The Salem Witch TrialsThe Salem Witch TrialsIn every conflict there always seems to be at least one person to blame. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, many people were convicted of witchcraft. In 1692, witchery was a very stomach dropping subject. Many innocent people in this play were hung during the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there are many people that may be blamed. In The Crucible, one may find Reverend Parris ,Abigail Williams, and Dansforth to blame. He also left out the fact that his own niece and daughter had been caught dancing and creating spells in the forest.
Reverend Parris was quick to blame those who didnt like him, and to try to win favor in the town by being a suck up to the judges. Even when evidence for the accused was brought in. “This is a clear attack upon the court!”( ) Parris often sided against the townspeople, asking damning questions and giving the judges backstories on people brought into the courts. He becomes even more pathetic during the killings. He wants to save John Proctor from being hung, but only because he worries the town may turn against him and kill him. Even after Abigail steals his money and runs away, he never admits his faults.
During the trials, a group of young girls were known as the afflicted. Upon supposively being tormented by a witchs spirit, the girls would scream and cry. Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris’ niece, didnt only lie about witchcraft, but she forced the others to join in.”Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it”( )Abigail and the others knew they would get in trouble (which is why both Betty and Ruth pretend to be in a coma, to escape punishment after her father saw them in the forest). The physicians called in to examine the girls
. A week later, in November of 1963, these women and the next year the whole of the group were transferred to the hospital in Newark, New Jersey. This hospital is operated on, not as a home facility for the occultists, but instead as a safe house for the other witch-influenced girls as a refuge for themselves and for their friends. It was there that Abigail Williams and she conceived. Their daughter, the daughter of Sarah Williams, was born in New York. This is where Abigail’s sister Sarah was born, or, at least, she may have been, and she lived as a single mother, her mother-in-law, in a tiny home in New York, one which had, through the care of the church-organization (see above), had become a well-known and popular church. In addition to the hospital and its sister schools, two more of the victims of these attacks found a home in the New York area. In New York, the witch-influenced girls and some of the church were at work. There they were recruited into a community of witches who were known as “Black Sisters.” “Black Sisters” wanted to give up on a life of hard work as much as possible, and their teachings, in the words of Sister Betty (she thought they were like her children’s teachers in school), sought to “give all children a voice” as she explained. In doing so, they sought to transform them into members of a church. But Abigail wanted to help these Witches to live a life that would let them live their hearts out. She explained that these women, while they were suffering from physical and mental frailty, were also living to “exalt their spirits.” After they made it through the trials, these women were able to come closer to those they had once loved and to return to their lives. She pointed out that, for the women alone, life in this world is more than the sum of its parts, so they were able to return to their full potential.Abigail Williams and other religious women felt that they could help their daughters. She brought about a series of meetings, and she spoke to them at length about the matter, and the hope among them. She encouraged them to be more open about their feelings of belonging as people. As one observer noted, it was in “the dark corners of the country, and people knew no one they believed would talk to them about their deep-seated beliefs about the powers they felt to have.” The sisters understood that if they kept their mouths shut, each and every one of them would be told that they were witches. The sisters were not alone in realizing this and, even in the darkest parts of