The Salem Witch Trials: A Perfect Storm
The Salem Witch Trials: A Perfect Storm
On September 22, 1692, eight innocent women were hanged in Salem Village. Just a few months later the town would come to its senses and renounce the failed justice system that had doomed sent them to their deaths. Yet for the women, and the dozen others who had died before them, the revelation came too late. The infamous Salem Witch Trials, chronicled by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible were a pivotal time in history in which civilized society collapsed into madness, and consequently the ugliness of human nature was left unchecked to breed extraordinary cruelty. By the time the waves of witchcraft hysteria had settled in Salem, more than one hundred innocent people had been put in jail and twenty others …show more content…
Though a multitude of factors arose to create the trials, three main components encapsulate them all. Politics, vengeance and a crumbling theocracy converged to create the perfect storm that was the Salem Witch Trials.
Life the early settlers of the Salem Village, and indeed for the whole of the New England colonies, was difficult. Only the Puritans’ religious convictions and their hope for a perfect theocratic society carried them through the hardships they faced in the New World. The textbook The American Experience, details the harshness of the society in which The Crucible took place and the way the Puritans coped with that harshness, stating “Finding themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control— bitter weather, sickness and death, devastating fires, drought, and insect infestations that killed their crops— many Colonists attributed their misfortunes to the power of evil.” (Miller et al. 1124) Ironically, the same religious beliefs that had carried them through hard times would push the people of Salem Village into their most difficult challenge yet, one that inevitably …show more content…
When these factors met, personal grievances were aggrandized into political props and innocent lives were destroyed at the will of an unchecked justice system that demonized all opposition and showed no mercy. Echos of the trials can be felt throughout history, from McCarthyism to modern day police brutality. Understanding the elements that led to the Salem Witch Trials can give one insight not just into the nature of the Puritans, but into the nature of human beings themselves and impart the lesson that history must not repeat itself. The Salem Witch Trials may have been the perfect storm, but there are always more clouds on the
On September 22, 1692, eight innocent women were hanged in Salem Village. Just a few months later the town would come to its senses and renounce the failed justice system that had doomed sent them to their deaths. Yet for the women, and the dozen others who had died before them, the revelation came too late. The infamous Salem Witch Trials, chronicled by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible were a pivotal time in history in which civilized society collapsed into madness, and consequently the ugliness of human nature was left unchecked to breed extraordinary cruelty. By the time the waves of witchcraft hysteria had settled in Salem, more than one hundred innocent people had been put in jail and twenty others …show more content…
Though a multitude of factors arose to create the trials, three main components encapsulate them all. Politics, vengeance and a crumbling theocracy converged to create the perfect storm that was the Salem Witch Trials.
Life the early settlers of the Salem Village, and indeed for the whole of the New England colonies, was difficult. Only the Puritans’ religious convictions and their hope for a perfect theocratic society carried them through the hardships they faced in the New World. The textbook The American Experience, details the harshness of the society in which The Crucible took place and the way the Puritans coped with that harshness, stating “Finding themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control— bitter weather, sickness and death, devastating fires, drought, and insect infestations that killed their crops— many Colonists attributed their misfortunes to the power of evil.” (Miller et al. 1124) Ironically, the same religious beliefs that had carried them through hard times would push the people of Salem Village into their most difficult challenge yet, one that inevitably …show more content…
When these factors met, personal grievances were aggrandized into political props and innocent lives were destroyed at the will of an unchecked justice system that demonized all opposition and showed no mercy. Echos of the trials can be felt throughout history, from McCarthyism to modern day police brutality. Understanding the elements that led to the Salem Witch Trials can give one insight not just into the nature of the Puritans, but into the nature of human beings themselves and impart the lesson that history must not repeat itself. The Salem Witch Trials may have been the perfect storm, but there are always more clouds on the