Salem witch trials essay ideas

As I, Mary Warren, look around, I see the town in shambles and in complete chaos. The community has become completely shaken as a result of the trials. As I approach the flimsy podium in the middle of the town square, my anxiety kicks in Reverend Hale comes to Salem in response to a crisis in the town. Salem Witch Trials Spirituality. Within a week, The judges play an important role for which they possess Salem Witch Trials The Crucible. Giles Corey was a prosperous, uneducated, eighty-year-old farmer and full member of the church.

He and his wife Martha lived on a farm in the southwest corner of Salem village. Martha Corey, his wife, made a mistake of questioning if the girls accusations were sincere Jackson took immense inspiration from tales of the macabre in an otherwise seemingly mundane In late February of , Reverend Samuel Parris hired a doctor to look at his nine-year-old daughter, Betty, and eleven-year-old niece, Abigail Williams.

They were both experiencing strange behavior and sudden fits. The youngsters were soon determined to have witchcraft, making a frenzy through Salem Feeling stressed about your essay? Starting from 3 hours delivery. Main Information. Context and Origins. The Hysteria Spreads.

Conclusion and Legacy. Filter Show Graded Essays Only. Got it. Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to. Throughout the trials, the courts realized women that confessed to signing a pact with the devil were more helpful alive than they were dead. As much. The years of and were a terrible time in Salem Massachusetts. The presence of the devil was in Salem. People living there were practicing witchcraft.

Young women were barking like dogs and acting strangely. All this behavior would lead to what became known as the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials took place because of people practicing witchcraft and they were not witches. Centuries ago many Christians and those. IPL Salem witch trials. Salem witch trials Essays. The Salem Witch Trial Words 6 Pages were accused of leading the others into the rituals, and hence arrested.

On the contrary, evidence is Continue Reading. This preposterous theory that the girls brought to the small, quaint, puritan town of Salem Continue Reading. Everyone was scared and suspicious, the town was in chaos Continue Reading. Notwithstanding that Tituba is considered irrelevant during the Salem trials, nevertheless Tituba exposes European perceptions of Native Americans as a basis for cultural superiority and oppression, since Tituba is an indisputable symbol of injustice, of an ignominious drama, slavery, racism, as well as the defamation Continue Reading.

All of this led up to the first day that would change the lives of people in Salem forever Continue Reading. One piece of evidence that supports this claim is that, on document E, you can see that west side of town, which Continue Reading.

Based on the Puritan Continue Reading. They were thrown in disgusting jails, chained to the walls, drowned, lit on fire Continue Reading. Based Continue Reading. The Salem witch trials only lasted for a little over a year, but it ruined the Continue Reading. Corey knew that if he avoided conviction of wizardry, his farm, which he had recently deeded to his two sons-in-law, would not become the property of the state after his death. Corey was an uneducated, year-old, church-going farmer who died after two days of being pressed under heavy stones, a punishment never before seen in Salem.

The aftermath of the witch trials is a rich essay topic, for Salem and the surrounding lands took a hard hit in several ways. Crop failures, epidemics and political changes interrupted life around the village. Many villagers were left without a home and without money, due to being forced to pay large sums of money to get their loved ones out of prison.

No one has been executed as a convicted witch in America since the trials, as that age marked the end of the religious witch hunts. Community Renewal Society, Although it has a literal and direct historical reference and application to the Salem witch trials, the play serves as an overarching metaphor for public persecution and the dangers a police state poses to the general public.

Through The Crucible, Miller critiques American society and indirectly accuses patriarchy of dismantling some of the core norms and values upon which the nation was built. Moreover, Miller deftly draws analogies between Salem's persecution of women during the witch-hunts and ashington's persecution of all Americans during the Cold ar. Miller therefore presents patriarchy within a Marxist as well as a postmodernist framework.

As a Marxist, Miller…. Works Cited Adler, Thomas P. Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Ardolino, Frank. Oct 21, Arthur Miller, notable playwright, wrote the play, The Crucible that focused on the partially fictionalized and dramatized story of the Salem witch trials that occurred between and in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

The play was written as an allegory of McCarthyism due to the American government blacklisting of accused communists. Even Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on what can be labeled as "Un-American Activities" during the late 's and was convicted in of contempt of Congress for the refusal of identification of others that were present during the meetings Miller had attended.

Miller's drama was then translated into his play through themes of intolerance, hysteria, and reputation. The first theme that The Crucible describes in the beginning of the play is intolerance.

Works Cited Bloom, Harold. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, Miller, Arthur. New York, N. In this play, Miller brings to the fore the fact that there can be and often are conflicting motives within every single human heart, a phenomenon that colors the way people act, interact, think, speak, and -- yes -- betray. At the heart of The Crucible is a drama of sexual tension and spite -- a girlish revenge twisted into something much more heinous by the cruel paroxysms of a community going mad with suspicion, condemnation, and holier-than-thou syndrome.

It is a play that reflects one of the sinister secrets of…. Works Cited Murray, Edward. NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism. Popkin, Henry. Boston in the and 's Because of the eventual outcome of becoming a great American city, Colonial Boston has been written about from a thousand different angles with a thousand yet to come. This report is not intended to expose any newly discovered fact or thing, but it will provide an insight into the life and times of some of those early Americans but white and red.

The objective is to look at the city of Boston, Massachusetts and its immediate surrounding areas to tell what they were actually like in the late to early 's. The paper will focus mainly on the pre-Bostonians and their interactions with one another. We will also look at things from the perspective of the Native American Indians. Some overview of the geography and current weather will be discussed to put into perspective how the early settler dealt with the harsh New….

References Burns, Constance K. Boston, The Evolution of Urban Politics. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Clements, William M. New York: Oxford University Press. Spartacus School Network. Massachusetts Bay Colony. Praying Indians. Tyranny America's history includes a number of competing forces. One of the chief struggles has been the clash between Freedom and Tyranny. As Why Freedom Matters shows, our national consciousness is dominated with the idea that our forefathers risked everything so that all people in America can have freedom.

However, Public Speaking shows that the dominant or "luckiest" group in America consists of white, gentile, straight males, who form a very powerful and wealthy special interest group. An example of the favoritism enjoyed by a powerful, wealthy special interest group is the Texan oilman group mentioned in Dominion from Sea to Sea.

The favorable treatment given to powerful, wealthy special interests groups results in oppression of "others" such as farmers who fought for America's freedom but seemed to trade the tyranny of Great Britain for the tyranny of the wealthy,…. Randolph Smithers December 30, It is amazing how great a difference a single incident can make in the lives of so many different people from different places. Ever since acon's Rebellion was quelled here in Jamestown, there has been a significant increase in the amount of African and West Indian slaves who are being used as the preferred source of labor around these parts.

This is just my personal opinion, but I think it is because of the fact that Nate was able to rally so many poor farmers and indentured servants to help him in his rampage against the Native Americans, that these chattel slaves have now become even more popular as a means of working in the fields.

Bibliography Famous American Trials. Illinois: University of Chicago Press Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. Cotton Mather was an ardent believer in the existence of witchcraft. He was also a well respected minister from Boston who wrestled with the idea that witchcraft could or couldn't exist.

Cotton Mather wrote on several religious topics and one particular topic of interest was witchcraft. Seen as an evil force, witchcraft by some religious people was considered devil's work.

In the belief that witches and witchcraft existed was quite prevalent. In chapter 8, one of the documents of Cotton Mather discussed from an excerpt of his book: Memorable Provinces, deals with such ideas of witchcaft in a case from that involved three children. Mary Glover, an irish washerwoman, had a disagreement with three children. After this minor argument, the three children acted in a bizarre fashion.

Mather examined them and decided that their strange behavior is due in part to the influence cast upon them by Glover. Evans-Pritchard was the founder and first president of the Association of Social Anthropologists. His seminal work on indigenous, African tribes has preserved a unique perspective of primitive societies or societies that retain their aboriginal features even in modern times -- their mental processes more than the social constructs.

This essay will present a societal perspective of the Azande tribes of southern Sudan. This research was conducted at a time when every Zande singular for Azande paid abeyance to either the British or the Arabs, whichever happened to wield influence at the time.

The thesis of this essay: "The Azande society as a whole and each individual was driven by a quest to avoid the ill effects of witchcraft. This entire essay is about defining societal ramifications of witchcraft among the Azande, which will make the meaning of witchcraft…. Morris, B. Updike, the more recent writer of the two, has been considered one of America's most prestigious writers, often honored by collegiate bodies and authoritative figures.

Likewise, Nathaniel Hawthorne in his time was recognized and respected, having come from a background commanding some respect. Both authors however, during their life struggled with negative issues; Updike for example struggled with separation and health problems that plagued him since he was a child.

Hawthorne struggled with his ancestry who embodied a rigid Puritanical belief system, and also struggled with the poverty of his family that he was never quite able to overcome during his lifetime. The works of both Updike and Hawthorne tend to have some autobiographical notes.

Each author draws from experiences within their own lives. Farr, J. Defense of Lucy Steele hile the character traits of Miss Steele seemingly leave much to be desired in the area of respectability by today's standards, her actions can be clearly understood when the setting and time is examined during which Sense and Sensibility was written.

In England during the early s, the economic future of a young woman depended solely upon her entering into a marriage with a man of means. Life for women in the s was completely dictated by male rule, and if a young woman was not successful in "winning" a husband for herself, her future was bleak, indeed.

A woman could not announce her intention to remain single without attracting social disapproval, nor could she follow a desired profession since all professions were all closed to women. In a situation so utterly desperate, desperate measures were clearly in order, and Lucy Steele merely did what she….

Works Cited Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. TOR Classics. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. Bishop, Bridget. Partial Transcript of Examination. Commentaries on English Law. Yale Law School. Eastern eligion, Eastern Mysticism, And Magic Influence the Pop Culture in America Eastern religion" - also alluded to in this paper as "Eastern Mysticism" and "mysticism" - and the occult, along with magic and its many off-shoots have had a considerable influence on American Pop Culture over the past few decades.

Movies, books, music - all have been touched and enhanced by mysticism and its cousins. So, when referring to "Eastern religion," this paper is generally alluding to the ancient religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and other spiritual genres. It is also important to be clear on what "occult" truly means; it is a word that comes from the Latin occultus, meaning, literally, "hidden" or "concealed" Merriam-Webster defines occult as "to shut off from view or exposure".

For this paper's purpose, the occult will…. References Arnold, Thomas K. This type of certainty only signifies authority, but it shows Danforth to be truly powerless over his convictions or any sort of lasting truth. Like Proctor, he is also described upon his first appearance, with Miller commenting that he was of "some humor and sophistication that does not, however, interfere with an exact loyalty to his position and his cause" Miller Though Danforth has authority over life and death in Salem, he has no real power because he has already completely given himself over to his position as a Judge and his cause of seeking out witches.

When the truth and all things eternal cease to matter, all power is gone, and though John Proctor and many others meet death essentially at Danforth's hands, they retain power over themselves in their refusal to give in to Danforth's authority.

Nowhere is the difference between power and authority made more clear…. The south, once it began to grow its staple crop, tobacco, formed large plantations, for which slaves bought from the Dutch were imported.

The north had far fewer slaves, and its business was more diverse, what with the manufacturing of textiles, shipping, blacksmithing, and more. The spirit of the South, however, was already forming by the eighteenth century, with figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry and George ashington leading the nation to Independence from England in The north, on the other hand, was led by men like John Hancock and Samuel Adams, whose opinion on how the colonies should be united was not shared by all.

Jefferson was in favor of states rights and a small central government, but the Federalist papers that would help establish the Union would be the voice of a system of federal government that would keep tyranny at bay through a system….

Works Cited "Colony of Virginia. America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict Susan yle's book Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict explores the history of the America through the lens of the political, racial, social, and cultural issues that make up the population. The story of American history is retold. The textbook includes both primary and secondary sources to explore the truth behind American history.

Of particular interest are some of the historical documents, such as the transcripts from the actual Salem itch Trials. This period of American history is symbolic of all occasions where religious zealotry and fear overtake the….

Works Cited: Wyle, Susan. Prentice Hall. By coming into contact with nature cultures such as the Native American tribes, religions in the Western world were no longer the same. This was the basis for later violence against all who did not agree with the religious norm, for example in events such as the Salem Witch Trials. Today, this same fundamentalism insists that every word in the Bible or other religious documents should be taken literally.

According to this view, the story of creation simply could not agree with Darwinism. The long American history of using religion as a basis for many actions, both good an bad, plays an important role in this. However, it is also true that there is an increasing trend within Christianity to return to the earlier point-of-view, accepting both Darwinism and….

Reference McGrath, a. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Sewall The Diary of Samuel Sewall An autobiography is written so one can share life experiences and views of the world with the public. In other words, an autobiography is that person's words and can used in the scholarly context to validate hearsay. This paper will focus on the life and times of Samuel Sewall.

This paper will be presented in two parts: first, an analysis of his work and second, an opinion of the work. What does Sewall want us to see as important about his life? What can be learned about the author's life and the society in which he lived? What can be learned from Sewall's life and is his story believable? This paper will explore these questions. Samuel Sewall's diary was not written for wide public consumption but more as a recorded family history as it documented day-to-day events relevant to Puritanical life in early American….

Reference Yazawa, M. The Diary and Life of Samuel Sewall. City: Publisher. I know that the case you cite, of Dr. Drake, has been a common one. The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so monstrous and inconceivable, as to shock reasonable thinkers, to revolt them against the whole, and drive them rashly to pronounce its Founder an impostor.