Premium Essay

Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible

Submitted By
Words 766
Pages 4
Throughout the world's history, many occurrences of fear have shaped the world as we know it today. For as long as history goes back, fear has been a key aspect of every civilization. Governments have brainwashed their people in order to scare them into thinking that what they are doing is the only thing to do. During the 1600’s, the Salem witch trials began, striking fear in the eyes of all the people living there. Civilians were forced behind bars if they did not attend church regularly, and the scare of witches caused many to be hanged for all to see. These acts were recounted in a book called “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. The things that happened in Salem were not the only time fear has ruined lives, for fear is still a part of society …show more content…
The United States has a detention camp on Guantanamo bay in which they are holding not yet convicted people behind bars and beating and torturing them. The fact that the military is holding people without trial connects the two situations. This is the same problem that Salem had in 1692. Even though the United states has good intentions, they do not have the right to hold people that have not yet been convicted of a crime. Suspicion is not enough to detain a human being, making these doings a violation against human rights. In the Salem witch trials, the individuals that confessed to being witches, both men and women, were kept alive. People would plead guilty in order to stay alive. This caused even more problems, because since people were confessing, the one’s that were doing the killing believed in witches even more. Similar to this, at Guantanamo Bay, there have been “alleged human rights violations, including the use of various forms of torture during interrogations” (Nolen). In both instances, innocent people are being accused of crimes. The only difference is that in the witch trials, admitting false guilt saved you, whereas in Guantanamo Bay, you were tortured

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

The Crucible: The Salem Witch Trials

...In The Crucible, the witch trials were a major point of focus. There are numerous acts that needed to happen to lead to the witch trials and the ending of the novel. Girls in Salem had countless expectations, including the expectation to be perfect children. They were trained, even as children, to act like mature adults. The problem is that when a child is forced to act like an adult at such a young age, but aren’t treated as adults, they may feel ignored. When a child is ignored, they do irrational things to get attention, and occasionally, these things can get people hurt. The first step in these witch trial was the unjustifiable and defiant acts. One of the girls had an affair with a man, which meant rebelling against the entire...

Words: 949 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible

...The novel The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials dating back to 1692. During that time many people, specifically young girls became sick with an unknown illness, and many accusers blamed the illnesses on the work of the devil. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of accusations and prosecutions of many people who were believed to be involved in witchcraft. There were at least 20 people, innocent or guilty, executed for the claim of being a witch. Although the theory is not proven, no one will understand the case that caused the epidemic in the late 1600’s. It began when a young girl named Betty fell ill to an unknown origin in Salem, Massachusetts in the year of 1692. Her father Reverend Samuel Parris was a man known for his efforts of demanding citizens and God to his side. He was not overly...

Words: 1119 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

The Crucible Salem Witch Trials Essay

...The Crucible In the tragedy play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller there were a lot of characters involved with the Salem witch trials, but there were only three characters who were responsible for it. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials who several young girls were supposedly afflicted by witchcraft. And so the girls accused innocent people in their town for witchcraft also mostly accusing people who they or their families dislike so they would be hanged. In total 20 people were killed due to the witch trials. The three characters who were responsible for the Salem witch trials are Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and Betty Parris. Abigail Williams has most part why the witch trials started because she knew this was all a...

Words: 779 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Compare And Contrast Salem Witch Trials And The Crucible

...In the Salem Witch Trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village. They claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused a lot of women of being witches. More than 200 people were accused of being a witch. They were doing the devil's work and 20 of them were executed. Similarity and difference of the Salem Witch Trials and the Muslims. Muslims are being accused of something they did not do. In the Crucible They are being accused of doing the terrorist attacks. In the Salem Witch Trials, women were being accused of being witches. They compare by both of them are being accused.They both are being accused of something they did not do. People are accusing people that had nothing to with that crime. They just blame...

Words: 648 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

...Arthur Miller wrote an imaginatively creative interpretation of the famous Salem Witch Trials in his 1953 fictional play The Crucible. Though the actual details of these true events are unknown, Miller takes his audience back to the overtly religious town and brings to life characters found in historic documents from the 1692 hearings. He cleverly unfolds an intriguing tale of possibilities about the Salem witch hunt which occurred during an era when America was partially unsettled and primitive. This harsh setting easily produced a fear that overshadowed many predominately puritan settlements where it was common to attribute every occurrence, no matter how small, to good or evil, the Lord or Lucifer. The strict environment was bound by rules...

Words: 1755 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Who Is Parris Responsible For The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible

...In Arthur Miller’s book, The Crucible it provides realistic information about the Salem witch trials. Miller relates the Salem witch trails to the 1950’s issue of accusations of Communism in the United States. Within this book our understanding of the witch trials increases and we can relate the issues to problems world wide. In The Crucible many characters are hung for being a witch. There was not enough accurate evidence to say that there cases where fair. Current events can relate to this situation if there is a place where there are unfair and false accusations against innocent people. Parris the Reverend of Salem, is responsible for bring the witch trials to his town. This also affects his reputation in Salem, which he is very concerned about. The amount of power he has shifts over the course of the play along with the trust of the citizens of Salem. Throughout the book many people become frustrated with Parris which leads him to put fear in himself. Parris is now responsible for the tragedies in Salem because he brought the witch trials to Salem. Many people turn on him throughout the whole entire play. Parris’s reputation in the town of Salem and his position within the...

Words: 1166 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Comparing The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

...In late March 2011, a Muslim third-grader was found hanging unconscious in his school in Louisville, KY. It was not the first time Muhammad had been bullied and abused. This is happening all over the World, and we need to change it. In Arthur Millers the Crucible, Witch Trials were taken place all over Salem. Most trials were corrupt, they were listening to teenagers during the trials. The trials were not accurate, due to them believing the teenagers that were being accurate and not choosing anyone that was weaker or different from the group of teenagers. The teenagers were choosing anyone less superior to them. This is happening in real life. Teens of all ages and even adults are making fun of Muslims due to their religion. Both the Salem witch trials and our actions and views show that fearing something we do not understand causes hatred toward a group of people. The Salem witch trials show that fearing something we do not understand causes our actions to get out of hand. In The Crucible...

Words: 549 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Hypocrisy In The Crucible

...The Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1690s. Mass hysteria broke out as young girls accused people of dealing in witchcraft. The accused were punished and killed for these false accusations. Eventually, the town shamefully realized what they had done. The playwright, Arthur Miller, wrote The Crucible as a display of a corrupt Puritan society as well as an allegory of modern American history. Miller demonstrates the government issues and religious conflicts of colonial and modern-day America in his play, The Crucible. Miller’s play reflects the corruption of humanity that is seen throughout American history. Puritan hypocrisy is a major focus of this work which is portrayed at the end of act one when Abigail Williams...

Words: 628 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

How Did The Salem Witch Trials Cause Hysteria?

...Although some argue that the Salem witch trials were a result of hysteria, the accusations were primarily caused by gender and class tensions, Puritan world views, and the Indian Wars. These causes are explored in the texts “The Historiography of Salem Witch Trials”, “Witchcraft”, “Puritan Beliefs and the Salem Witchcraft Trials”, but most importantly in Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”. “The Crucible” deals with women and young girls in 17th Century Salem, MA. These women were being accused of practicing witchcraft and dealing with the devil. The gender and class tensions along with Puritan world views combined to create this hysteria that led to these women going to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to public hanging. The Indian Wars were not the main focus in “The Crucible” because it was also meant to be a commentary on the McCarthy trials in the 1950s during the Cold War. Gender tensions contributed to to the accusations of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, as demonstrated in the film “The Crucible”. One example of this was the scene in (“The Crucible”) where the girls ask Tituba to help them get a husband with casting spells. There were many fears among the adolescent girls and that...

Words: 750 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Salem Witch Trials Vs Holocaust

...The Salem Witch Trials and The Holocaust were two distinct events. They happened in different times but still have many similarities. Both of these events were a horrific event in our history, had a terrible ruler, and had things wrong with society and the townspeople. Both the Salem Witch Trials and The Holocaust were catastrophic events that happened in our history. Many things happened in these two “extreme, tragic events.” (Alex, paragraph 1) The Salem Witch Trials are “great examples of innocent people getting scapegoated for things they were not responsible for.” (wikiAnswers Community, slide 6) In the “Crucible”, these women and men were accused of witchery when they were completely innocent. In the Holocaust, Jews, Gypsies,...

Words: 871 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Allegory In The Crucible

...even anyone who acted suspicious. There was no requirements for an accusation, which led it to become a modern day witch hunt. This idea of the McCarthy Era being a modern day witch hunt is what countless historians, authors, and poets have tried to relate. Which means there is no surprise that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an allegory for the Red Scare and the McCarthy Era as well. To start off, the background of The Crucible was awfully similar to that of the McCarthyism Era, making it viable grounds for creating an allegory....

Words: 880 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Crucible

...The Crucible This essay will discuss, explain and evaluate the main ideas, themes and interpretations of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. It will also explain and evaluate the language Arthur Miller uses and how it contributed to the overall success of the play. The Crucible is set in 1692 in the puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, a theocratic society, where the laws of the land are laid down by the church. The main idea running throughout the play can be viewed as a direct comparison to McCarthyism which was happening in 1950’s America, in which members of the general public including public figures such as Arthur Miller were brought in and questioned over connections to communism. This can be seen as a direct comparison to people being brought into the Salem courts regarding connections with witchcraft. It was not until Miller saw this comparison that he then felt compelled to write The Crucible as he now felt he could get into the minds of those going through similar circumstances back in the Salem witch trials. Hysteria was the main cause of nineteen deaths in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and countless ruined reputations on account of Joe McCarthy. Hysteria does not just appear out of nowhere though. There are driving forces such as revenge and abuse of power that bring about the irrational fear that can take over society. These are the issues expressed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The Crucible is paralleled directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly...

Words: 1091 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Examples Of Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

...Mass hysteria is the phenomenon in which a group of people experience similar symptoms of anxiety, fear, or other physical symptoms. A well-known case of mass hysteria in history was the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. This incident was portrayed by the Arthur Miller play The Crucible, in which a group of girls starting falsely accusing multiple women in their town of witchcraft, starting a wave of hysterical fear throughout the village. Neighbors would accuse others of witchcraft over land disputes, petty squabbles or simply because they did not like them (Miller). A more recent case, and on a much greater scale, was the Pokémon Panic of 1997, when an episode of Pokémon in Japan sent hundreds of children to the hospital with seizure-like symptoms....

Words: 928 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Irony In The Crucible

...In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the tone of irony boats from every corner you look, this story casts a mirror onto McCarthyism and reflects the outcomes of this ironic process. The Crucible depicts the reality of the Salem Witch Trials in a time of hysteria and fear. Miller uses a past event to emphasize the effects of unnecessary fear imposed by McCarthyism, indirectly relating to the Salem Witch Trials. Miller’s, The Crucible, is one of irony in which it obliquely equates to the consequences of fear and blaming others by relating the Salem Witch Trials to McCarthyism. Abigail’s intentions regarding John Proctor are nothing if not ironic, you can see this perfectly in which Abigail acted out in a complete façade so that she could be...

Words: 792 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Ergot Poisoning In The Crucible

...innocent people in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. There is a great deal of speculation around the actual causes of the Salem witch trials. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, had the theory that “the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity...

Words: 1014 - Pages: 5