Salem Witchcraft Trials of The Crucible
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The subject of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible is the Salem witchcraft trials, and Miller uses the historical trials as a way of commenting on the nature of official oppression and bigotry as directed at a specific group in society. Miller's play was produced during the McCarthy era and was intended to comment directly on the "witch-hunts" of our own time as McCarthy and his cohorts ferreted out Communists everywhere as a way of promoting their own careers rather than the truth. The witchcraft in the play is built on historical evidence from the period as to the rationale offered by the Puritans for the witch hunt, historical analysis which has offered its own assessment of why the witch hunts developed and what purposes they served, and links with contemporary witch hunts to show how these processes and patterns of thought persist and continue to cause injustice in today's world. Robert Warshow notes the issue of the degree to which The Crucible should be seen as commenting on the contemporary scene, and he notes that the audience for the play has been cautioned not to be misled by the obvious contemporary relevance because this is a drama of universal significance: It means: do not be misled by the play's historical theme into forgetting the main point, which is that "witch trials" are always with us, and especially today; but on the other hand do not hold Mr. Miller responsible either for the inadequacies of his presentation of the Salem trials or for the many unde
. . .
d would have to take a test to prove innocence, such as carrying a hot iron a certain distance and then showing in a few days that God had miraculously healed the flesh. An alternative would be for the accused or his champion to engage in a duel with the champion of the wronged party. Levack notes that this early medieval system was fundamentally non-rational, since the decision was made by an appeal to divine intervention and not by rational argument; and the system was not particularly useful in prosecuting crime:
Not only did every prosecution require an accuser who was willing to risk the possibility of a countersuit on the basis of the talion, but the trial itself could be manipulated in favor of the accused (Levack 65).
In The Crucible, the victims themselves become accusers of other victims, and there seems to be little fear of the talion. The main accuser is Thomas Putnam, and Miller intrudes in the text to describer Putnam and his vindictive nature, a nature that caused him to accuse these women of witchcraft, along with many others, as Miller notes:
So it is not surprising to find that so many accusations against people are in the handwriting of Thomas Putnam, or that his name is so often found as a witness cor
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Levack European, Western Europe, God Weisman, John Proctor, Robert Warshow, Crucible Salem, England Puritans, Thomas Putnam, Putnam Miller, Witchcraft England, witch trials, salem trials, witch hunts, ecclesiastical courts, system criminal procedure, courts adopted, trials crucible, officers court, adopted inquisitorial, miller's play, courts acquired, secular ecclesiastical courts, courts adopted inquisitorial,
Approximate Word count = 1816
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Salem Witchcraft Trials of The Crucible
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
