Justice in The Crucible

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Recommended: Contrasting the crucible from the salem witch trials

Justice in The Crucible

Two girls lye sleeping, one with her eyes open, the other with her eyes closed. Not such an unusual picture except for the fact that the two sleeping girls cannot awake. A mysterious servant from a faraway place, a group of young ladies seeking magic to joins their hearts with the men that haunt their dreams. A man of the cloth who stumbles onto a secret dance in the middle of the forest who will spend the next year of his life harboring secrets and trying desperately not to be exposed. The town of Salem sucked into the vacuum of conspiracy, accusations, innuendo and the horrifying fact that maybe Lucifer has come to make a house call. They say that truth is stranger than fiction and if this story wasn’t a dark shadow on our nation’s history it would make for a great novel. But if it was the truth and for those who where there, a horrible reality. This community so caught up in the possibility that witchcraft existed, they completely lost their senses. The following is a breakdown of all the legal issues that by today’s standards where not followed.

Church and State

Out of all the issues that will be addressed, this one is the most difficult. In the 1600’s, the church was interwoven with the state and the operation of government. Enter Reverend Hale a scholar of witchcraft. Unbeknownst to everyone, a novice at his trade; a person trying to gain status in the new country. The power of life and death lay in his hands, by his words a person could be deemed a witch and suffer the consequences. It was Rev. Hale who was the fuel that lit the fire. The first amendment clause of the United States Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or proh...

... middle of paper ...

...unstable mind. The three justices commit conspiracy by knowing the truth but choosing ego and vanity over the truth and doing the right thing.

Conclusion

It is almost understandable that a community at the point in our history that they where, could get caught up in such an ordeal. Religion stood much higher in loyalty then even the government. Like many other similar events that have taken place in history, people are prone to being caught in a frenzy. The devil was as real to these people as anything in the natural world. Fear of dam nation or eternal hell filled there minds and carried them away. This was not the only witch trial that made the history books; two hundred years later a man by the name of senator McCarthy had one of his own. Like Salaam, life’s, marriages and livelihoods were lost.

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