Arthur Miller's fictional play, The Crucible, dramatizes real historical events. The University of Virginia holds an related to the Salem witch trials. Under the "People" tab, there is a list of people connected with the trials. Select one and read the entire biographical essay associated with it. You must choose a character who is depicted in the play. Compare the essay's account of the character to Miller's fictionalization. What role did the person play in the trials? Why was he or she susceptible to the frenzy and fanaticism of Salem, 1692? archive of materials
19 Comments
Brian Lawrence
9/24/2015 11:29:06 am
My character John Proctor, in the Crucible was eventually tried at age 60 for the use of witchcraft and was convicted. He maintained his innocence till death challenging the court to reexamine the validity of the spectral evidence. In the University of Virginia's story, he is a well respected farmer and very wealthy. Throughout the trials, Proctor questioned the evidence from prior confessors to prove that everyone else was innocent, no one else pressed the issue as much as he did. When he faced trial in 1692 he maintained his innocence till his death all the while, questioning the courts acceptance of spectral evidence. A strong will to oppose the trials ended up making him pay the ultimate price.
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Bryan Carter
9/24/2015 11:34:38 am
Did he end up actually it doing it or was he falsely tried?
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jesse
9/24/2015 11:50:57 am
Proctor seems like a person who wood be liked by many, but because he tried to prove that he was innocent made people all the more suspicious like you said.
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Bryan Carter
9/24/2015 11:31:05 am
Samuel Paris contributed to the Salem Witch Trials because, when he was preaching, what he said played a major role in making the divisions within the village that helped make the accusations of 1692. While this was going on, he had put the church under siege by the Devil. Many believe that Paris and others chose who they thought were witches. Paris was a witness to what happened with his daughters and submitted a legal complaint about the girls and how they suffered. Paris saw his daughters dancing naked in the woods with Tituba, his black slave, who claims she was only bringing people back up from the dead.
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Brian
9/24/2015 11:36:19 am
What did Parris say that played a major role in the trials, and how did he put the church under siege by the devil? I mean he was a preacher.
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Jerry Gorbett
9/24/2015 11:42:33 am
Samuel Parris is very popular in the story. The role he had many roles in the trials such as serving as a witness who submitted legal complaints about the girls' sufferings along with other prominent men. Parris testified about the attacks of Rebecca Nurse against Ann Putnam Sr., Jr., Mary Walcot and Abigail Williams. He declared that at the trial when Nurse's hands were freed. As you can see he had a huge role in the whole witch trials. He was usceptible to the frenzy and fanaticism of Salem because he played a major part in the village and also had to support his enemy's and critics.
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Jesse
9/24/2015 11:45:56 am
In Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials Reverend Samuel Parris in very similar to what the essay says he was. He contributed to the witch trials by preaching that there were witches among the people and claimed the the church was under siege by Lucifer which was believed by some of the more hardcore church goers. He hunted down and killed a lot of people that where said to be witches. His nieces Betty and Abigail were caught in the woods dancing with Tituba and claimed that that they were only trying to raise and talk to Mrs. Ann Putnam's children that had died and figure out why they had died for Mrs. Putnam, Which also helped the towns people to believe the fact that there where witches among them.
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Umphy
9/24/2015 11:47:24 am
My character is Mercy Lewis. She was friends with Ann Putnam and some of the others involved in the witchcraft trials. She became one of the most involved accusers during the witchcraft trials. She accused many of those being sought of witchcraft. Mercy wasn't involved in the initial accusations, but rather joined Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Hubbard later in the trials. It was that maybe a need for being involved were strong motives.
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Haley Holden
9/24/2015 11:49:34 am
How did Mercy survive being blamed by the people of Salem?
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Umphy
9/24/2015 11:51:41 am
She had moved to Boston after the trials were over.
jesse
9/24/2015 11:52:39 am
i believe that she may have joined to avoid being accused herself.
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mikayala
9/24/2015 11:56:24 am
dose she get cot doing witch craft when she was accusing others?
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Haley Holden
9/24/2015 11:47:32 am
Martha Corey was one of the many women who was accused for witch craft during 1692. She was very religious women who by many of Salem's towns people as the "gospel women". She was new to the town of Salem so she was an easy target to blame for witchery. Martha was blamed by a man who said she came to his room and laid on him while his wife was asleep and nearly suffocated him to death (The Crucible). Martha was an easy target for people to lie about and tell stories about because of her background. The Putnam family was angry because the were being lammed so to take the heat off of them they started blaming Martha and it worked. Martha shouldn't have been blamed in the first place. She was susceptible for the trials because she had a illegitimate son and she had a vendetta against the Putnam Family. Martha Corey they say "opened the door for everyone to be blamed." September 22 Martha Cory was hung and killed because she was wrongly accused of witch craft just like the other 19 girls who died. The Putnam's blamed her because she was a deviant women and the wanted to be free of blame.
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Umphy
9/24/2015 11:49:43 am
Why was she such an easy target considering her background?
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Haley Holden
9/24/2015 11:58:08 am
She was an easy target because she was new to the town, she had a illegitimate son, and a vendetta against the Putnam family.
mikayla
9/24/2015 11:53:20 am
Tituba was one of the first women to be accused of witch craft. Her lagen was Black witch of Salem.Witch craft documents Tituba is India women servant. She was a slave in Parr's home. she was married to a another slave. there is no records of her practicing voodo or witch craft. she was a fortune teller witch she told fortunes to girls of Rev Parris house. she did not confess to witch craft she did latter because she was beaten by her owner and was fores to but at first she confessed to singing the devils book and not fortune telling.
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Anteia
9/24/2015 11:57:06 am
Tituba Indian is the character I chose. She was Reverend Parris's slave, who he bought in Barbados along with her husband John, who is not depicted in the play. She was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft, along with Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good. Tituba was blamed because it was very easy to find "proof" that she had committed witchcraft. This is because her religion was very naturalistic and because she was a slave. Her position in society was one that could easily be blamed or punished. She was accused of teaching the "afflicted" girls fortune telling, but she never confessed to it. She did, however, confess to signing the Devil's book, flying in the air on a pole, seeing cats, wolves, birds and dogs, and pinching or choking some of the "afflicted" girls. What Tituba confessed was all culturally European. She was the only one out of the three accused women that survived the year, spending 13 months in prison. An unknown person bailed her out and took her out of Salem. Nobody knows anything about her life afterwards.
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Chris Loo
9/24/2015 11:57:49 am
Giles Corey is described in the essay as an older man and one of the six men to be executed in the Salem witch trials. when he was executed, he was crushed to death. he stayed with his wife in the jail until his execution date.
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Emily Curfman
9/24/2015 11:58:30 am
Abigail Williams, age 11 or 12 was the niece of her uncle Rev. Sammuel Parris who was Salem Villages minister. Abigail was one of the main characters that also played a "prominent accuser" as well as a victim. In the beginning of Arthur Williams fictional play, Abigail and her sister were running through the fields naked and was claimed to have been consorting with witch craft, but in The University of Virginia's bio of Abigail it says that she and her sister were "commonly suggested that they were interested in fortune telling because they wanted to know the occupation of their future husbands." and that's when they got caught by the local minister, Reverend Hale. Abigail was caught doing something wrong either way and the other towns people convicted her of being a witch because later on she and her sister had begun to show signs of sickness. Denying that she was a witch, Abigail spreaded rumors about the other towns people that they were "conspiring with the devil" which caused people to be outraged and panic. Many trials were held throughout those months, and it all started with a conspiracy.
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