Diary Entry For The Crucible

Three months ago I confessed that I have a blackened soul, darkened by lechery, and I am sure I will hang this morning because of it. My puritan town Salem has been driven insane by the hysteria and paranoia associated with witchcraft and the devil, created by a group of devious children and perpetuated by various ulterior motives at work. Because of this, I have been left with nothing; my wife, Elizabeth, has been convicted and my neighbours are being killed off daily, accused of something that is all pretence.

I have heard numerous rumours that Mr Hale has been attempting to get other prisoners to confess by saying that they have been conjured by the devil. He knows that the court is corrupt and supposedly wants us to salvage our lives
Mr Parris, that old scoundrel, could have simply addressed the issue of witchcraft and denied its existence when Betty became sick. But no, he was too preoccupied with the preservation of his reputation and with those he feared were working in a faction against him that he didn't care that his denial to speak to the citizens of Salem was only provoking us all to fear that the devil was among us. His obsession with preaching doom and darkness rather that the positive and pure side of religion has also caused our theocracy to lose its way throughout Salem and has driven many of us away from our beliefs, including myself. If you ask me, I say that he is the closest we could ever get to a human form of Lucifer! Oh, how I loathe
She also lied to get people killed, using her loyal clan of children to follow her orders as so-called ‘proof’ for the court. Our court can also be held accountable as ever since they began relying on the conniving children’s testimonies, it has become unscrupulous. Their declarations cannot be validated because witchcraft is ‘ipso facto,…an invisible crime (Page 90),’ and the officials of the court are so gullible and eager for a scapegoat that they ‘dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points! (Page 68)’ But that is where they are horribly mistaken because every accusation that came out of those children’s mouths are lies, LIES! Their ridiculous claims have had a severe effect on our community and for this, they ought to be reprimanded. Their deceptive game is one of the key things at the heart of these witch trials, but I believe it goes deeper than this. ‘Private vengeance [was] working through [the testimonies] (Page 100),’ and it is possible that individuals found that accusing their so-called ‘enemies’ of associating with the devil would allow their scores to be settled. This is what happened to poor Rebecca Nurse, a woman with the whitest soul in Salem. The Putnam family used their grief over losing all of their children,