“Extraordinary body postures, inexplicable pains, deafness, numbness, and blindness, meaning I was babbling, refusal to eat, destructive and self-destructive behavior…” Witchcraft was common in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts a slave named Tituba was the first “witch” accused. This accusation came about when two younger girls and Tituba, their fathers slave, attempted to see into the future through an egg white. When they looked in the egg white they supposedly saw a coffin and began displaying the symptoms of being possessed, or being overcome by the ‘devil’. When she was accused she confessed she was guilty and also confessed to there being other witches. There are many alleged causes to the Salem Witch Trials such as undiagnosed encephalitis, paranoia, and an unjust class structure because of heightened religious beliefs. Little did she know this would start a mass hysteria of witchcraft and cause excessive paranoia in Salem Massachusetts.…
Reverend Parris is known throughout the whole story to cause hysteria with the witch trials. He took Abigail's side in claiming a large majority of the townspeople are witches. He had the motive of keeping his materialistic personality under the radar, by doing that he is saving the little reputation he has and more importantly keeping him the job in which he acquires all of his money. Thomas Putnam had a bigger motive for starting these witch trials. Thomas Putnam helped spread the witch trials because he was bitter towards the Nurses and he wanted more land for himself.…
In The Crucible, the people that confessed to save their own lives, such as Tituba, are to blame for the unnecessary deaths of innocent people in Salem. When the first person to confess, Tituba, was confronted for witchcraft, she was given two choices: confess or be hanged. Instead of standing up for herself, she took the easy path and confessed to being a witch. Tituba really had never seen the devil, however the fear of death made her confess to something she was not a part of. Although this may seem like a harmless thing to do, it made everybody believe that perhaps there actually were witches in Salem.…
The accusations started to make the Puritans think that witches were around after carrying on this belief with them from Europe which caused the magistrates to take these matters seriously. Tituba was first in the Puritan girls accusations, Tituba eventually admitted to being a witch claiming that devil forced her to do so and said that evil was looming over Salem. Two other women who were alleged as witches denied any wrongdoing but because of Tituba's testimony, the view of the people changed. Many were condemned, mainly starting with those who were looked down upon by the townspeople but later more respected people were put on trial. Most "witches" were found guilty of witchcraft and were subsequently put to death. The irony of this situation…
While tables were turning and lives were being lost, many still felt the need to take control over things that weren't theirs, and act greedy. Many knew that the anger in the town was not going to come to an end. For some, family’s tried to accuse others just so they could get more land, and for others it was so that reputation was not lost. Parris already being a man who always thought he deserved more,and always thought someone was out to get him, so now he was going to attack someone that was easy to control. Of course, Tituba. He forces the slave to confess herself to witchcraft, “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!”(44). She has to choose between life or death, Parris’s greedy mind took over her.…
They would scream, seizure, and make strange sounds. A local doctor stated that they were under the influence of witchcraft. The girls then blamed three women for enchanting them including: Tituba, Parris’ house slave; Sarah Good, a homeless begger; and Sarah Osborne, a poor elderly women. On March 1, 1692, all three women were brought to trial and interrogated. Osborne and Good claimed innocent but Tituba confessed to singing the devils book and even proceeded to name other females she claimed to have seen writing down in the same book. After the first trials, a snowball effect took place and everyone began pointing fingers at one another out of fear, jealousy, or just plain…
First off, Abigail was the person who encouraged witchcraft but goes around blaming everyone else for doing it. She excites the other girls which allow them to condemn into witches. She riles up the entire village’s hatred of witches. Her main skill seems to be finding peoples flaws and mercilessly manipulating them to her advantage. Her ruthless cunning is shown again in Act ll when she frames Elizabeth proctor for using witch craft. Tituba practices “black magic” mainly because Abigail manipulates her into doing it. Tituba admits her supposed sin but we never find out what happens to her in the end.…
This hysteria might’ve been caused by the power struggle in this community, according to Document C, the village of Salem had more accused people than actual accusers. This means that, in order to gain fame and power, the people in Salem wanted to accuse people of being witches because if you accused…
When Hale first questions Abigail about the dancing in the woods she says there was no witchcraft involved, but Hale, wanting to discover witchcraft, continues to question her. Abigail uses Tituba as a scapegoat to avoid having retribution thrown her way. Hale takes the bait and follows suit in turning things on Tituba. “Instantly Abigail points at Tituba ABIGAIL: She made me do it! She made Betty do it!...She makes me drink blood!/HALE: You have sent your soul out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering souls for the Devil?” (Miller 40-41) Abigail, painting herself as the victim, causes Hale to believe her and turn his interrogation on Tituba. He is caught up in the excitement of things and believes he has begun to discover witchcraft in Salem. He has studied supernatural beings and has no reason to think Abigail could be lying. This notion is furthered when Tituba, herself, confesses. “TITUBA: No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.” (Miller 42) Though her confession is somewhat coerced since the thought of a death sentence hangs in the air, Hale listens to her intently and buys every word. “HALE: You are God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chose to help us cleanse our village. So speak utterly, Tituba, turn your back on him and face God-face God,…
Aware of the potency of Sarah Good, Tituba, and many of the other accused witches, the accusers in the Salem court feign hysteria (Tunc Web, Miller PAGE NUMBER. The display of pain is an attempt to create the impression that the Sarah and Tituba are infecting the “normal” girls (Tunc Web). Such hysteria allows Abigail to avoid allegations when she accuses Tituba and others of serving the Devil (Tunc Web, Miller 1154). ( According to Tanfer Tunc, in the seventeenth-century, the women accused of witchcraft were those who deviated from their gender roles (Tunc Web). Such women included Sarah Good, an adulterer, and Tituba, a conductor of spiritual proceedings (Tunc Web). Witchcraft accusations were based on the belief that women were carnal and, thus likely to engender malicious deeds (Tunc Web).…
The hysteria all starts with Abigail Williams’ jealousy toward Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail has an affair with John Proctor and she tries to get rid of his wife, by accusing her practicing witchcraft. This accusation confirms the existence of people working for the devil, and starts the witch hunt in Salem. To prove Elizabeth’s innocence, John Proctor reveals his affair with Abigail to show that she is lying about…
In conclusion, the Puritan’s belief in superstition whenever an answer was not distinguishable led to the stories of Abigail Williams’ and Betty Parris’, two young innocent girls who started the witchcraft craze, to be more credibly accepted. If it was believed that someone was possessed by the devil, this caused people to behave differently, and this belief helped start mass hysteria.…
Reverend Parris is the reason the trials occurred in the first place. One night he saw that his niece, Abigail Williams and all of the other girls were dancing, and singing in the forest he became very angry at them. When he asked them the next day what happened none of the children wanted to be whipped, so they made up stories that they were bewitched. As, the problem escalated he wanted to protect his own name so he went along with the hysteria of the town.…
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 is one of the most well-known historical events. In 1692, 20 people were hanged for being a so-called “witch.” Most accusations were made by six girls, which included Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam Jr.. Witches were people whose bodies had supposedly been taken over by The Devil. But what really caused the Salem Witch Trials hysteria? The three reasons that caused the mass hysteria were how certain people, ages, genders, and marital statuses were targeted, the fact that the girls were so good at acting, they were able to fool the entire village, and that neighbor conflicts created tension and jealousy.…
Tituba description of how Reverend Parris extracted her confession is depicted in Robert Calef’s book, More Wonders of the Invisible World, and proceeds as follows, “…her master did beat her … to make her confess and accuse (such as he called) her sister witches, and that whatsoever said by way of confessing or accusing others was the effect of such usage; her master refused to pay her [prison] fees, unless she would stand to what she had said.” It was with this coerced confession, a confession that would hold no ground in a modern legal system, that the case was made against an easy scapegoat,…