The town of Salem is known for its infamous witch trials that took place in 1692. The gruesome trials resulted in the hanging of nineteen people and the imprisonment of hundreds. The nineteen that hanged were put to death for refusing to admit to witchcraft. In the trials, the only evidence proving the accused to be witches is the actions of a dozen teenage girls. The girls claim to be possessed by the people they are accusing as witches. They act out in court and convince the judges that the people they are accusing are witches by screaming, fainting, claiming to see the devil with the accused and acting terrified of the ‘witches’. This results in speculation and resistance against the courts. The story of the Salem witch trials is told in …show more content…
When Reverend Hale arrives in Salem to investigate the witch problem, he believes the girls are really possessed and the events of the trials begin. As Hale sees multiple people hanged for claiming innocence of witchcraft, he regrets believing that those accused were actually witches. Hale blames himself for the hangings and attempts to save the accused by getting them to confess to witchcraft. After learning Proctor has been sentenced to hang, Hale goes to his wife Elizabeth so that she may get him to confess: “I would save your husband's life, for if he is taken I count myself his murderer” (1224). Hale knows that Proctor is a proud man who will not be easily convinced to lie and admit to witchcraft. He turns to Elizabeth to convince Proctor to confess: he wants Proctor to live so that he may not feel guilty for such an influential death. However Proctor refuses to sign his name to the confession and accepts his death sentence. As Proctor goes to the rope, Hale pleads with him: “Man, you will hang! You cannot!” (1232). Hale genuinely wants Proctor to live and begs him until the very end to save his life with a confession. While Parris and Danforth want a confession to preserve the courts reputation, Hale wants Proctor to confess because he does not want to see him
Ever wonder what was so interesting about the witch trails and how many lives were lost due to people getting falsely accused and getting hung. In the book, The Crucible, the author was Arthur Miller and his book was based on the Salem witchcraft trials during the modern times. Some of the many flaws that Abigail showed throughout the book was spitefulness, jealousy, and lust. Abigail shows the flaw of spitefulness when it comes to the point of her trying to be a part of John’s life or to try to get what she wants in life. “Elizabeth: She wants me dead.
When asked about Hale’s reappearance in Salem, Parris recalls, “ Hear me. Rebecca have not given me a word this three month since she came. Now she sits with him, and her sister and Martha Corey and two or three others, and he pleads with them, confess their crimes and save their lives” (125). This shows that Hale is trying to save the people he condemned because he is going to them and trying to convince them to confess to their charges so they won’t be hanged. Hale quits the courts and helped the people
In January 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, innocent citizens began to be accused of witchcraft. Two young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams hid under furniture and contorted their bodies into unusual shapes. They screamed and cried out that the spirits of innocent citizens in the town of Salem were torturing them by stabbing them and trying to convince them to sign the Devil’s book. They were thought to have been under witchcraft’s spell, causing the young girls to accuse many people of witchcraft such as their own slave Tituba. More and more people of the town became afflicted with the same symptoms as Betty and Abigail, in the end causing over 200 people to be accused of witchcraft and all found guilty.
Proctor doesn’t want to sign the confession because he couldn’t live with anymore guilt after he sees how determined Rebecca is to tell the truth. When Proctor refuses to sign,it is assumed that he is lying once again just to keep from dying. In order for him to feel good about himself and feel like he is a decent person, he feels like he needs to tell the truth after everything he’s done with the affair. In the end, this lie leads to Proctor being hung and Hale along with many others, start to realize that the witch hunt has gotten out of hand but it’s already too
The Witch Trials By: Natalie Boggs The Salem Witch Trials were a time between 1692 and 1693. It all started when two young girls who lived in Salem, Massachusetts started having theses fits out of nowhere one minute they would perfectly behaved children then the next they would start having these fits. The girls had claimed somebody had bewitched them and that they were possessed by the Devil. Many historians believed that the strange behaviors could be from the Rye the people in Salem had been eating but what the people of Salem didn't know was that there was a deadly bacteria on the Rye that could have caused the girls fits. I know that from research that the Salem Witch Trials where a time that many people claimed to be possessed by the Devil and they accused innocent people of bewitching them.
The Salem Witch Trials occurred during a time where tensions were high and strong Puritanical beliefs ruled the way of thinking. Salem-Village was a relatively isolate area, being far enough away from any other town that they had to travel to the town of Salem a few miles away through the woods just to be able to go to church. This seclusion led to mass paranoia and a fear that they were in constant danger of the devil’s influence. The fears brought about by these circumstances caused a massive witch hunt incited by the accusations against several inhabitants, mainly by a small group of young girls claiming to have been tortured or bewitched by various villagers. By the end of trials, hundreds of people had been accused and twenty had been
(Miller IV.133), tearing the paper he signs. He rather chooses to die for his integrity than providing false confession. He was controlled by other people before, but this was the time that he got to control his life by himself. Elizabeth says at the end of the play, responding to Hale’s asking to convince Proctor to confess: “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!”
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of witchcraft cases back in 1692. Innocent “witches” and familiars were assassinated without a firm cause. People do not think this could happen again because now, they have proven how it started. This trials were made out of fear, the fear of becoming possessed. If the trials would not have happened, they would probably be happening now because of modern day beliefs and cultures.
Near the end of play, both Hale and Parris are sick of executing, and they try to do whatever they can to make Proctor confess, even if it’s a half-hearted one, so they would not have to see any more of the tragedy and feel guilty for
The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. 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. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.
Hale acknowledges human’s mortality more so than Danforth who believes his word is the final say. Furthermore, Judge Danforth appears to only be concerned with having those who were jailed, confess to being witches whether they were or not. All those who do not confess to conspiring with the devil in his eyes are evil and those “who weep for [them, therefore] weep for corruption” (134). In contrast, Hale is desperate to save the innocent from their inevitable doom because he believes “life is God’s most precious gift” and “no principle [] may justify taking it” (122). He even encourages Elizabeth Proctor to “prevail upon [her] husband to confess” because “God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride” (122).
He says this because he realizes that some people will confess to anything to prevent them from getting hanged. Shortly after, on page 79, Hale told Proctor, “For there’s your way, believe it, there is your only way, when such confusion strikes upon the world.” Since everyone was in a panic, everyone was making irrational decisions, so after Proctor talked some sense to Hale, he realized that Proctor was right and that some people who were accused were innocent. Finally, on page 98, Hale states, “But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it.” This shows that he still believes that some of the accused may be a witch but he knows that not all of them are, which weakens the integrity of the Witch Trials.
Facts on the Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trial that took place in 1692, when it was believed “witches” were casting spells on people in the village of Salem. Back in the 17th - century there was a great amount of stress caused by many different things in that era. Those people lived in quite a horrific time. Especially since they moved to a new area of land and had a poor society.
The lies of Salem linger in the atmosphere as a wicked young girl’s sins fill the villagers with fear and shame. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, presents many figurative and metaphorical trials. Abigail, the protagonist and root of Salem’s evil, in 1692. Abigail and Proctor are compulsive liars throughout the trials they face. There are numerous sins, but only three are looked upon (thesaurus).
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.