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See all the wonderful things Adam has made

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https://youtu.be/uQ2D-HKw6qI

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John Proctor is the tragic hero of the play. He is introduced as an arrogant lecher who had an affair with a minor.

Over the course of the play his journey to a man of integrity allows the audience to make judgement of themselves and their name’s meaning.

Proctor’s desire to keep his good name leads to him making the heroic choice not to make a false confession and to go to his death without signing his name to an untrue statement.

The idea of reputation and the destruction of it is referred to numerous times over the course of the play, from Parris’ initial worry of being criticised as a poor reverend to Proctor’s constant underlying shame that stands between him and his acting out against the accusations of witchcraft that have grown rife within the town.

Proctor’s peripeteia occurs as he comes to the realisation that his reputation in a town absorbed by hysteria is less important than the lives of others.

He is able to ‘swallow his pride’ and commit to standing up for his beliefs and his name.

The accusations for witchcraft can be interpreted as a way to force people to succumb to conformity. Those who confess to being a witch are spared death by submitting to the society's hysteria and beliefs. Those who are accused but do not confess are killed for their denial to dimish their power and conform, thus fuelling the addiction and lust for power in Salem. This black and white fallacy is similar to the fallacy created in the 1950's through McCarthyism where you were either "truly American" (that is, capitalist), or "against America" (Communist).

Accusations are thrown upon Proctor and Giles for their lack of conformity; ie not going to Church, avoiding his [Proctor's] child's Baptism in the Church, etc.

Proctor, particularly, is set up as the "other" character as he has his own beliefs and disagrees with the nature of conformity in order to keep his good name; however, this is not to say he is not Christian, as he simply hasna different set of beliefs and values to the other Puritans of Salem.

When confronted with the chance to save his life through confession, Proctor may allow his power to go to the society, thus subordinating his power and position to the group.

The character of Proctor demonstrates the trust and capability of the individual and this idea juxtaposed with the rest of Salem's people allows the audience, whether it be read or viewed, to see the true moral bankruptcy and corruption of the town and their desire for power. This is significant as it relates to the Communist witchhunt of the 1950's in America, as HUAC sought to have all people conforming to a society where extreme leftist values were not to be trusted and only right-wing values could be accepted into society. Ironically, HUAC was the group not to be trusted, due to their own moral bankruptcy similar to the townspeople of Salem.

Important textual evidence:

“I have made a bell of my honour! I have rung the doom of my good name”

“Elizabeth: You take my sins upon you, John –
Proctor [in agony]: no, I take my own, my own!”

“Proctor [with a cry of his soul]: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

“Putnam: No witchcraft! Now look you, Mr Parris -
Parris: Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know that you – you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.”

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Thesis on Moral Absolutism

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Moral Absolutism in Arthur Millers The Crucible

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Lecture on the Play and its Context, Genre and Tragic Hero.

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This is a lecture for Arts One at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In the first part of this lecture, Robert Crawford gives historical background to the play in the form of a discussion of the cold war, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and Joseph McCarthy.

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Lecture on the Genre of Tragedy

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What is Genre? What is Tragedy? Who'd want to watch a 15 minute video of someone trying to explain that? I dunno, maybe you? Like, Comment, Subscribe! You know, the usual. Twitter: http://twitter.com/thortillachips Tumblr: http://th0rtillachips.tumblr.com Sources Cited: Aristotle, Poetics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents, ed.

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National Theatre video - Intro to Greek Tragedy

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An Introduction to Greek Tragedy | National Theatre

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Arthur Miller - Tragedy of the Common Man

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February 27, 1949

Tragedy and the Common Man
By ARTHUR MILLER
n this age few tragedies are written. It has often been held that the lack is due to a paucity of heroes among us, or else that modern man has had the blood drawn out of his organs of belief by the skepticism of science, and the heroic attack on life cannot feed on an attitude of reserve and circumspection. For one reason or another, we are often held to be below tragedy-or tragedy above us. The inevitable conclusion is, of course, that the tragic mode is archaic, fit only for the very highly placed, the kings or the kingly, and where this admission is not made in so many words it is most often implied.
I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were. On the face of it this ought to be obvious in the light of modern psychiatry, which bases its analysis upon classific formulations, such as Oedipus and Orestes complexes, for instances, which were enacted by royal beings, but which apply to everyone in similar emotional situations.

More simply, when the question of tragedy in art is not at issue, we never hesitate to attribute to the well-placed and the exalted the very same mental processes as the lowly. And finally, if the exaltation of tragic action were truly a property of the high-bred character alone, it is inconceivable that the mass of mankind should cherish tragedy above all other forms, let alone be capable of understanding it.

As a general rule, to which there may be exceptions unknown to me, I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity. From Orestes to Hamlet, Medea to Macbeth, the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his "rightful" position in his society.

Sometimes he is one who has been displaced from it, sometimes one who seeks t attain it for the first time, but the fateful wound from which the inevitable events spiral is the wound of indignity and its dominant force is indignation. Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.

In the sense of having been initiated by the hero himself, the tale always reveals what has been called his "tragic flaw," a failing that is not peculiar to grand or elevated characters. Nor is it necessarily a weakness. The flaw, or crack in the characters, is really nothing-and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status. Only the passive, only those who accept their lot without active retaliation, are "flawless." Most of us are in that category.

But there are among us today, as there always have been, those who act against the scheme of things that degrades them, and in the process of action everything we have accepted out of fear of insensitivity or ignorance is shaken before us and examined, and from this total onslaught by an individual against the seemingly stable cosmos surrounding us-from this total examination of the "unchangeable" environment-comes the terror and the fear that is classically associated with tragedy. More important, from this total questioning of what has previously been unquestioned, we learn. And such a process is not beyond the common man. In revolutions around the world, these past thirty years, he has demonstrated again and again this inner dynamic of all tragedy.

Insistence upon the rank of the tragic hero, or the so-called nobility of his character, is really but a clinging to the outward forms of tragedy. If rank or nobility of character was indispensable, then it would follow that the problems of those with rank were the particular problems of tragedy. But surely the right of one monarch to capture the domain from another no longer raises our passions, nor are our concepts of justice what they were to the mind of an Elizabethan king.

The quality in such plays that does shake us, however, derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world. Among us today this fear is strong, and perhaps stronger, than it ever was. In fact, it is the common man who knows this fear best.

Now, if it is true that tragedy is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or an evil in his environment. And this is precisely the morality of tragedy and its lesson. The discovery of the moral law, which is what the enlightenment of tragedy consists of, is not the discovery of some abstract or metaphysical quantity.

The tragic right is a condition of life, a condition in which the human personality is able to flower and realize itself. The wrong is the condition which suppresses man, perverts the flowing out of his love and creative instinct. Tragedy enlightens-and it must, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of man's freedom. The thrust for freedom is the quality in tragedy which exalts. The revolutionary questioning of the stable environment is what terrifies. In no way is the common man debarred from such thoughts or such actions.

Seen in this light, our lack of tragedy may be partially accounted for by the turn which modern literature has taken toward the purely psychiatric view of life, or the purely sociological. If all our miseries, our indignities, are born and bred within our minds, then all action, let alone the heroic action, is obviously impossible.

And if society alone is responsible for the cramping of our lives, then the protagonist must needs be so pure and faultless as to force us to deny his validity as a character. From neither of these views can tragedy derive, simply because neither represents a balanced concept of life. Above all else, tragedy requires the finest appreciation by the writer of cause and effect.

No tragedy can therefore come about when its author fears to question absolutely everything, when he regards any institution, habit or custom as being either everlasting, immutable or inevitable. In the tragic view the need of man to wholly realize himself is the only fixed star, and whatever it is that hedges his nature and lowers it is ripe for attack and examination. Which is not to say that tragedy must preach revolution.

The Greeks could probe the very heavenly origin of their ways and return to confirm the rightness of laws. And Job could face God in anger, demanding his right and end in submission. But for a moment everything is in suspension, nothing is accepted, and in this sketching and tearing apart of the cosmos, in the very action of so doing, the character gains "size," the tragic stature which is spuriously attached to the royal or the high born in our minds. The commonest of men may take on that stature to the extent of his willingness to throw all he has into the contest, the battle to secure his rightful place in the world.

There is a misconception of tragedy with which I have been struck in review after review, and in many conversations with writers and readers alike. It is the idea that tragedy is of necessity allied to pessimism. Even the dictionary says nothing more about the word than that it means a story with a sad or unhappy ending. This impression is so firmly fixed that I almost hesitate to claim that in truth tragedy implies more optimism in its author than does comedy, and that its final result ought to be the reinforcement of the onlooker's brightest opinions of the human animal.

For, if it is true to say that in essence the tragic hero is intent upon claiming his whole due as a personality, and if this struggle must be total and without reservation, then it automatically demonstrates the indestructible will of man to achieve his humanity.

The possibility of victory must be there in tragedy. Where pathos rules, where pathos is finally derived, a character has fought a battle he could not possibly have won. The pathetic is achieved when the protagonist is, by virtue of his witlessness, his insensitivity, or the very air he gives off, incapable of grappling with a much superior force.

Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible. And it is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century after century, are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief-optimistic, if you will, in the perfectibility of man.

It is time, I think, that we who are without kings, took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time-the heart and spirit of the average man.

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February 27, 1949 Tragedy and the Common ManBy ARTHUR MILLER n this age few tragedies are written. It has often been held that the lack is due to a paucity of heroes among us, or else that modern man has had the blood drawn out of his organs of belief by the skepticism of science, and the heroic attack on life cannot feed on an attitude of reserve and circumspection.

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Essay on Tragedy

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Class Notes on Tragedy

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Notes on Tragedy

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McCarthyism in America

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Sparknotes Study Guide

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Characters

See a complete list of the characters in The Crucible and in-depth analyses of John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, Judge Danforth, Mary Warren, and Giles Corey.

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See a complete list of the characters in The Crucible and in-depth analyses of John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, Judge Danforth, Mary Warren, and Giles Corey.

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Power and Fear - Essay

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"The Crucible and the play of power and fear" by Dr Jennifer Minter (English Works Notes, 2014)

In his autobiography Timebends, Arthur Miller states, if the play ( The Crucible) is a hit on stage, 'it is either a warning of tyranny on the way or a reminder of tyranny just past". It is a metaphor of the immortal underlying forces that can always rise again.

Please see Classes This Week for times of essay-writing sessions on Crucible/Year of Wonders.
In his own Words: Timebends: The Witch Museum in Salem, Massachusetts
Arthur Miller states: "on a cold spring day in 1952, I was the only visitor in the Historical Society "Witch Museum". The museum consists of an exhaustive collection of papers on witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Ironically, the museum became widely frequented after " The Crucible had registered in the public mind". (43). Miller describes his fascination for these New Englanders who were "putative ur-Hebrews", with whom they shared "the same fierce idealism, devotion to God, tendency to legalistic reductiveness, the same longings for the pure and intellectually elegant argument". "And God was driving them crazy."

The pictures in the Museum recalled just how "fantastically people were behaving under the prickings and seducing tricks of witches". One such picture that seemed to have stayed with Miller was that of the "afflicted innocent girls pointing in terror at some farmer's wife who was secretly persecuting them and yet stood in proud contempt of their Christian accusations". (One thinks of Rebecca Goodes and Goody Proctor.) "Nearby in front of a judge and some fifteen subordinate officials and Christian ministers dressed in floor-length robes, with long prophetic beards, looking wildly outraged at the incredible Devil-driven adamancy of the accused."

Miller states that in visiting Salem he tried to understand the shifts of interests that turned "loving husbands and wives into stony enemies", "loving parents into indifferent supervisors or even exploiters of their children, and so forth". That was the real story of Salem Village, "what they called then the breaking of charity with one another". "Every testimony I had read revealed the sexual theme, either open or barely concealed". Night was the usual time to be "subverted from dutiful Christian behaviour". "To make not a story, but a drama of this parade of individual tragedies - this was the intimidating task before me". (Timebends)

The central story of the breakdown of the Proctor marriage and Abigail William's determination to have Elizabeth murdered lies at the heart of Charles W Upham's 19 th century masterpiece, the Salem Witchcraft. Miller admits that he was captured by the "cleansing" nature that ricocheted throughout the town as the girls projected their "pestilential sins" onto their neighbours, and were applauded for their courage.

If Abigail seeks vengeance for her illicit love affair after John Proctor rejects her, this conflict is also symptomatic of a greater malaise as the devil - the "Old Boy" or Lucifer - reveals the tensions and contradictions that lie at the heart of a society that clings to purity, and moral rectitude, whilst struggling with its hypocrisies and problems at the same time.
The paradox of the Salem tragedy: the spread of fear
In Salem, the tension occurs between the church-run state and individuals who have concerns about the integrity of authority figures and their oppressive control. Freer thinking individuals explore a more personal relationship with God and do not believe that Reverend Parris is helping them to practice their faith in the best way. Although they may have honourable reasons, the court and the religious "keepers" in contrast use the witchhunt as an excuse to restore their authority which is under threat. They place their faith in the girls, who pretend that they are being persecuted by the devil. As Miller suggests, those in positions of authority use the crisis to "root" out the devil in Salem and the attempt to cleanse the community of evil spirits is a convenient way, especially for Parris to deal with the "faction" that has "sworn to drive me from my pulpit". It also becomes an excuse for others to vent long-held hatreds and it becomes an illegal grab for land.

Miller presents the witch-hunt, then, as a consequence of the hysterical fear that grips citizens when faced with social and religious upheaval. During the theocratic 17 th century society in Salem, the power of the state is under threat as individuals begin to question entrenched conservative, puritan, religious values.

In his explanatory notes, the playwright notes that there is a fundamental paradox that lies at the basis of the "Salem tragedy", which is also typical to any era that tries to balance the tension between "order and freedom". The more the state and religious body politic seeks to "keep the community together" and prevent "any kind of disunity", the greater the danger of exclusion and prohibition. Likewise, the more determined the officials become to stamp out "witchcraft", the more enemies it creates.

Miller explains that this paradox is typical during times of flux. As individuals seek greater freedom and autonomy, they become a threat to the religions and political status quo. In these cases, there is a tendency on behalf of those in a position of authority to become more authoritative, more draconian and more intolerant. The witch-hunt becomes a product of this tension. In such a climate, people often make "accusations" against an enemy and escape scrutiny. It becomes morally and spiritually acceptable to make baseless accusations against an enemy and to vent one's greed, one's grievances, and one's "land lust" bickerings.

Miller also believes that this symbolic scourge and the tendency to misuse and abuse fear and the "Old Boy", which was at the heart of the Catholic Church-led Inquisitions is also typical of other ideologies such as capitalism and communism that use the threat of an enemy to claw back power and blind allegiance.

At the time, The Crucible would be the only Broadway play to take on the anti-Communist hysteria ( Timebends, 236) which was at the basis of the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that was a result of the McCarthy style witchhunt that systematically targetted left-leaning thinkers. Miller admits in his autobiography, Timebends that he recognised a link between the "ritualistic" tendencies of the FBI and the Salem witchcraft phenomenon. In "almost every case the Committee knew in advance what they wanted the witness to give them: the names of his comrades in the Party, and informers had long ago identified the participants in various meetings" ((331).

Arthur Miller chaired the Waldorf Astoria Conference in 1949, which was watched keenly by the House Committee of Un-American Activities (which had become a "kind of thought police in Hollywood". ) Participants at the conference, a meeting of writers and artists, were labelled "supporters" of communism, and between them, they generated widespread public suspicion and anger which, according to the Chairperson, was a startling new phenomenon in post-war politics.

Whilst Miller was not wholeheartedly a communist supporter, he was labelled as such. A liberal thinker, he could not in all honour, he says, overlook the role of the Soviet Union in blocking Nazism. He also thought it important to counter the "burgeoning anti-soviet" sentiment that was gaining sway.

When Arthur Miller told Molly Kazan, (Elia Kazan's wife), who sought to justify to the playwright, her husband's betrayal of "communist supporters" in front of the Committee, Miller announced that he was on his way to Salem. (Molly justified her husband's confession on the grounds that the United Electrical Workers union was "in the hands of the communists". (334)
Miller states: "She instantly understood what my destination meant, and her eyes widened in sudden apprehension and possibly anger, "You're not going to equate witches with this!".
Layers of conflict: and the spread of fear
Miller anticipates that the strongest reaction would be that "there are communists ... there never were any witches". Suffice to say, according to Miller, Christians believed the stories in the bible of "real" witches" and such were the feelings of distrust and paranoia that for 100 years after the hangings, people refused to buy the farms.

On one level, the Salem tragedy arises because of the shock and fear experienced by the girls, who are caught dabbling in witch-craft in the forest. They are spotted dancing and then sitting around the cauldron. Abigail is drinking chicken blood and the other girls are throwing frogs into the cauldron. They are aware that this " witchery's a hangin'" offence, but Abigail threatens the girls that she will harm them in the dead of night. Alarmed and to deflect attention, they hitch their voice to the cries of witchcraft reverberating around the town, which sets in train a court case that leads to the deaths of more than 72 people in Salem. Specifically, Abigail sports with Tituba in the depths of the forest in a bid to get rid of Goody Proctor, and then uses the witch-hunt as a pretence to take revenge on her former employer, who dismissed her after she became aware of her affair with John. After this dismissal, her name has been besmirched and she has not worked for seven months.

However, the conflict also concerns the manner in which people worship God in Salem; many individuals are beginning to show their faith in individual ways which undermines the power of the theocratic institutions.

Miller points out in his commentary, that the oppression is disproportionate to the "dangers against which the order was organised". In this case, the community, riven by grievances and factional disputes, is beginning to challenge these strict and "old disciplines". These divisions and suspicions erupt as the girls, fearful of the consequences of their sorcerous activities in the forest with Tituba, begin to cry witch.

Many citizens in Salem use the witch-hunt as a pretext to grab land. Thomas Putnam, reeling from a prior confrontation with his brother-in-law, uses the opportunity to fight with his neighbours over boundaries and titles; the land-grab is "elevated to the arena of morality".

As Miller points out, people need someone to blame during times of crisis. They need to find a scapegoat to deflect the recognition of their own sins and guilt that have long been repressed. But what is particularly insidious for Miller is that people were also able to justify their grievances in such a way that made them look respectable. It seemed as if they were acting on behalf of the common good. It "suddenly became possible - and patriotic and holy - for a man to say that Martha Corey had come into his bedroom at night". One could not "ordinarily speak such things in public". He believes that the witch-hunt is dangerous because they are able to express "long-held hatreds of neighbours" which are hypocritically elevated to the "arena of morality".

Seeking to deflect blame, the girls are goaded by the actions of the Putnams who seize upon the girls' panicked reactions in order to "settle" scores.

Miller explains in his commentary that "long held hatreds could now be openly expressed and vengeance taken". It becomes "patriotic and holy" to accuse one's neighbour of witchcraft and one can feel "perfectly justified in the bargain".

There is no doubt, according to Miller, that the "vindictive" Thomas Putnam is "the guiding hand behind the outcry". Putnam is an opportunistic individual who seeks to take revenge for past grievances during the witchhunt of Salem. As Miller suggests in his commentary, not only does he and his wife blame Rebecca Nurse for their still-born births (eight out of nine) but he also resents the fact that the parish gave the ministry to George Burroughs in preferences to Putnam's brother in law, Bayley. He took the slight personally and felt that his family's reputation had been "smirched". Rebecca Nurse, who echoes the author when she states, "let us rather blame ourselves", is one of the first "decent" people accused of witchcraft, and in her case, by the envious Mrs Putnam, who recognises that this "is no silly season".
Tituba: the "Negro slave"
As soon as the "screaming" and "whimpering" Betty and the affrighted Ruth become speechless, unable to "bear the Lord's name", the Putnams are among the first to spread the news. "That is a notorious sign of witchcraft afoot, Goody Nurse, a prodigious sign."

As Miller notes, the Devil himself "was almost always a black man in a white community". The fact that it was the black slave Tituba who initiated the devil-worshipping in the forest and then the confessions, is significant. In this case, darkness becomes a symbol of moral corruption, and nakedness of the exposure of such "sins".

As Miller notes in Timebends, the judges joined forces to battle for God in this "open war with Hell". "Had there been no tinder of guilt to set aflame, had the cult and culture of repression not ruled so tightly, no outbreak would have been possible". (341) "Every testimony I had read revealed the sexual theme, either open or barely concealed". Night was the usual time to be "subverted from dutiful Christian behaviour".
The "keepers of power"
"John Proctor, then, in being driven to confess not to a metaphoric guilt but to actual sex with an identified teenage partner, might save the community in the only way possible - by raising to consciousness what had been suppressed and in holy disguise was out to murder them all" (Timebends, 341). "The political question, therefore, of whether witches and Communists could be equated was no longer to the point. What was manifestly parallel was the guilt, two centuries apart, of holding illicit, suppressed feelings of alienation and hostility toward standard, daylight society as defined by its most orthodox proponents" (341) Specifically, the liberals or "left leaners" were shamed for having seen Russia as a kind of spiritual condition.
The Reverend Parris
Miller depicts the witch-hunt as a consequence of a fragile social order that is buckling under the weight of draconian repressions and the pull of individual freedoms. During this time of social upheaval, Reverend Parris fears the loss of status, the loss of his theocratic power and authority in the Salem community. He fears that the exposure of his niece's activities will impact upon his own reputation and degree of respect that is waning.

Alarmed at the systematic erosion of faith since arriving in Salem seven years prior, Reverend Parris uses the witchhunt as a way to regain some control. The Reverend Parris panics upon surprising the girls in the forest; he is fearful and anxious that his daughter, Betty, and his niece Abigail Williams, have been dancing "like heathens". There is a suggestion that they might have been naked, which would be particularly shameful, but this nakedness also becomes a symbol of the raw and dark emotions and motivations that erupt. (Abigail's evil finger-pointing sets in train a literal and symbolic course of action that indeed, as Proctor suggests, exposes them all, and renders them "naked".)

Suzanna Walcott, the messenger from Dr Grigg's, prophetically states, "you might look to unnatural things for the cause of it". But during these early stages, the Reverend is dismayed and furious at the suggestion of "unnatural causes". He is inclined to accept Abigail's testimony that Betty is not "witched": "We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it". Later, he will change his stance in order to protect his reputation.
The Putnams and talk of "witches"
However, goaded by the Putnams, and under increasing pressure, the Reverend exploits the crisis to silence the "faction" or the "party" that questions his authority. As Miller suggests, this is no coincidence.

Thomas Putnam is a traditional "Salemite" who exploits the crisis for his own opportunistic land-grabbing agenda. Not only does he and his wife blame Rebecca Nurse for their numerous still-born births but he also resents the fact that the parish gave the ministry to George Burroughs in preference to Putnam's brother in law, James Bayley. He took the slight personally and felt that his family's reputation had been "smirched".

Mrs Putnam admits that she sent Ruth to Tituba who "knows how to speak to the dead" in order to find out who murdered her babies. Abigail admits to Betty, "We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all".

Now Mrs Putnam is convinced that some "power of darkness" has silenced Ruth. ("For how else is she struck dumb now except some power of darkness would stop her mouth?. It is a marvelous sign, Mr Parris!")

Putnam confirms that: "There are hurtful, vengeful spirits layin' hands on these children." He also believes that "there is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark". Putnam urges Reverend Parris, who is fearful of "corruption in his own house" to declare and denounce this hideous practice of "witchcraft". (It is not just a coincidence, Miller suggests, that the Putnam/Bayley and Nurse clan have been involved in long-standing land disputes during which the latter threatened to break away from the Salem town authority. After the exposure of "witches", the Nurse clan becomes noticeably absent from church.)

Parris is initially hesitant because he knows he would be "toppled", given his niece's, Abigail's involvement. There are also accusations that she invoked a "charm" to kill Goody Proctor.
A climate of sin and damnation
But Parris is susceptible to Putnam's pleas to "strike out against the Devil, and the village will bless you for it". "You are not undone! Let you take hold here. Wait for no one to charge you - declare it yourself. You have discovered witchcraft - ".

The Reverend Parris appears to be one of those who Miller suggests use the idea of "diabolism" or the "Old Boy" in order to terrify his congregation. He preaches "hellfire and damnation" to such an effect that Proctor states that "I am sick of Hell!". Rebecca also points out that "there are many that quail to bring their children" to church. The Reverend equates his sermons about damnation with the need for people to be "mindful of their obligations towards this ministry". He believes that he is not given the respect he deserves as a "minister" who is the "Lord's man in the parish"; a "minister is not to be so lightly crossed and contradicted", especially not one who is a "graduate of Harvard College". He expects obedience: "It is not for you to say what is good for you to hear!". And Proctor, who is struggling with his own "vision of decent conduct", admits, "I like not the smell of this 'authority'". Even Abigail notes: "I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men!".

As Miller points out, the Reverend Parris appears to be more obsessed with his status and privileges of office than with his religious mission. He is concerned about issues such as ownership and the church "mortgage" and is the first to quest for the "deed" of the church. He is affronted by the fact that he is freezing like a "London beggar" when he is in effect a graduate of Harvard College. He warns the citizens: "there is either obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning".

Clearly the Reverend is aware of the fact that his position of authority in the community is under threat and he knows that the girls' misadventures (their "obscene practice" and "abominations in the forest") will only undermine his precarious status. He believes that his enemies would seize this opportunity to malign his reputation and "ruin me with it". As he notes, "there is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit".

Specifically, he takes it as a personal affront that his power as the Lord's minister is being challenged. He reminds people that a "minister is the Lord's man in the parish; a minister is not to be so lightly crossed and contradicted." (35)

In this regard, Parris resents the "faction" that contradicts or questions his motives. He implies that they are Quakers, "we are not Quakers here yet, Mr Proctor. And you may tell that to your followers." Reverend Parris not only fears for his reputation because of a rather recalcitrant "faction" ("a faction and a party") but preaches "hellfire and damnation" in a bid to silence his opponents - especially those who seem to be short-changing him of the "six pound on firewood". He feels that he is being "persecuted". "I cannot offer one proposition but there be a howling riot of argument. I have often wondered if the Devil be in it somewhere."

Likewise, Governor Danforth also fears the erosion of his authority and the increasing challenge to his power through the trend towards individual freedom, thoughts and questionings. Miller sets the witch-hunt in a time of social upheaval during which he states "the balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom" and it is this fragile balance that yields to a great deal of uncertainty and insecurity. The more both Danforth and Parris feel threatened, the more dictatorial and repressive they become.
Governor Danforth's response
One of Miller's most damning criticisms of the system is that Danforth exploits this "invisible crime" in order to entrench his authority and to claw back blind obedience to the system. He announces to the court members, "but witch-craft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime". He uses this defence to justify the dismantling of legal procedures.

On the surface, the religious and political "keepers" wish to "root" out the devil in Salem and cleanse the community of evil spirits. Danforth is protective of the court, which is "the highest court of the supreme government of this province". As the "keeper" of justice and of "god's law", Danforth believes that people must be sentenced to death if they do not confess. Danforth maintains that a "person is either with this court or he must be counted against it". He maintains that 4000 are already set to hang in jails upon his signature and 72 are ready to hang in Salem. The fact that he has signed the death warrant is a sign of their guilt.

Danforth is convinced that "the voice of Heaven is speaking through the children" (81) and that any hesitation would be to admit that he has already erred in the sentencing of prior convictions. He does not brook any exceptions and will not stay the proceedings because this will cast aspersions on his honour and reputation, which he confuses with the court's.

When John Proctor and the Reverend Hale plead for the innocence of their loved ones and seek more time, Danforth dismisses their concerns by stating that "it is not just" for those who have already been found guilty.

Likewise, when he threatens Mary Warren and tells her that she must confess or hang, he becomes frustrated and even hysterical at the fact that his authority has been questioned. Typically, Danforth used his power to intimidate others to agree with the court. When Mary Warren tried to reveal the truth about Abigail and the needle she placed in Elizabeth Proctor's poppet, he became extremely aggressive and threatening: "You will confess or you will hang." There is "no road in-between."

Danforth follows strict court "procedures" and refuses to admit Proctor's deposition. (This sets up a direct parallel to the manner in which the "accused communists" were refused the constitutional right of the 5 th amendment which would protect them from self-incrimination.)

In this case, both Danforth and Hale are typical of those in a position of authority who, Miller suggests, use the indefinable and nebulous concept of the devil in order to "whip a man into a surrender". This threat is used to divide communities into those who appear to have the "moral right" and those who are imbued with "diabolical malevolence". Miller believes that, using the threat of the devil or witchcraft, people in a position of power are able to isolate their "enemies" and accuse them of baseless crimes.

In charge of "God's law", Danforth reminds citizens that they are either "with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road in-between. This is a sharp time, now a precise time." He uses the language of hell to intimidate Mary Warren and those who would question his authority.

From a historical perspective, Miller suggests that Christianity and in particular the Catholic Church used the Inquisition and the politics of "diabolism" (heaven/hell) to intimidate its foes. Such a world view separates man into saints and sinners.
The Reverend Hale
As Miller explains, the politics of "diabolism" which exists in Communist and Western ideologies alike, has a tendency to use devil imagery in order to scapegoat and expel the foe. In communist countries, any resistance "is linked to the totally malign capitalist succubi and in America any man who is not reactionary in his views is open to the charge of alliance with the red hell". In this regard, Miller alludes to the McCarthy-style witch-hunt that sought to expose left-leaning intellectuals from within artistic and union establishments in America.

Reverend Hale, like Parris and Danforth, are of the opinion that the devil works in secret ways and must be flushed out. A man's actions do not reflect his "secret" voice and the "wily" devil works in surreptitious ways, which they, as ministers of the church, can truly identify.

When Hale arrives in Salem, "loaded down with half a dozen books" and with the weight of authority in his hands, he seems to be the most erudite and academic person in Salem. He believes he, alone, has the authority and the wisdom to expose the witches- those "that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and of the day".

These books seek to give legitimacy to the pursuit of the devil. They consist of stories relating to "familiar spirits" (your inccubi and succubi") and the various "disguises" of the Devil, whom he familiarly addresses as the Old Boy. Hale looks forward to the "bloody fight with the Fiend himself". .

The work of the Fiend or the "Old Boy" must be clearly differentiated from superstition. Hale states: "We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise." (no laugh). The marks of his presence are "definite as stone". The devil does not leave a "bruise". But he believes that he can, because of his knowledge, reveal and expose the devil.

And so, Miller suggests that whilst their defence of their expertise and mission appears ridiculous and absurd, it has divisive and deadly consequences.

Initially, he hastily places his belief in his niece and commands authority in Salem. He places his absolute trust in the witches and dispatches 72 death warrants. "I dare not take a life without ... there be proof"(89) He signs the death warrant for Rebecca Nurse.

From observing the "good" people in Salem, he comes to realise "it is a lie. They are all innocent." (115) The girls are "gulling" the court.

Eventually, he has the courage to recognize the folly of his behaviour and attitude. He is ashamed of his earlier pride and arrogance, sweeping into Salem as the saviour, as the "bridegroom to his beloved". He was "bearing gifts of high religion" (115)

However, he believes that Proctor must confess because only God can take away a life. Perhaps he wishes to protect himself from just one more error.

He urges Elizabeth to make her husband confess. "Do not mistake your duty as I mistook my own." (115)

He wants John Proctor to admit to the "lie", because he would count himself as murderer. He tells Elizabeth that "life is God's most precious gift, and no principle, however glorious may justify your taking of it." (115)

He tells her that it may be that God prefers a liar than someone who clings so preciously to their pride.

He believes John Proctor is foolishly throwing his life away out of pride and this may be a sin.

Those who refuse to compromise
The Reverend Hale changes his views and opinions throughout the witchcraft trials.

German philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote of heroic individuals that there seems to be a compulsion to do the "right thing".

At 83 years of age, Giles Corey's physical strength symbolises his moral fortitude. Miller inserts in the stage directions, "He is knotted with muscle. Canny, inquisitive, and still powerful". He recognises the trouble that's been brewing for years, and asks them to "think on it now, it's a deep thing and dark as a pit". Once when asked what "frighted you", in the shape of an animal hog, he replies "I do not know that I ever spoke that word in my life"

In this regard, John Proctor becomes such an individual. As Miller states, "an individual conscience was all that could keep a world from falling" ( Timebends) Setting aside his feelings of unworthiness, Proctor mounts the "gibbet like a saint". His confession indeed "clinched the play".

During the climax of the court case, John Proctor, who has wavered in his love towards his wife, reaffirms his loyalty and commitment to Elizabeth and restores the honour of his name. John is shamed by his illicit affair with Abigail which he believes dishonours the family name. As a result, he deems himself to be a "fraud". During his speech to the court, he finally gains the courage to reveal to the court the fact that he "lusted" after Abigail during his wife's period of confinement.

He experiences "inner conflict" or a dilemma revolving around his affair with Abigail. Should he reveal his affair to the court, thus sacrificing his name and shaming his wife. To keep the affair silent, has sinister repercussions for the people in Salem, including his wife, who are being accused of witchcraft.

he knows that he should reveal to the court the source of his shame and his affair with Abigail

he also knows that Abigail "thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave"

he knows he has betrayed his wife, Elizabeth, whom he regards very highly as an upright and loyal wife

he believes that he does not have the strength or the pride and dignity to defend his name

he has lost faith in himself and feels ashamed and guilt-ridden, especially given his high moral standards.

John has very high standards of propriety and knows that he has compromised his personal honour and his relationship with his wife, Elizabeth.

During his speech to the court, he finally gains the courage to reveal the source of his shame. He tells them that he thought of Abigail "softly". In fact he "lusted" after her during his wife's period of confinement after the birth of their third child.

This prompts Danforth to call Elizabeth as a witness; she has never lied; but she remains loyal to her husband and protects his name and honour.

Proctor's dilemma continues after he is sentenced to death because he sees himself as an unworthy and broken man - not as a martyr. He wavers in his commitment to the truth because he sees himself as a "fraud" in comparison with the goodness of others. "My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before". He downplays his courage and believes that it is only spite that stops him from confessing to "dogs". (119)

However, he does change his attitude just before he is to be hanged. Although he signs the confession, he refuses to hand it over to Danforth so that it can be publicly displayed. "God does not need my name nailed upon the church!", which he believes is tantamount to signing away his self-respect. The humanist John Proctor knows that "God knows how black my sins are" and he feels ashamed that so many others have been hanged "for silence".
Elizabeth's dilemma

Elizabeth is confronted with an awkward dilemma between protecting her husband's reputation and her strict adherence to the truth. She admits that she dismissed Abigail but is forced to compromise her principles when she refrains from calling her husband a "lecher". (100), thus telling her first lie. This is out of character and she sacrifices her beliefs for her husband's reputation. Ironically, he relies on the fact that she has never told a lie in her life and hopes that she will follow her convictions.

She also the courage to examine her conscience. She realizes that moral rectitude on its own is not sufficient. She felt inadequate because she was so plain. Her commonness was exacerbated by Abigail's fulsomeness. She realizes that she kept a "cold house" and that this played a part in turning John away from her. She, too, was culpable. (119)

Mary Warren's dilemma
And eventually, "weeping in fury, but erect" he decides to defend his name: "Now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor". Finally, he meets his death with pride and dignity. Most importantly, he clings to the honour of his name:"Because it is my name!" John Proctor, who has wavered in his love towards his wife, reaffirms his loyalty and commitment to Elizabeth and the fine people in Salem. He dies with dignity and honour.

Under Danforth's stern questioning, who relies on both verbal and physical abuse, Mary buckles. She becomes terrified of Danforth's stern demeanour, especially when, as noted in the stage directions, that he "turns her roughly to face him". Danforth tells her, "you will confess yourself or you will hang! 103. "Do you know who I am? I say you will hang if you do not open with me!"

Mary then admits to Hathorne and Danforth that she did not see spirits: "It were pretence" . "I used to fight because I thought I saw spirits..."

Mary cannot withstand the pressure. She betrays John as the "devil's man" and she claims he threatened her saying, "I'll murder you if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court." (104) "He wakes me every night, his eyes were like coals and his fingers claw my neck, and I sign..." (103) Mary says of Sarah Good, "She tried to kill me many times".

Mary Warren witnesses Abigail inserting the needle into Goody Proctor's poppet and intuitively believes that she must defend John. At first she responds favourably to his pleas: "do that which is good, and no harm shall come to you" . ("Now remember what the angel Raphael said to the boy Tobias.").
A crucible of mixed and conflicting emotions:
Just as John Proctor defends his name and his honour, many journalists defend the truth. Called "the voice from the grave" the final editorial written by the Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge foreshadowed his own death because he refused to compromise his principles and took an impartial stance on the ethnic rivalry between the Tamils and the Singhalese. He criticised the Sri Lankan Government's discriminatory treatment of the Tamils who he said were 'deprived of all self respect". "When finally I am killed it will be the Government that kills me, he wrote (referring to President Mahinda Rajapakse). He hinted at the killers from within the ranks of Sri Lanka's Government and detailed its flouting of democracy. Wickrematunge was shot in the head in Colombo by two gunmen on a motorcycle.

In The Crucible, Abigail resents the way she was treated by Goody Proctor and so curses her through trafficking with witchcraft in the forest. Looking to "dance with [Proctor]" she plants the needle in a poppet and states that Elizabeth was intending to murder her. Likewise, Ann Putnam's bitter envy for the serene matriarch, Rebecca Nurse leads her to hold her accountable for the deaths of her seven children. It can therefore be identified that long held hatreds can be a cause for tension and dispute in a community.

Miller admits that he was captured by the "cleansing" nature that ricocheted throughout the town as the girls projected their "pestilential sins" onto their neighbours, and were applauded for their courage. "One of the incidental consequences for me was a changed view of the Greek tragedies; they must have had their therapeutic effect by raising to conscious awareness the clan's capacity for brutal and unredeemed violence so that it could be sublimated and contained by new institutions, like the law Athena brings to tame the primordial, chainlike vendetta" ( Timebends, 342)

A worldly, wild girl whose parents were brutally murdered by the Indians, Abigail is mortally offended by Proctor's rejection. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" says the old proverb and Abigail's ache for Proctor leads to her misuse of power to satisfy her lust and to gain revenge. Thomas Putnam's greed for the Corey's land also motivates him to support the girls in their quest for revenge. He is self-centred and uses the deaths as an excuse to claim land he believes he is morally entitled to. In many historical accounts, conflict has been used as a decoy for opportunists to satisfy their own greed.

As we can see, principles frequently become corrupted and greed and animosity are often thinly disguised. As Miller points out, these desires are "elevated to the arena of morality" and the distinctions between truth and lies, good and evil are confused as many "witches" "confess" with trafficking with the Devil in order to save their lives. Miller himself had been pressured to name names during Cold War America. He was called to testify in front of the House of Un-American Activities of any communist sympathisers he knew. His ex-best friend Elia Kazan, chose to pursue their Hollywood career as a stage director and betrayed their friends to the "dogs". But, not Miller. He refused to "squeal" and suffered drastic consequences - perhaps not as disastrous as John Proctor or the modern-day John Proctors who are suffering for their defence of human rights and the moral imperative to uphold freedom and justice. They are languishing in prisons throughout many parts of the world.
Other points from Arthur Miller (Timebends)
When the play was performed in China, it served as a metaphor for life under Mao and the Cultural Revolution, when accusation and enforced guilt ruled China. The writer Nien Cheng who spent six and a half years in solitary confinement and whose daughter was murdered by the Red Guards , could not believe that a non-Chinese had written the play. "Some of the interrogations, she said, were precisely the same ones used on us in the Cultural Revolution".

In the Salem witchhunt, he becomes aware that it was his own life, his own times, his own "inheritance" that were being revealed in different disguises.

These connections were evident whenever Miller saw "moral intensity" (rectitude and hypocritical sententiousness), set against the "clans defensiveness against pollution from outside the ranks"

The playwright and Miller's rival Odet denigrated the play as "just a story about a bad marriage". (237) To the playwright, Marxism is in principle neither better nor worse than Catholicism, Buddhism, or any creed as an aid to artistic truth-telling". Art is not propaganda because "a writer cannot make truth but only discover it". (237) Laurence Olivier, settled upon the Northumberland dialect, which is "spoken through clenched jaws" (336)

It was only after the success of the play, that the town itself started to exploit its notoriety. The Witch Trail, which included a set of street signs indicated where so and so had been arrested or interrogated or condemned to hang, began to emerge as part of the town's attraction as a tourist destination. Even then, was there no suggestion that the honour of the state had been compromised.

Miller visits Salem trying to understand the shifts of interests that turned loving husbands and wives into stony enemies, loving parents into indifferent supervisors or even exploiters of their children, and so forth ... that was the real story of Salem Village, "what they called then the breaking of charity with one another".

Please see a typical student response: The Crucible and the reasons that fuel conflict

Please see The Crucible: dilemmas and choices

For Excellence in VCE, please see our recently published Arguments and Persuasive Language

The central story of the breakdown of the Proctor marriage and Abigail William's determination to have Elizabeth murdered lies at the heart of Charles W Upham's 19th century masterpiece. There seems to be no irony in Reverend Parris's description of the possessed victims, of girls truly afflicted and of the danger posed by people like Elizabeth Proctor. Miller reminds us, "And irony, of course, is what is usually dispensed with, usually paralysed, when fear enters the mind." ( Timebends, 337)

"The Crucible and the play of power and fear", Dr Jennifer Minter, English Works, first published on 14th October, 2014.

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller - English Works

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"The Crucible and the play of power and fear" by Dr Jennifer Minter (English Works Notes, 2014) In his autobiography Timebends, Arthur Miller states, if the play ( The Crucible) is a hit on stage, 'it is either a warning of tyranny on the way or a reminder of tyranny just past".

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Salem Witch Museum

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Educational Info on Salem Witch Trials | Membership Page

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Eyewitness to History Resources

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The seeds of the hysteria that afflicted Salem Village, Massachusetts were sown in January 1692 when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior. The tight-knit community was at a loss to explain the convulsive seizures, blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states that afflicted the youngsters. The physicians called in to examine the girls could find no natural cause of the disturbing behavior. If the source of the affliction

was not attributable to a physical malady, the community reasoned that it must be the work of Satan. Witches had invaded Salem.
In February the village began praying and fasting in order to rid itself of the devil's influence. The girls were pressured to reveal who in the community controlled their behavior. Three women were identified and examined. One, Tituba (a slave), confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her "sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog." Even more troubling, Tituba confessed that a conspiracy of witches permeated Salem Village.

In March the afflicted girls accused Martha Corey. The three women previously denounced as colluding with the devil were marginal to the community. Martha Corey was different; she was an upstanding member of the Puritan congregation - her revelation as a witch demonstrated that Satan's influence reached to the very core of the community. Events snowballed as the accusatory atmosphere intensified and reached a fever pitch. During the period from March into the fall many were charged, examined, tried and condemned to death. The hangings started in June with the death of Bridget Bishop and continued through September. As winter approached, the hysteria played itself out as criticism of the procedures grew. In October, the colonial governor dissolved the local Court of inquiry. The convictions and condemnations for witchery stopped. Nineteen victims of the witch-hunt had been hanged, one crushed to death under the weight of stones and at least four died in prison awaiting trial.

Friday March 11, 1692 was a day of fasting and prayer in Salem. During the day the community's minister, the Rev. Samuel Parris, asked the girls to reveal another witch. They did, and the accusation shocked those who heard it for it implicated Martha Corey (Goodwife Corey) a new but upstanding member of the congregation. Immediately a delegation was sent to the Corey farm to interview the accused in the hope of clearing up this discrepancy. Martha Corey's sarcastic response to the accusation disheartened the delegation who immediately called for her arrest. Her trial was the scene of much agitation. In the courtroom Martha's accusers writhed in agony as they were forced by an unseen power to mimic the witch's every movement. When Martha shifted her feet the girls did also, when Martha bit her lip the girls were compelled to bit their own lips, crying out in pain. They saw the specter of a black man bending over the accused and heard the drum beat calling the witches to convene on the meetinghouse lawn. Deodat Lawson, a visiting minister, describes the scene:

"On, Monday, the 21st. of March, the magistrates of Salem appointed to come to examination of Goodwife Corey. And about twelve of the clock they went into the meeting house, which was thronged with spectators. Mr. Noyes began with a very pertinent and pathetic prayer, and Goodwife Corey being called to answer to what was alleged against her, she desired to go to prayer, which was much wondered at, in the presence of so many hundred people. The magistrates told her they would not admit it; they came not there to hear her pray, but to examine her in what was alleged against her. The worshipful Mr. Hathorne asked her why she afflicted those children. She said she did not afflict them. He asked her, 'Who did then?' She said, 'I do not know; how should I know?'

It was observed several times that if she did but bite her underlip in time of examination, the persons afflicted were bitten on their arms and wrists and produced the marks before the magistrates, ministers, and others. And being watched for that, if she did but pinch her fingers, or grasp one hand hard in another, they were pinched, and produced the marks before the magistrates and spectators. After that, it was observed that if she did but lean her breast against the seat in the meeting house (being the bar at which she stood), they were afflicted. Particularly Mrs. Pope complained of grievous torment in her bowels as if they were, torn out. She vehemently accused said Corey as the instrument, and first threw her muff at her, but that not flying home, she got off her shoe, and hit Goodwife Corey on the head with it. After these postures were watched, if said Corey did but stir her feet, they were afflicted in their feet, and stamped fearfully.
References:
Lawson, Deodat, A Brief and True Narrative of Some Remarkable Passages Relating to Sundry Persons Afflicted by Witchcraft at Salem Village(1692) [reprinted in Commager, Henry Steele, The Heritage of America (1949)]; Starkey, Marion, The Devil in Massachusetts (1989); Trask, Richard, "The Devil Hath Been Risen" (1997).

How To Cite This Article:
"The Salem Witch Trials, 1692," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).

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The seeds of the hysteria that afflicted Salem Village, Massachusetts were sown in January 1692 when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior. The tight-knit community was at a loss to explain the convulsive seizures, blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states that afflicted the youngsters.

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Smithsonian Resources

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One town's strange journey from paranoia to pardon

smithsonian.com

The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft-the Devil's magic-and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice, and it continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later.

Salem Struggling
Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. A "witchcraft craze" rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches-mostly women-were executed. Though the Salem trials came on just as the European craze was winding down, local circumstances explain their onset.

In 1689, English rulers William and Mary started a war with France in the American colonies. Known as King William's War to colonists, it ravaged regions of upstate New York, Nova Scotia and Quebec, sending refugees into the county of Essex and, specifically, Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Salem Village is present-day Danvers, Massachusetts; colonial Salem Town became what's now Salem.)

The displaced people created a strain on Salem's resources. This aggravated the existing rivalry between families with ties to the wealth of the port of Salem and those who still depended on agriculture. Controversy also brewed over Reverend Samuel Parris, who became Salem Village's first ordained minister in 1689, and was disliked because of his rigid ways and greedy nature. The Puritan villagers believed all the quarreling was the work of the Devil.

In January of 1692, Reverend Parris' daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and niece Abigail Williams, age 11, started having "fits." They screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions, and a local doctor blamed the supernatural. Another girl, Ann Putnam, age 11, experienced similar episodes. On February 29, under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, the girls blamed three women for afflicting them: Tituba, the Parris' Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman.

Witch Hunt
All three women were brought before the local magistrates and interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, 1692. Osborne claimed innocence, as did Good. But Tituba confessed, "The Devil came to me and bid me serve him." She described elaborate images of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds and a "black man" who wanted her to sign his book. She admitted that she signed the book and said there were several other witches looking to destroy the Puritans. All three women were put in jail.

With the seed of paranoia planted, a stream of accusations followed for the next few months. Charges against Martha Corey, a loyal member of the Church in Salem Village, greatly concerned the community; if she could be a witch, then anyone could. Magistrates even questioned Sarah Good's 4-year-old daughter, Dorothy, and her timid answers were construed as a confession. The questioning got more serious in April when Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth and his assistants attended the hearings. Dozens of people from Salem and other Massachusetts villages were brought in for questioning.

On May 27, 1692, Governor William Phipps ordered the establishment of a Special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. The first case brought to the special court was Bridget Bishop, an older woman known for her gossipy habits and promiscuity. When asked if she committed witchcraft, Bishop responded, "I am as innocent as the child unborn." The defense must not have been convincing, because she was found guilty and, on June 10, became the first person hanged on what was later called Gallows Hill.

Five days later, respected minister Cotton Mather wrote a letter imploring the court not to allow spectral evidence-testimony about dreams and visions. The court largely ignored this request and five people were sentenced and hanged in July, five more in August and eight in September. On October 3, following in his son's footsteps, Increase Mather, then president of Harvard, denounced the use of spectral evidence: "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned."

Governor Phipps, in response to Mather's plea and his own wife being questioned for witchcraft, prohibited further arrests, released many accused witches and dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer on October 29. Phipps replaced it with a Superior Court of Judicature, which disallowed spectral evidence and only condemned 3 out of 56 defendants. Phipps eventually pardoned all who were in prison on witchcraft charges by May 1693. But the damage had been done: 19 were hanged on Gallows Hill, a 71-year-old man was pressed to death with heavy stones, several people died in jail and nearly 200 people, overall, had been accused of practicing "the Devil's magic."

Restoring Good Names
Following the trials and executions, many involved, like judge Samuel Sewall, publicly confessed error and guilt. On January 14, 1697, the General Court ordered a day of fasting and soul-searching for the tragedy of Salem. In 1702, the court declared the trials unlawful. And in 1711, the colony passed a bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused and granted £600 restitution to their heirs. However, it was not until 1957-more than 250 years later-that Massachusetts formally apologized for the events of 1692.
Editor's note - October 27, 2011: Thanks to Professor Darin Hayton for pointing out an error in this article. While the exact number of supposed witches killed in Europe isn't known, the best estimate is closer to tens of thousands of victims, not hundreds of thousands. We have fixed the text to address this issue.
In the 20th century, artists and scientists alike continued to be fascinated by the Salem witch trials. Playwright Arthur Miller resurrected the tale with his 1953 play The Crucible , using the trials as an allegory for the McCarthyism paranoia in the 1950s. Additionally, numerous hypotheses have been devised to explain the strange behavior that occurred in Salem in 1692. One of the most concrete studies, published in Science in 1976 by psychologist Linnda Caporael, blamed the abnormal habits of the accused on the fungus ergot, which can be found in rye, wheat and other cereal grasses. Toxicologists say that eating ergot-contaminated foods can lead to muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions and hallucinations. Also, the fungus thrives in warm and damp climates-not too unlike the swampy meadows in Salem Village, where rye was the staple grain during the spring and summer months.

In August 1992, to mark the 300th anniversary of the trials, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel dedicated the Witch Trials Memorial in Salem. Also in Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum houses the original court documents, and the town's most-visited attraction, the Salem Witch Museum, attests to the public's enthrallment with the 1692 hysteria.

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A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials

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smithsonian.com The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft-the Devil's magic-and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted.

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History.com Resources

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Table of Contents

What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?: Context & Origins

Salem Witch Trial Victims: How the Hysteria Spread

Salem Witch Trials: Conclusion and Legacy

The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem's Gallows Hill, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next several months.

By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.

What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?: Context & Origins

Belief in the supernatural-and specifically in the devil's practice of giving certain humans (witches) the power to harm others in return for their loyalty-had emerged in Europe as early as the 14th century, and was widespread in colonial New England. In addition, the harsh realities of life in the rural Puritan community of Salem Village (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts) at the time included the after-effects of a British war with France in the American colonies in 1689, a recent smallpox epidemic, fears of attacks from neighboring Native American tribes and a longstanding rivalry with the more affluent community of Salem Town (present-day Salem).

Amid these simmering tensions, the Salem witch trials would be fueled by residents' suspicions of and resentment toward their neighbors, as well as their fear of outsiders.

Did you know? In an effort to explain by scientific means the strange afflictions suffered by those "bewitched" Salem residents in 1692, a study published in Science magazine in 1976 cited the fungus ergot (found in rye, wheat and other cereals), which toxicologists say can cause symptoms such as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms.

In January 1692, 9-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams (the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village) began having fits, including violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren.

In late February, arrest warrants were issued for the Parris' Caribbean slave, Tituba, along with two other women-the homeless beggar Sarah Good and the poor, elderly Sarah Osborn-whom the girls accused of bewitching them.

Salem Witch Trial Victims: How the Hysteria Spread

The three accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming and writhing. Though Good and Osborn denied their guilt, Tituba confessed. Likely seeking to save herself from certain conviction by acting as an informer, she claimed there were other witches acting alongside her in service of the devil against the Puritans.

As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse-both regarded as upstanding members of church and community-and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.

Like Tituba, several accused "witches" confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system. In May 1692, the newly appointed governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, ordered the establishment of a special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) on witchcraft cases for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties.

Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town. Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. In addition, seven other accused witches died in jail, while the elderly Giles Corey (Martha's husband) was pressed to death by stones after he refused to enter a plea at his arraignment.

Salem Witch Trials: Conclusion and Legacy

Though the respected minister Cotton Mather had warned of the dubious value of spectral evidence (or testimony about dreams and visions), his concerns went largely unheeded during the Salem witch trials. Increase Mather, president of Harvard College (and Cotton's father) later joined his son in urging that the standards of evidence for witchcraft must be equal to those for any other crime, concluding that "It would better that ten suspected witches may escape than one innocent person be condemned."

Amid waning public support for the trials, Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer in October and mandated that its successor disregard spectral evidence. Trials continued with dwindling intensity until early 1693, and by that May Phips had pardoned and released all those in prison on witchcraft charges.

In January 1697, the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting for the tragedy of the Salem witch trials; the court later deemed the trials unlawful, and the leading justice Samuel Sewall publicly apologized for his role in the process. The damage to the community lingered, however, even after Massachusetts Colony passed legislation restoring the good names of the condemned and providing financial restitution to their heirs in 1711.

Indeed, the vivid and painful legacy of the Salem witch trials endured well into the 20th century, when Arthur Miller dramatized the events of 1692 in his play "The Crucible" (1953), using them as an allegory for the anti-Communist "witch hunts" led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. A memorial to the victims of the Salem witch trials was dedicated on August 5, 1992 by author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

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Salem Witch Trials - Events, Facts & Victims

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The infamous Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions for witchcraft starting in 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Learn about what led to the allegations and the hundreds of people who were were accused.

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Why I Wrote The Crucible

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The Search for Identity - Essay

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Background and Commentaries

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Context Notes

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Enemies Within Speech

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Notes on his life

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History Channel Documentary

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Red Scare and HUAC

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The Hollywood Ten

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Enemies Within Documentary

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He was the face of the Red Scare, and his name has become synonymous with political witch-hunting. Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy investigated Communist subversion in America in the 1950s, wielding enormous power, until his tactics, his alliances, and his drinking ruined both his career and reputation.

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McCarthyism in America

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McCarthyism is the political action of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents.

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Discusses the Witch Hunts

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Aurthur Miller, Salem, MA (1991): Crucible & Trials

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Audiobook

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The Crucible Audiobook by Arthur Miller || ZJQCDMr1

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60 Second Recap

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller | Characters | 60second Recap®

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Lewis & Clark Theatre Production

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Williams Theatre Production

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Williamstheatre presents THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller. Directed by Omar Sangare. Once emblematic of political persecution in the 1950s, THE CRUCIBLE is an allegory that resonates wherever sanctimony is used as a weapon of oppression and intolerance.

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Sparknotes Summary

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Video SparkNotes: Arthur Miller's The Crucible summary