Examples Of Superstition In The Crucible

When people are exposed to fear, they will tend to make things up or create false ideas. Fear can cause people to do things that they would not normally do to survive. Some people do say fear does not breed superstition; however, without fear, superstition would not be. Fear breaks superstition; superstition breeds fear can be supported by the puritans ideology, religious beliefs, and their theory of the Devil is everywhere. Individuals that are filled with fear can create false assumptions; therefore, connected to Abigail's actions in the story. Abigail would use her fear to manipulate people and spark the idea of witches in salem. She threatens her friends to keep their mouth shut and she says “I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 13). Abigail convinces her friends that if they speak any word of what they did in the woods, she would come in the night to kill them. She also uses her fear to create superstition while being questioned in court. She begins to scream and shout about a yellow bird on the rafters. She convinces all the others girls that they are possessed by Mary Warren which lead to the exposure of John Proctor. People that are filled with fear will often develop

Mrs. Putnam is a prime example of their ideology. Goody Putnam lost 8 children and only one survived; her name is Ruth. Putnam sent her only child to go into the woods to talk to Tituba and see if they can talk to the dead children. Putnam says ‘may surely tell us what person murdered my babies!” (Miller 12). Mrs. Putnam is willing to risk her daughter's life by sending her to the wood just to try and talk to her dead children. She believes that that are witches in Salem; even though, in the sixteenth century, death at childbirth was a common phenomenon. The puritan belief of “the devil is everywhere” fills them with fear which sparks that development of the salem witch