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Hi Random, In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, the superstition of witches existed in
a society of strong Christian beliefs. Anybody who acted out of the ordinary
was accused of being a witch and then the accuse would actually be forgiven if
the blamed their accusations on another individual. This was the main idea of a
play entitled, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this play a group of young
girls act up and are then accused of being witches. These girls then blame
other people in order to get out of trouble and even pretend to be "bewitched"
in front of the court during a trial. This leads into the deaths of some
innocent people who were accused and automatically found guilty. I believe, in
many ways the people of Salem were responsible for the witch hysteria.
The person with the most influence was the character, Abigail. Abigail
had an affair with a man by the name of John Proctor. Proctor broke contact
with Abigail and spent time and interest in his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail gets
jealous because of this and Abigail, a few other girls, and a servant from the
Caribbean named Tituba dance around in a order that they believe it will kill
Proctor's wife. Rev. Parris, Abigail's uncle, sees this and reports it. When
Abigail is questioned about this, she denies everything and doesn't tell the
truth about what really happened. Read the full essay here:
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