In the 1950s Americans lived in fear of infiltration of their own country. Everyone from military personnel to actors and writers was being put on trial for being suspected communists, mainly done by Senator Joseph McCarthy. This wave of fear was called the Red Scare,…
Essays on Salem Witch Trials
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From February 1692 to May 1693, the town of Salem in Great Britain’s Massachusetts Bay Colony was plagued with the concept of suspected witchcraft and devil interference in a town where settlers had deemed to be a peaceful place to worship God and practice the…
In Scotland things were not so good for witches under the reign of James 1st, he took a keen interest in witch trials and considered himself to be an expert in the field. He wrote Daemonologie in 1597 and left a trail of witch hunts…
History generally regards the period of Salem witchcraft trials as a radical in-statement of religious zeal which favored superstition over reason and targeted a large number of women over a much smaller number of men. Admittedly, the 1692 witchcraft crisis is a very complex historical…
“During the colonial period, nearly three hundred women were accused by their neighbors of performing witchcraft. Although those accusations spanned approximately the first century of English settlement in North America, about half were voiced during one ten-month period in 1692.”(Salem Witchcraft Trials). In 1962 in…
During the mid 1500’s to the mid 1700’s Colonial Europe including the towns Ipswich and Andover felt thee negative effects of the Renaissance and Reform movements. Many in Europe were unready for such big religious and cultural changes. Along with these changes came the rising…
Imagine yourself living in Salem, Massachusetts. The year is 1692. You consider yourself to be an upstanding citizen of the community. You have a spouse, children, and a lovely home. You attend church every Sunday and work hard the other six days of the week….
The Crucible is a play about the Salem Witch Trials and how it played out. Communism is a society where the government gives property and work based on what they actually need. What are the parallels or mirrors between The Crucible and McCarthyism? The parallels…
The well fabled Salem Witch Trials took place around 1692, in a time and place copious of hysteria, condemnation and prosecution. During this early modern time period, science and the elements of the renaissance had already been taken to a place where it had not…
Witch Hunt In today’s society when someone gets sick we don’t blame it on sorcery or witches. This wasn’t the case in 1692. In Salem Village, Massachusetts two girls by the name of Betty Parris who was the daughter of the town’s reverend Samuel Parris,…
Superstitions in The Crucible made an impact on many people. Superstition excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings. Arthur Miller expresses throughout The Crucible. This becomes a rumor of witchcraft that invades the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. In the puritan religion, the…
McCarthyism was spoken to as an in all cases fear of communism that made the US look for after superfluous assessment, confinements and as often as a possible unjustifiable act against the people who were simply remotely accused of being a ‘dreaded communist’, while the…
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum have compiled evidence to support their thesis that the Salem Witch Trials are hardly a sporadic event, but instead was an intensified verion of the struggle of the early settlers to acclimate themselves to the new way of life in…
The Salem Witch Trials are widely known for the controversy surrounding the events and what had occurred to those misfortuned enough to be entangled in the conflict. The trials originated in Boston, Massachusetts from 1692 to 1693. It started when a group of girls behaved…
Salem, Massachusetts 1692, faced a bizarre incident where number of girls begin to display strange behaviors of uncontrollable fits and even curling up their bodies into weird positions and this rose a lot of suspicion in Salem. Under pressure to explain their peculiar behavior, fearing…
Best topics on Salem Witch Trials
Date
2002
Created by
Maria Nation
Type
Drama
Genre
Historical
Major Characters
The main characters in the film Salem Witch Trials are Tituba Indian, Lizzy Porter, Willian Stoughton, Rebecca Nurse, Annie Putman, Samuel Paris, May Walcott, and Elizabeth Parris.
Based on
The drama film Salem Witch Trials is adapted from The Crucible; a 1953 play written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a fiction story from the Salem Witch Trials story of 1950. The actual trials took place in the late 1600s as the Puritans attempted to preserve their religion.
Symbols/motives
The main symbol in the film Salem Witch Trials is fire. It represents fear, anger, danger, and death. The gallows/ropes used for hanging victims are another important symbol. It represents crime, guilt, and injustice. Darkness is associated with witches and fear.
Influence
The Salem Witch Trials film reminds audiences about the effects of ignorance and fear. When society is bound by these two, they can act in devastating ways. The audience is reminded to take courage and lean on the power of reason. If they allow fantasy to guide them, too many people will suffer.
Plot
The Salem Witch Trials revisits the events that took place during the witch trials in colonial America. It details the actions that climaxed into the trials.
Why is this topic important
The Salem Witch Trials posed a serious threat to the government of Massachusetts Bay. The Puritans were determined to preserve their religion but it was the beginning of their end. People lost trust in their government.
Main Ideas
The main idea in the film Salem Witch Trials is how people can easily be guided by fantasy to commit a crime. The Puritans are religious people who were supposed to bring sanity to society but instead, they brought persecution, hatred, and deceit.
Key Quotes
- Adriana: “When the time comes for change, she will bring peace with her. You will have to bow to her will because she will not bow to yours."
- Bernice: “Tass lived like an echo for many years.”
Interesting facts
- The trigger to the Salem Witch Trials were two young girls who displayed unexplainable fits.
- Tituba admitted to witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials trials
- The Salem Witch Trials stopped due to mass condemnation from the people
Why should this topic be used
During the Salem Witch Trials, 19 innocent lives were lost and hundreds of others went through humiliating times. These are things that could have been prevented. If people fail to learn the lesson today, the very things of the 1600s could be replicated today.
Arguments for
- Tituba was a witch and she deserved to die. She confessed to witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.
- Witch trials were the norm in colonial America. The Salem Witch Trials were nothing new or out of the ordinary. The people already knew the punishment was fire, gallows, or drawing according to traditions.
Arguments against
- The protestant Puritans were the biggest lie during the Salem Witch Trials. In reality, the church was supposed to be reaching out to witches to help convert them. Instead, they reached out to them to condemn them to death.
- The Massachusetts Bay government didn’t serve the citizens but instead served religion. They agreed to honor the Puritans' request without considering the people they serve.
