It was extremely easy to be accused of being a witch in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth century. During this time period, Europe was going through many changes such as the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of many national governments. Although all of these changes were taking place, many people were stuck in their ways and did not approve of these new changes. The people that did not follow the social and political norm of the time were often accused of witchcraft.The most common reasons of persecutions of individuals as witches were if you were a female, if you were middle age and not married(widowed), or if you were not practicing Christianity.…
one will be hanged. For someone back then to confess to being a witch was a huge deal. Pride…
When fear grabs hold of somebody craziness erupts and there is no longer peace. When something goes wrong people tend to put the blame on anyone or anything besides themselves. In the crucible the blame is put on innocent women and this created mass hysteria and paranoia in the village. Kristallnacht was a night of violence that created mass hysteria and fear among the innocent Jews, just as Abigail did in The Crucible.…
In early times people didn’t understand reason. Especially the Puritans who only saw God’s will and the evilness of the devil. During the Salem witchcraft crisis, Puritans struggled to decipher communal security and find the truth around them. They believed that Satan recruited humans to do his evil and be servants to him, i.e. witches. The witches had a magical power that allowed them to harm others. To protect the community the judges of the town took it upon themselves to hold jury trials and hang the witches as punishment. Many believed the witches were burned at the stake, however that is untrue.…
The trials occurred during a time when women were considered a second class in the world. “About four out of five witch suspects were females, a preponderance that suggests the intensity of misogynistic feeling in early modern times.” (Klaits, p. 5) There was much hatred towards women during this time. They had no face or name, and had no rights during this era. They were a servant to their husband. The woman was a cook, cleaner, child bearer and took care of the home. The husband told a women what she could and couldn 't do, and she was no one without him. Furthermore, “These numbers understate the predominance of women, because many of the accused men were implicated solely due to their connection with female suspects.” (Klaits, p.52) The men accused were mainly persecuted due to having been husbands or lovers of the women accused. Also due to women being sub-servant to the men, they would have known if the woman was a witch or not. “The evident reality of curses, combined with the misfortunes so common in pre-industrial society, made it easy for a quarrelsome woman 's neighbours to decide that she was, or might be, a witch.” (Goodare p.297) Neighbors that didn 't like another woman could easily accuse their neighbor of being a witch during this time. Women who were committing adultery with…
As well as there has been martyrs in the world, there has also been people that lied to save their life. In the Bible, Peter was recognized as one of Jesus’ followers, and was questioned in the public. As the crowd became more suspicious, Peter denied Jesus three times. He was too worried about his own life that he took the easy way out. After he denied him, he realized what he had done and the guilt almost destroyed him. Later in his life he returned and admitted to their accusations, and was crucified upside-down. In the story The Crucible, many teenage girls are accused of witchcraft, which in Puritan society the punishment is death. To save their own lives, they take the spotlight off themselves and begin to blame other women in their society for their own selfish gain. They were cowards and lived in lies, making innocent people suffer.…
When the other girls saw that Abigail was not being punished for her acts, they decided to follow the leader. One by one the other girls follow her, committing a sad act of peer pressure. But in order to be saved they have to tell the Reverend everyone in the town that was a witch. The result was a whole list of people, who were not witches, being falsely accused. Throughout the play the girls ' actions sentence innocent people to die, just so they can save themselves.…
Citizens accused of witch craft by anyone else basically had no chance at all because, there never really would be a trial for them. The person accusing the other person of being a witch could be easily making it all up. They never asked the witness for proof of what they supposedly saw. It was always the good people that were punished and the people that actually practiced witch craft were the ones lying saying they witnessed the good people practicing witch craft.…
However, this was four hundred years ago. Why is witchcraft still being practiced today? It is dependent on their religion, moral beliefs, and whether they even believe in witchcraft or…
People would be accused of witchcraft and tortured to confess. Torture wasn’t used in England and wasn’t used anymore in Holland after 1594. Unfortunately, some women would ‘confess’ anything just to stop the torture they were enduring, that wouldn’t mean they were guilty. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger wrote and published the most famous book about the prosecution of witches in 1487, named “The Malleus Maleficarum” that is Latin for “The Hammer of Witches”. It would explain everything about witchcraft, however not everyone believed in witches, but those who did, would think witches held nocturnal meetings…
Well, “back in the day” they didn’t have science to explain of everything worked, so they relied on religion. In this case, religion backed them up. In 1522, in one of his sermons, Martin Luther said that “… witches are the Devil’s whores…”. So, if someone dare call out the accusers for the greed stricken people they were, it would seem that they were siding with the witches and thus, the Devil. Also, the teachings of their god, who they would do just about anything for, were used to manipulate the simpletons. “We are therefore taught by these examples that we have to wage war against an infinite number of enemies…” From the “Institutes of Christian Religion”, by John Calvin in 1536, people were taught that it was their duty from God to be against witches. And while it does not directly call witches out, it does imply that anyone could be the enemy (a witch). So, the “godly” people killed the witches “in the name of God”, and didn’t question the accusers because they were on a mission from God. That, and anyone could be a witch, so how were they supposed to know who was what. When you boil it all down it comes to this; people had very strong religious views to persecute…
There is a saying that says people have the ability to change until they take their very last breath, which is exemplified by a character in “The Crucible”. In the play written by Arthur Miller, protagonist John Proctor committed the ultimate sin of adultery; damaging his image and relationships with others. Initially. Proctor is a hot-headed, guilt ridden man, however, as the story progresses, he transforms into an honest man--truly desiring redemption.…
(Tatar, 239) They later learn that the woman was a wicked witch and only pretended to be nice. This was the consequence that they had to deal with because of the choices they…
The reason for this mass murder, the first reminiscent of the reason is social unrest. 30% of the populations in Europe died from the Black Death, the living person have to face the serious inflation and intense religious reform movement. People do not know how to resolve the unrest, later, they found a way to vent, and that is the "witch". And later, the Pope established a convent to begin work towards the suppression of heresy. Worse yet, superstition and cruelty-famous 20-II Pope, he promulgated the fatwa in February 27, 1318, decided the tragic fate of the "witch". They think witches can use magic to harm anyone. Social instability、 underdevelopment of science and technology、 the vulnerable groups of women and religion flourished caused the full-scale war of the people with the Witch.…
Little was it known for us people living in the 21st Century that witchcraft has a vast and long history. Witches were hated and avoided at. They have been accused of casting evil spells for which they have faced trials that condemned them their deaths.…