Preview

How Did Tituba Believe In The Crucible

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
437 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Tituba Believe In The Crucible
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. Even worse, when Tituba was asked about seeing people with the devil, she gave up four innocent people. She selfishly says, “The was

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “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.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    First, Tituba is a female descendant of the Arawaks. To be a part of such a magnificent lineage and history is something that most would be proud of. However, this is one of the sole causes that lead Tituba to her horrible death. Arawak culture is known to be significantly more peaceful than other Indian cultures and is known to have an iron belief in the supernatural. The fact that Indians and Negros have a firm belief in the supernatural was not an uncommon fact in the 16th and 17th Puritan society. Thus, when a group of girls whom were trying to take a glimpse of their futures and instead stumble upon a vision of their coffins, they accused of Tituba as a witch and her Indian husband John, as well. The white puritans around the time did not testify against this accusation due to the well-known fact of Indians being involved with supernatural doings. Samuel Parris, the white slave…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The times of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts were tough and cruel. Arthur Miller makes this very clear in his play based on true events, "The Crucible" (1952). Though Miller fictionalized many things in his play, it was indeed based on true events. There have been many documentaries, stories, films, and reports written about the Salem witch trials, some of them support the thought that the Devil was truly loose in Salem Village. Mr. Miller's play seems to support the more logical side of the events; The Puritans were greedy, and did anything to gain land and possessions - which means accusing their foes of witchcraft, and basically condemning the foe to death with pride, or a life cursed with accusation of witchcraft.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tituba Salem Witch Trial

    • 1704 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The examinations for the first three accused women began with the examination of Sarah Good. During her examination, she did not confess to witchcraft and persistently claimed her innocence; the same went on during Sarah Osborne’s examination; but Tituba’s examination went almost in an opposite direction of the others. When Tituba’s examination began, it started off as usual with her being asked what evils she had committed and if she was responsible for hurting the children. She denied the accusations, but, after a while, she admitted that the Devil had come to her and bid her to serve him. When asked if she had seen anyone with the Devil when he came to her, she said yes. She said there were some women who had sometimes hurt the children, and among the women were Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Tituba went on to explain that the women and the Devil continued to urge her to serve him and hurt the children even though she refused the demands. She then said that the Devil had come to her with a book of people who served him and told her to sign it, and when asked if she saw any other names in the book, she said she saw nine but only remembering Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Since Tituba’s claim that there were more witches in Salem, the witch hunt officially began and hysteria beset the…

    • 1704 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Correlated with ‘The Crucible’ where Tituba, Sarah Good & Sarah Osborne are accused of witchcraft in Salem, 1692…

    • 10202 Words
    • 41 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    throughout the crucible there were many trials within the salem witch trials, these determined the fate and dignity of several citizens in Salem. As always, there are many actions that costed innocent lives to be taken away from them.The dramatic effect that deceitfulness has on Salem is costly only to the ones trialed. On a personal viewpoint, it can be justified that the following three charachters are responsible: Abigail, Danforth and Tituba. The real lesson to be learned even after hundreds of years after the Witch Trials, is that ignorance is a main cause of the disintegration of society…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”-Albert Einstein. The book The Crucible by Arthur Miller touches base with the idea of change, by showing it throughout the characters. The book The Crucible is based off of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The book was written when McCarthyism was happening so Arthur Miller wrote the book to show the comparison between the salem witch trials and McCarthyism are one of the same. The character Tituba from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a humble slave that simply wanted to show the girls of salem a good time. Tituba is portrayed as a kind loving slave who wants nothing more to protect paris’ children and the other girls in the town. During the ordeal Tituba changes from being a loving caretaker to complete survivalist.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tituba was accused of being a witch by Abigail and after Parris said, “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba,” she confessed, “Oh many times he bid me kill you, Mr. Parris!”(Miller 14, 16). Parris forced Tituba to confess that she was a witch and also forced her to tell him names of other “witches” in Salem by threatening to take her life if she didn’t. She renounced the Devil and took in God to make everyone believe she was not a witch anymore. Tituba’s confession is a perfect example of the universal truth mentioned before; she caved in to Parris’ authority over her so she could remain a part of their world and not be killed. People have been wrongly accused many times. In some cases they are taken to court, where there is evidence presented that could lead to the conviction of an innocent person; that person may get a better deal if they plead guilty to something they did not do. In many cases throughout the years including those of Larry Bostic, Marcellius Bradford, and Eugene Henton, people have pled guilty to crimes they did not commit. Bostic pled guilty because he was threatened with a life sentence if he did not take the plea. Bradford pled guilty in order to receive a sentence of 12 years opposed to pleading not guilty and receiving a life sentence in jail. Henton served a very short sentence but it was undeserved. He pled guilty in order to get an eighteen-month sentence and was later proved innocent through DNA testing. All of these sentences were served due to the fact that these men were forced to give in to the authorities so they would not be isolated from the world any longer than…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One thing the people in the crucible were afraid of was witches. If anyone was accused of being a witch, they had to tell on other people or they would be killed. To prove if someone was a witch they would hold them under water and if they survived they were a witch. They soon realized that they were killing tons of innocent people that were not witches. The people were also afraid that Abigail would accuse them of being a witch.…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tituba The Crucible

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page

    In this story, a group of people in Salem are accused of witchcraft after Reverend Parris’ daughter is unconscious and unresponsive after a suspicious night in the woods. One of the accused, Abby Williams commits adultery with John Proctor. After Abby is accuse, she tries to shift the blame onto others including the Parris’ slave, Tituba. She also accuses John’s wife Elizabeth Proctor because she is in love with John and wants to be with him. The story ends with the trial and people are hanged for witchcraft.…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” the last words uttered by the people at the end of the Salem witch trial were ones with no regret as they hung to death in front of the town. All of these people who were in fact innocent all faced similar problems due to the Puritan religion and government being, in essence, one in the same. Jealousy, revenge, and fear of the unknown sets the stage for how one persons should act vs how the people did act in the religious society.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials were massive chains of blame which pointed out the unique citizens of a society and accused them of witch craft. Tituba, from The Crucible, was in the same situation. She, being foreign (especially from a place such as Barbados), non-puritan, and a slave made her the perfect candidate for such accusations. With England breathing down their necks from one direction and Indian attacks from the other, suspicion of traitors in their own community was on the rise. The English people of The Americas were surrounded by panic around, making it the perfect breeding ground for paranoia and hysteria. Honest, decent people in their societies that have been on good terms for many years started to look like likely puppets of the devil. It is no wonder why in Salem, fingers were being pointed left and right, such as when Abigail and Betty begin to shout out names of people who are with the devil at the end of the first act. Rumors spread like wildfire; there were no secrets in small towns, especially in a place like Salem. Everyone gets strung along in this blame game; this is why no person in particular is the reason for The Salem Witch Trials - the entire community was provoking the situation.…

    • 792 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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,…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays