proportions varied according to region and time, on the whole about three-fourths of convicted witches were female. The process began with suspicions and, occasionally, continued through rumours and accusations to convictions. Salem was a pressure-cooker ready to explode. The third girl was Ann Putnam Jr., who was the daughter of a key supporter of Rev. A fire, a fire is burning! Tituba was accused by the young girls of appearing to them (as a spirit), which amounted to an accusation of witchcraft. The emphasis on personal piety exacerbated the rigid characterization of people as either good or bad. It also aggravated feelings of guilt and the psychological tendency to project negative intentions onto others. In essence, these infamous witch hunts took place because people came to believe that witches conspired to destroy and uproot decent Christian society. In the play "The Crucible," Arthur Miller uses a great trial in the Salem witch trials to describe how he felt during the Red Scare in the 1950's. The Red Scare was a national hunt for Communists, or "Reds" as they were called. Latest answer posted December 16, 2019 at 7:31:02 AM. Although many witchcraft theorists were not deeply misogynist, many others were, notably the authors of the infamous Malleus maleficarum. The settlers of New England faced innumerable struggles and hardships. They could now publicly state their own iniquities and were praised for seeking purification. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. Tituba herself is hardly mentioned in the records after her initial arrest, examination, and confession. Resentment and fear of the power of the hag, a woman released from the constraints of virginity and then of maternal duties, has been frequently described in Mediterranean cultures. How Does Arthur Miller Use Witch Hunts In The Crucible. To every guy out there today whose greatest concern is being falsely accused, youve been manipulated by a frustrated playwright into genuinely believing that being callous and abusive with women dont have consequences. 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. from University of the Western Cape, South Africa. 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. Although these figures are alarming, they do not remotely approach the feverishly exaggerated claims of some 20th-century writers. Many teachers use The Crucible alongside their discussion of McCarthyism. Witch hunts In both The Crucible and in modern day witch hunts, witch hunts are caused out of fear or for personal gain. Two of the accused women confessed to being witches and were reprievedparadoxically, if you admitted to being a witch, you were freed. Someone paid seven pounds for Tituba's release. Students can make very profitable comparisons between the two tragic heroes: The Manchurian Candidates Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and The Crucible's John Proctor. 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. Elizabeth Proctor had been the orphaned Abigails mistress, and they had lived together in the same small house until Elizabeth fired the girl. 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.. 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. "It would probably never have occurred to me to write a play about the Salem witch trials of 1692 had I not seen some astonishing correspondences with that calamity in the America of the late 40s and early 50s. 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. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Even though the clergy and judges in the Middle Ages were skeptical of accusations of witchcraft, the period 130030 can be seen as the beginning of witch trials. The witch-hunt provided the perfect opportunity for the settlement of old scores. George Burroughs and the Salem Witch Trials, Mary Easty: Hanged as a Witch in Salem, 1692, M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School. 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. However, it must be taken into account that different regions experienced a flare-up of witch trials for a variety of localized reasons. 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. Both Protestants and Catholics were involved in the prosecutions, as the theology of the Protestant Reformers on the Devil and witchcraft was virtually indistinguishable from that of the Catholics. From 1993 Halloween classic Hocus Pocus to American Horror Story: Coven, the witch hunts that ensued from such simple origins have captured the imagination of many artistic minds over the past 300 years, making it perhaps one of the most famous events in American history. Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. Accessed 4 Mar. Where previously it was believed no mortal could control the weather, European Christians gradually came to believe that witches could. Miller captured the events in a riveting story that is now considered a modern classic in the theater. Vengeful witch hunters left no time to spare when making accusations on their neighborhood enemies. Three women and two infants died while imprisoned. With tensions running high, many turned to inculcate the more vulnerable members of society. As questions of, When witchcraft arose, the state began executing anyone affiliated with witchery. They were Christians who originally left England because they felt persecuted. In Boston, he married and later became a minister. Charges of maleficium were prompted by a wide array of suspicions. 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. 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. Ultimately, 19 individuals who had refused to admit guilt were hanged and another was pressed to death. It is nearly impossible to determine a correct estimate of how many people were tried and executed for witchcraft during this time. Another was Abigail Williams, age 12, called "kinfolk" or a "niece" of Rev. Parris. Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible? The ensuing witch hunt would result in the executions of 19 men, women, and children, along with the deaths of at least six others, and the suffering, torment, and calamity of an entire community. 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. Any source of witchcraft must be destroyed . The notorious Spanish Inquisition formed due to the Counter-Reformation focused little on pursuing those accused of witchcraft, having concluded that witches were much less dangerous than their usual targets, namely converted Jews and Muslims. Society was undeniably affected by witch hunts, as people did everything in their power to either free themselves from blame or accuse someone else. Parris' sermons in late 1691 warning of Satan's influence in town is also not known, but it seems likely that his fears were known in his household. Clearly, both definitions apply to the title of the play. Those include fear, personal motives, unfair treatment of the accused, and accusers. 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. Salvation and Scapegoating: What Caused the Early Modern Witch Hunts? The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches. 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. Local priests and judges, though seldom experts in either theology or law, were nonetheless part of a culture that believed in the reality of witches as much as modern society believes in the reality of molecules. Witch hunting became a prime service for attracting and appeasing the masses. Scrutiny of Miller's historical sources, which include biographies of key players (the accused and the accusers) and primary source transcripts of the Salem witch trials themselvesgive students a chance to trace the events embellished in the play back to historical Salem. Miller echoes many of McCarthys ideas such as a war between two ideologies, a letter of names, and a society destroyed by enemies from within. The gradual demise during the late 17th and early 18th century of the previous religious, philosophical, and legal worldview encouraged the ascendancy of an existent but often suppressed skepticism; increasing literacy, mobility, and means of communication set the stage for social acceptance of this changing outlook. Tituba, also known as Tituba Indian, was an enslaved person and servant whose birth and death dates are unknown. Tituba and The Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Rev. Become a subscriber and support the site! Aligns with CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5- Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging. To fully understand what caused the witch-hunt, one must analyze the triggers behind these feelings. The Black Death: Europes Deadliest Pandemic in Human History. Where central authorityi.e., bishops, kings, or the Inquisitionwas strong, convictions were fewer and sentences milder. As Headley puts it, John Proctor is portrayed in The Crucible as a tragic hero, a fundamentally good man whose life is ruined to execution first by the unwillingness of his wife to sleep with him, and then, when hes succumbed to temptation, by the accusations of a hysterical girl. In her conclusion about that particular play, Terrible things happen, The Crucible confirms, when you believe women.. By 143550, the number of prosecutions had begun to rise sharply, and toward the end of the 15th century, two events stimulated the hunts: Pope Innocent VIIIs publication in 1484 of the bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (Desiring with the Greatest Ardour) condemning witchcraft as Satanism, the worst of all possible heresies, and the publication in 1486 of Heinrich Krmer and Jacob Sprengers Malleus maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), a learned but cruelly misogynist book blaming witchcraft chiefly on women. Jill Schonebelen wrote a research paper on Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights. The setting of a literary work refers to the time and place in which the action occurs. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, witch hunts empowered towns and consumed people's lives with fear. In the article Fighting Modern-Day Witch Hunts In Indias Remote Northeast by Vikram Singh, who works for the New York Times, she, In Arthur Millers The Crucible, he shows a mass hysteria that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Cotton Mathers account of the witch trials reinforced colonial New Englanders view of themselves as a chosen generation of men. There was bad blood between the two women now. A neighbor of the Parris family, Mary Sibley, advised John Indian and possibly Tituba to make a witch's cake to identify the cause of the initial "afflictions" of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams. Miller completely discounts the idea that these events are caused by supernatural forces, and instead seeks to show how everyday difference between the members of the Salem community and the all-common emotions of anger, envy and greed are responsible. ", Latest answer posted October 02, 2020 at 10:46:39 AM. For example, if something bad happened to John that could not be readily explained, and if John felt that Richard disliked him, John may have suspected Richard of harming him by occult means. Indeed, the vivid and painful legacy of the Salem witch trials endured well into the 20th century, when Arthur Miller dramatized the events of 1692 in his play "The Crucible" (1953), using . The theory best supported by the evidence is that the increasing power of the centralized courts such as the Inquisition and the Parlement acted to begin a process of decriminalization of witchcraft. Tituba is depicted in Miller's drama as initiating witchcraft as play among the girls of Salem Village. 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 doctor diagnosed the cause of the afflictions as "Evil Hand.". The hunts were most severe from 1580 to 1630, and the last known execution for witchcraft was in Switzerland in 1782. Parris promised to pay the fee to allow Tituba to be released from prison. Tituba later testified that she saw visions of the devil and witches swarming. 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. Those who did believe saw witchcraft as something to be availed of at best and dismissed at worst. An additional activity would be to ask students to compare two or more recorded or live productions of Arthur Millers The Crucible to the written text. "Tituba and The Salem Witch Trials of 1692." Also during the McCarthyism era and the witch trials innocent lives were ruined when people were forced to accuse others or be accused themselves. In Greco-Roman civilization, Dionysiac worship included meeting underground at night, sacrificing animals, practicing orgies, feasting, and drinking. Read the document introduction and transcript and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer these questions. In the play, the people of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 sought to destroy the devils influence by seeking and destroying witches. We can guess from the circumstances that Parris enslaved Tituba in Barbados, probably when she was 12 or a few years older. What is the setting for Act 2? Throughout the past ten years social media has rocketed with hashtags and live protests in order to promote the current social-issues that have been overlooked. 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. The next spring, the trials ended and various imprisoned individuals were released once their fines were paid.
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