A witch hunt is seen as an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. 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. 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. They claim the witches were making them do these bad things. What part might this physical separation have played in turning neighbors against one another and stoking fears of demons? Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible? What took place in Western society to allow for the popularity of the Malleus, and for such a drastic shift in attitude towards the very existence of witchcraft? The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling., Have a tip we should know? Four-year-old accused witch Dorcas Good went insane after spending months in prison and watching her baby sister die while in jail with their mother, who was later hanged. 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. Although the proportions varied according to region and time, on the whole about three-fourths of convicted witches were female. 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. Conventional wisdom has it that mankind has evolved so far that the idea of targeting innocents is no longer an issue; however, Senator McCarthy and targeting of innocent Muslims after 9/11 remind us that witch hunts still exists in modern times. In Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, witch hunts empowered towns and consumed peoples lives with fear. 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. It is nearly impossible to determine a correct estimate of how many people were tried and executed for witchcraft during this time. In each paragraph these traits will be further explained. He also portrays the accusers as teenagers when many were in fact much younger. Most readers are unfamiliar with McCarthyism. B.A. Arthur Miller includes Tituba in his 1952 play, "The Crucible", which uses the Salem witch trials as a metaphor or analogy to 20th century McCarthyism, the pursuit, and "blacklisting" of accused Communists. 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. 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. The differences between inhabitants were expressed as a battle between good and evil. Those who did believe saw witchcraft as something to be availed of at best and dismissed at worst. George Burroughs and the Salem Witch Trials, Mary Easty: Hanged as a Witch in Salem, 1692, M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Prior to the beginning of the early modern period, before the devastating impact of the Black Plague transformed European institutions and the political dynamic of the entire continent, many people throughout Europe may have believed in magic. A fire, a fire is burning! The Salem witch trials end up being a crucible, that is, a time of great testing and purifying, for the townspeople. 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. Puritan Americans viewed physical wants and desires as a threat to society and work of the Devil. The Rev. This began the Salem Witchcraft Trials. When Arthur Miller published The Crucible in the early 1950s, he simply outdid the historians at their own game.. They were Christians who originally left England because they felt persecuted. Moreover, the evidence does not indicate a close correlation between socioeconomic tension and witchcraft, though agrarian crises seem to have had some effect. 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.'. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. Tituba, also known as Tituba Indian, was an enslaved person and servant whose birth and death dates are unknown. Tituba was accused by the young girls of appearing to them (as a spirit), which amounted to an accusation of witchcraft. Log in here. Malleus Maleficarum, first published in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer, was a major influence on this attitude shift. A crucible can mean either an instrument of heating or a severe trial. Latest answer posted November 22, 2020 at 10:36:50 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. It was this combination of sorcery and its association with the Devil that made Western witchcraft unique. The witch-hunt provided the perfect opportunity for the settlement of old scores. She confessed to witchcraft and accused others. We do not know if the enslavement of Tituba was the settlement of a debt, though that story has been accepted by some. As just one example, the king of Italy, Charlemagne, dismissed the concept of witchcraft as a pagan superstition and ordered the death penalty for whoever executed someone because they considered them to be a witch. John Indian, through the trials, also had a number of fits when present for the examination of accused witches. The settlers of New England faced innumerable struggles and hardships. Miller captured the events in a riveting story that is now considered a modern classic in the theater. Throughout this article, it mentions the persecution of witches today in communities around the globe, mentioning the flashbacks of similar strategies that were used in the past, doing different types of tortures.In Modern days, recent generations have abandoned wonderful traditions. There were additional hunts in Spanish America, where the European pattern of accusations continued even though the differences between the folklore of the Europeans and Native Americans introduced some minor variations into the accusations. Christian theologians and academics entwined together the superstitious worries people held about the supernatural with Christian doctrine. The "parochial snobbery" as well as a "predilection for minding. As a result of such ideas, by the late 15th century, witches were considered as followers of the Devil. These can all be related back to The Crucible, in the way in which each character experienced. And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. One of these women was Tituba, who was there at the. This was a dissertation that endorsed witch-hunting and is believed to have inspired Shakespeares Macbeth. The theological worldviewderived from the early Christian fear of Satan and reinforced by the great effort to reform and conform that began in 1050was intensified again by the fears and animosities engendered by the Reformation of the 16th century. Weakness, hypocrisy, vindictiveness: only few of the many words that describe the guilty desires and revenge that lingered among the town of Salem. The Salem witch trials of the 1690's portrayed by Millers the Crucible parallel The Red Scare of 1920's, both events revolve around the fear of foreign ideology causing hysteria. In early 1692, three girls with connections to the Parris household began to exhibit strange behavior. The Black Death: Europes Deadliest Pandemic in Human History. In act 4 of The Crucible, why does John Proctor decide to confess but refuse to sign a written confession? What is a quote said by John Proctor in Act 3 in which he reveals his sin of adultery? 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. In 1964, Ann Petry published "Tituba of Salem Village", written for children 10 and older. Namely, that he was in a marriage he wasnt happy in, and ended up having an affair with the much younger Marilyn Monroe, with whom he then had a troubled relationship and marriage. 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. Have a tip or story idea? 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. 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. In Greco-Roman civilization, Dionysiac worship included meeting underground at night, sacrificing animals, practicing orgies, feasting, and drinking. For The Crucible, Miller aged Abigail up from her actual age of 11 to a more easily sexualized 17, while aging down John Procter, who was historically 60 at the time the trials went down to 35. 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. Historical Context. The outbreak at Salem, where 19 people were executed, was the result of a combination of church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children, all in a vacuum of political authority. 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. Wherefore The devil is now making one Attempt more upon us; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarld with unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encountered; an Attempt so Critical, that if we get well through, we shall soon Enjoy Halcyon Days, with all the Vultures of Hell Trodden under our Feet. Lewis, Jone Johnson. In the early modern period, Protestantism emerged as a viable challenge to the Catholic Churchs firm hold on the Christian population of Europe. Similar to The Crucible , a majority of the characters reacted the way they did out of fear. This helped to feed the paranoia that people felt about one another. The ultimate purpose of such a system was to create unity and, therefore, to fight any force that sought to break it. 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. Witch trials were equally common in ecclesiastical and secular courts before 1550, and then, as the power of the state increased, they took place more often in secular ones. 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. My basic need was to respond to a phenomenon which, with only small exaggeration, one could say paralyzed a whole generation and in a short time dried up the habits of trust and toleration in public discourse. 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. The myths surrounding what happened in Salem make the true story that much more difficult to uncover. Where central authorityi.e., bishops, kings, or the Inquisitionwas strong, convictions were fewer and sentences milder. Fear, hatred, guilt, jealousy, pain, grief, confusion, lust, and hunger are all feelings with one thing in common: They were the driving force that caused a witch-hunt amongst early modern Europeans. They could now publicly state their own iniquities and were praised for seeking purification. I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! Miller supports his claim by describing how the young girls of Salem blame the outsiders of their town of witchcraft. 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. *** Beyond Arthur Millers The Crucible, numerous dramatic presentations offer insights into irrational human fear. 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. Soon, people feared, communist ways would come to the United States and would quickly corrupt the government system. Crude practices such as pricking witches to see whether the Devil had desensitized them to pain; searching for the devils mark, an oddly-shaped mole or wart; or swimming (throwing the accused into a pond; if she sank, she was innocent because the water accepted her) occurred on the local level. How Long Will Joe Goldbergs Rampage Be Left Unchecked? Already a member? 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. 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. In Mexico the Franciscan friars linked indigenous religion and magic with the Devil; prosecutions for witchcraft in Mexico began in the 1530s, and by the 1600s indigenous peasants were reporting stereotypical pacts with the Devil. 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 Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and recounts one such witch hunt.