Paranoia Paranoia is the underlying factor of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Samuel Parris had a great terror of Satan arming his foes to destroy both him and his church. He was obsessed with any sinfulness that he saw. Although it was not just Reverend Parris that had these beliefs. It was the paranoid society, which he was a member of. The Puritans were paranoid of being different. Conformity was a large part of their life because they were all driven into the same religion. Originality is a natural human characteristic that was stripped of their being. They believed that if they didn't do what society said was the right thing to do that they would be punished in the afterlife. Because of their geographical location, they could not choose what society they belonged to, whether they liked it or not. If they did try to leave, chances are they would die in the harsh New England wilderness. They also feared the natives of the area. This caused many people to grit their teeth and bear the Puritan ways. Also this was the only way of life these people knew. They had never been in an atmosphere that flourished in new ideas. Therefore, they never had beliefs of their own. They were limited in the choices they made. If it weren’t for the underlying fears of being different than the Witch Trails of Salem would have never occurred. Ironically the Puritans were victims of the very society that they traveled across the Atlantic to escape. The roots of evil were still implanted in them. The church was all that had changed, and it had changed for the worse. Bertrand Russell once said, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you don’t believe it completly.” Since the Puritans beliefs were absolute, it devestated their society. There was no room for new ideas. New ideas would directly contradict their religion. That is why anybody that was different was considered a witch and consequently killed. They died because of mass paranoia. This paranoia is what drove the young girls into their hysterical state of mind. Their society revolved around fear, a fear of god. They feared very much what god would do with them once their time one earth was at an end. They justified the entire unknown with their beliefs of god. If they had bad luck or encounters with natural disasters, they thought god was punishing them.
In the small town of Salem, the year of 1692, people were being inaccurately accused as witches by people they did not know. The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been caused due to a combination of a civil war and the intention to cause a stir. There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trial hysteria. These were economic status, girls acting as if been affected by witchcraft, and a combination of gender and age.
The Salem Witch trials were when hundreds of citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were put on trial for devil-worship or witchcraft and more than 20 were executed in 1692. This is an example of mass religion paranoia. The whole ordeal began in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris. People soon began to notice strange behavior from Parris’s slave, Tituba, and his daughters. Many claimed to have seen Parris’s daughters doing back magic dances in the woods, and fall to the floor screaming hysterically. Not so long after, this strange behavior began to spread across Salem.
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”, Exodus 22:18. In 1692 , in Salem Massachusetts , the Puritans believed everything in the bible, they also believed in witches and that witches should not be able to live.There were at least 3 causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria. There are: age, gender, and marital status , lying girls, and a divided town.
Reverend Parris is the character that initiates the hysteria of the Salem witch trials, in a community where authorities wasted no time minding the business of it's citizens, what should have been seen as teen frivolity was blown into one of the ugliest moments in American History. Parris sparks this by firstly acting on his own paranoia, which the reader would find in the introduction 'he believed he was being persecuted where ever he went';, and calling Reverend Hale in an attempt for self-preservation '….if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.'; This statement says a lot about the character of Reverend Parris: a greedy, power hungry man who is more concerned with his own reputation than the souls of his niece and daughter. He always acts on fear, a fear that he will lose his position of power in the community. Parris does not want the trials to end as a fraud because the scandal of having a lying daughter and niece would end his career in Salem.
Puritans believed in the devil and his role as strong as they believed in God and his role. For many centuries, Puritans had the idea that the weakest individuals in society often committed diabolical acts and sins. Furthermore, Satan selected the most vulnerable individuals to do his bidding, among these individuals, women were often held responsible for many sins, including witchcraft. (Godbeer 12). According to Richard Godbeer, in his book, The Salem Witch Hunt, “it was Eve who first gave away to Satan and seduced Adam.” (Godbeer 12). In 1692, witchcraft became a panic among Puritan society. Even though both men and women were accused of witchcraft, women were seventy-six percent more likely to be accused in Salem than men. (Godbeer 12). Puritan society was a male dominate society and men looked down upon women. There were two particular reasons to why women were often accused of being witches. The first reason, was in due to the Puritan belief that women were the source of evil. The second reason was because of certain events that associated with accusations. These events were being of relatively low social status and income, being rich or financially independent and being a midwife or nurse.
“Jumping to conclusions is like playing with wet gun powder: both likely to go off in wrong direction.”-Charlie Chang. The puritans were a group of English Protestants who adhere to strict religious principles and oppose sensual enjoyment. The puritans had a strong belief that the Devil could be walking among them at anytime. Due to this belief, the puritans believed that people could sign there souls away to the devil. By signing their souls away to the devil, a person could become a witch or wizard. In Arthur Millers’ novel The Crucible, the puritans go on a hunt to rid their town of witches. The puritans also had a big emphasis on how one would act in society. For example, if one didn’t go to church often, the people would be very suspicious about that one. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the puritans become suspicious of others because of a strange event. The strange events lead the puritans to mistrust and reject each other. In both of Hawthorne’s short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister Black Veil” and in Miller’s The Crucible, a strange event makes the puritans jump to conclusions of witchcraft.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were caused by a number of different reasons. The trials were caused by the fear of witchcraft and the tensions in the town and village.
deliberate, formal pact with Satan and would do all in her in power to aid
This then caused them to ingest these hallucinogens which may have caused them to act so strangely during this time. The second theory is that there were power struggles between the poor and wealthy at the villages. This can be seen by Document E which shows the map of Salem Village in the year 1692. On the map there are 33 accusers and 6 defenders on the poorer side of town. On the wealthier side of town there are only 2 accusers with 26 defenders! This proves that more people were accused on the richer side of town. This might have been caused because the poorer people wanted more land, political power, and to be more wealthy. The third theory is that there was paranoia within the people due to Indian raids. With the upcoming war of the Indians people were suspicious of others. “During this time Puritans viewed the Indians as devil worshippers and afterwards nightmares of the war remained and people of Salem were seeing Indians in every dark alley and every corner.” (Elbert, 3). With the people becoming suspicious of others they might have thought that if a person did one bad thing that they were possessed by the Devil and were a
In 1692 events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts led to the best known witch trial in America. Today these witch trials are known as the Salem Witch Trials. More than two-hundred people were accused of practicing witchcraft. A witch to them was someone who could do harm through magical means, they could curdle milk, hobble animals, and even cause young children to sicken and die (Aronson, Witch Hunt 31).
Nineteen men and women hanged and one pressed to death on account of heresy. These were the results of the ever-famous Salem Witch Trials. These staggering facts were found on November twenty first 2013 from the website http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projectts/ftrials/
It even states within the Bible, "You shall not let a sorceress live," (Exodus 22:17).
It was suggested that the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was an act of illness. As mentioned before, there was a smallpox epidemic going on during that time. The trials could have been used as a distraction from what was truly going on in the community. Not only that, but there could have been a mental illness as well. It was suggested, “The Salem Witch Trials was a classic example of scapegoating. Fear combined with a “trigger,” a traumatic or stressful event, is what often leads to scapegoating. Fear of the Devil, and witches who did his bidding, was very real in
Puritanism ,as a word, is not only placed objectively, as Hawthorne did , but subjectively as well. Not in the judgment of harsh prejudice of his characters, or in the obtrusion of a moral lesson, but in the very quality of his own vision , in the tone of his imagery, in a coldness and exclusiveness of treatment. The puritan community is ruled through a strict theocracy. The Puritans believed that following the exact teachings of God made them great and superior. If one followed these teachings and shared the belief than they were considered “pure” or a Puritan. If one rejected these teachings or denied these beliefs as a part of their life they were considered to have been demoniacally possessed. To eliminate the act of being possessed one would have to admit to the crime of serving Satan and then the church expelled the demon from within. This confession would in turn taint the name of the accused , but if one did not confess they would be sentenced to hang or to be executed in some manner.
This was a red flag towards England and its church. Puritans believed that God already had already planned if you were destined to go to heaven or hell by the time you were born. They thought that if they just lived a normal "moral life", that would be suitable and nothing one did would change Gods decision on where they were destine to go. They also challenged the that the England church would sell purgatory slips. With the purchase of these slips, or passes, one could buy their way into heaven and or clear themselves or another person of the sins they had committed during their lifetime. Puritans did not agree with the false se statement tat the church was making to the people about being able to clear their sins and get into heaven. They believed that if a person was chosen to go to heaven, then it would show in their character and in their way of