Salem Witch Trials
By Jon Crussell
Matt Ibbotson
Table of Contents
Abigail Williams Go »
John Proctor Go »
Samuel Parris Go »
McCarthysm Go »
Salem, Now and Then Go »
Abigail Williams
Abigail Williams is the mastermind behind the
accusation of the villagers, she is the real
demon in the town. She is responsible for the
deaths of 25 people and is devilish in her ways.
Proctor Parris
Tituba
“I cannot sleep for dreamin'; I
cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I'd find you comin' through some door” (Pg
23). »
Abigail is longing for John Proctor to return and she is growing desperate because he has yet to return to her. John doesn’t want to go back because he is above lechery, whereas Abigail still wishes to continue their relationship.
Quote Analysis
8 months before The Crucible begins John and Abigail are in a sexual, and secret relationship, which John’s wife eventually finds out about. Abigail is fired from her job, working in the Proctors household, and is sent to live with her uncle, the minister of the town.
Proctor
As uncle of Abigail, Parris is responsible for Abigail’s actions, along with those of his daughters. When Parris learns that Abigail and
some of her friends, including Parris’ slave, Tituba, and his
daughters, Parris does everything possible to save his good name.
Parris
Tituba is the slave of Parris, she mentions to the children, including Abigail, that she can tell their fortunes, this leads to them do things that Christians believe to be witchcraft, in order to save herself and her friends they accuse Tituba and a few other ladies in the town that they put them under a spell, forcing them to dance naked in the forest.
Tituba
John Proctor
John and wood are sturdy and able to weather the conditions that they are faced with every day. It bends, but cannot easily snap completely. Although the wood can be broken, it takes a lot of work, and time to make the mighty timber break.
Abigail Elizabeth
Parris Next »
A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours,
Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have
Quote Analysis
It is not the girls who are doing the devil’s work, but the
ministers, blinded by the false accusations of the girls against a lot of people in the town, and the mayhem that followed
afterwards. John Proctor realizes this and tries to stop this witch conspiracy from continuing.
Abigail is the person who John Proctor had an affair with. Feelings of total commitment stir within the heart of Abigail while John thinks nothing of it. John only had an affair with Abigail because of physical attraction. This causes many complications in the future, including many deaths
Abigail
The wife of John Proctor for many years. She is a good wife to John but has many mixed feelings of their relationship. She feels disconnected and upset because John had cheated on her in the past with Abigail Williams.
Elizabeth
Parris and Proctor are very negative toward each other. One of the reasons that Parris doesn’t like Proctor is that John doesn’t usually attend church on Sundays. He takes this as an insult to his ways and his new improvements to the church and from this point on, acts very hostile towards John Proctor.
Parris
Samuel Parris
Samuel Paris is the town minister. Although he is supposed to only care about the people and god, he cares a little too much about himself. When he catches the girls in the woods, he doesn’t tell anyone because he doesn’t want to hurt his “good”
name. When he first comes to Salem, all he really cares about is getting golden candle holders in the church, even though that costs a lot of money. Since the church has a lot of power in the little town, he cares too much about keeping his position and tries to keep his job at any cost, including letting people be hung.
Abigail Betty
Tituba Next »
“In my house? In my house,
Thomas? They will topple me with this! They will make of it a..” (16).
Parris tells this to Putnam after they find out exactly what
happened in the woods. Because he is a priest and is kind of new to the town, if any form of witchcraft is present in his house or that has to do with him he may be kicked out of town.
Although after he realizes that he won’t get in trouble, he then doesn’t care and starts helping the condemning of innocent people.
Quote Analysis
Abigail is Parris’ niece, whose parents were killed by Indians. Parris thinks of her as if he was his own daughter. Although she isn’t as “proper” as she says she is, Parris believes her since she is family. When Parris asks her what happened last night she doesn’t tell everything. When Mr.. Hale, a minister that is famous for finding witchcraft, asks her what happened and who contacted the devil, she realizes that she will get in trouble, so she blames everything on Tituba.
Abigail
Betty is Parris’s daughter, her mother died a while ago. So Parris takes care of her and Abigail on his own. Betty is a young girl,
who went with Abigail and the others into the woods that night. She pretends to be sick since she is scared that she will get in trouble. Parris believes that she is truly sick and it MAY be
witchcraft. He doesn’t want to believe that it is since if it is in his house, he could be removed from the town.
Betty
Tituba is Parris’s Indian slave. She is the one who goes out with the girls into the woods and helps them dance and do other “bad” things. Since Betty is sick and Abigail is blamed, Abigail sees Tituba as an easy target to put the blame on.17
Tituba
McCarthysm
McCarthysm
The charges against the so called “witches” in Salem were based completely on false accusations and quick solutions to complicated situations. Lying, and the fear that if you don ’t admit to your accusations, then you will be hanged. If you admit, you’re saved, but your soul isn’t damned.
During the Red Scare, fears of
Communism and Anarchy in the U.S
spurred an aggressive investigation and the jailing of people associated with
communist and socialist ideology or
political movements.A lot of the charges against these suspected communists were false, and based on incorrect
information. You didn’t get sent to hell by being accused, but eventually got
blacklisted.
The arrests and trials held in Salem during the witch hunts
created mass
hysteria in the small town. This was
mainly caused by the Puritan hate of Satan, and the fear that
these “devil’s
advocates” could spread chaos and destroy their town. This fear of chaos and eventual ruin of their town in itself, caused chaos and social destruction.
The fear of the U.S being overrun by communism ultimately fueled this
modern day “witch-hunt”. This fiasco took place during the cold war, when tensions with the communists were at their peak. The Red Scare hysteria in the U.S started when some communists started to turn up on our soil. This caused an all-out hunt for these anarchist communists to start, dragging innocent Americans with it.
During the Witch Trials in Salem, if you were accused of being a witch then you were
obligated to expose others whom had been
seen with the devil. These lies that were forced out of the accused further perpetuated the
cycle of madness.
The pressure on the accused communists to come fourth and
reveal other communists among the people of the U.S helped perpetuate the Red Scare. Usually the accused would just name off random people to potentially get themselves out of
trouble. The people’s new sense of patriotism after WWII didn’t help the
The God-fearing, devil-hating Puritan population of Salem were out for the blood of witches as soon as they got word that the devil was amongst
them. Every accusation and shred of evidence that came up was intensely examined and acted upon
The extremely patriotic people of the U.S in the early 50’s hated communists probably as much as Christians hated the devil. As soon as word of communists on American soil got out, the hunt for the communists was on. Every accusation was acted upon,
sometimes without much fact and evidence.
All of the previous charges against witches were revoked after the witch-hunts were over with. The people of Salem eventually came to their senses and realized that most of the charges against these supposed “witches” were false. Although they revoked the charges against these innocent people, the accused were still regarded as tainted people, and remained so for their whole lives. Those who had ratted out their friends and
neighbors also held feelings of contempt with each other for the rest of their lives.
After the Red Scare was over with, all of the previous charges against the suspected communists were revoked. Those who had put on the blacklists were taken off and were now able to work again. Although the charges were revoked, they were still watched, more so than regular people, wherever they worked. A lot of feelings of betrayal also came up after the scare was over. Friends had betrayed friends and now some were
Salem, Now and Then
Salem, Now and Then
The Witch House
The Witch House
This is the homeThis is the home
of Jonathan
of Jonathan
Corwin, a judge
Corwin, a judge
who was
who was
involved in the
involved in the
trials, who could
trials, who could
have been have been personified by personified by either Danforth either Danforth
or Hathorne. It
or Hathorne. It
is the only
is the only
structure still
structure still
standing that
standing that
relates to the
relates to the
witch trials, 313
witch trials, 313
years ago.
years ago.
