Terrorism, inequality, losing your home, or injustice? Salem, Massachusetts during the seventeenth century feared injustices among the government. Individuals hid and lied to keep safe from being condemned as witches. This era of history is known as the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible explores the Salem Witch Trials while following the lives of several individuals. The fear and mistrust among the seventeenth century Salem society can be directly related to today’s twenty-first century
Nobody can actually tell us what happened during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. We can go over websites and read as many books as we want but everyone has different theories. A different outlook on the Witch Trials from someone else’s perspective is a huge help to curious minds. No matter how many times someone says “oh I came up with a theory to the Salem epidemic”, nobody can actually say what happened in Salem, one of the possibilities was Ergot, a fungus found in rye. Some would say ergot poisoning
In February of 1692, over two hundred people were accused and tried for using witchcraft in New England. The most infamous of these witch trials were performed in Salem Town, Massachusetts. Even though there was little to no evidence that the accused were actually practicing witchcraft or had “signed a contract with the devil, there were a few erratic outbursts, and weird happenings in town that people said were a result of demonic activity and someone had to be blamed. That is how the trials
powers to harm others in return for his loyalty; they were called witches. In 1692, dark times shadowed the small village of Salem, Massachusetts, it was the beginning of the dreaded Salem witch trials. Even though this event is called the Salem witch trials, other counties such as Essex, Ipswich, and Andover in Massachusetts participated as well. It all started in Salem Village when Reverend Parris' daughter Elizabeth and niece Abigail started having unexplained fits. The children would scream
a spell on others. No matter how a witch is looked at, it’s all about mystery and magic. In Massachusetts there are two Salem’s, Salem town and Salem village. The villager wanted to be separated from the town. The accusing began in the village at the Parris’s home because of Reverend Parris wanting to accuse people. Then the Parris’s allies the Putnam’s started to get accused of witchcraft. In Salem people were accused to be witches because they were different or an outcast in the community. Tituba
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne and he had two sisters. Nathaniel’s father was a sea captain who died of yellow fever at sea in 1808. With the death of his father, his family was left with poor financial support so they moved in with his wealthy uncles. He was left immobile for several months due to a leg injury and that is where he gained his love for reading and writing. His uncles sent him to Bowdoin
Nathaniel was 4 years of age, while he was at sea. William Hathorne, Nathaniel’s great great grandfather, emigrated from England to America in 1630 to settle in Salem, Massachusetts. Consequently, this is where he later became known for his savage sentencing as a judge. John Hathorne, William’s son, later was one of three judges during the Salem Witch Trials during the 1690s. Therefore, Nathaniel changed his last name in order to distance himself from this dark side of the family. Which was where he
The seventh commandment of the Ten Commandments states “Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14). Adultery, according to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, is “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband.” Some people may think that adultery is only an occurrence in the 21st century, but it also occurred frequently in the 1600s as well. For example, in The Scarlet Letter, written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts into a strict Puritan family, would grow up to become one of the great writers of nineteenth-century America. He is predominately known for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, both of which, though published over one hundred and fifty years ago, are still considered to be classics of American literature and are still required readings for many high-school English courses. Hawthorne’s frequent use of dark themes
around the human’s capacity for evil as a main theme of their works. Being one of the “brooding” romantics, Hawthorne followed the Puritans’ belief that everyone is a sinner as a result of being a descendent of the Puritans associated with the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. Not only was he related to the despicable Puritans, but also, he had to live with the guilt that his dishonorable great-great grandfather, Judge Hathorne, was “the only one who refused to apologize for his role