When Arthur Miller wrote his play during the McCarthyism period. During McCarthyism there was a fear in the US about communism. This is Arthur Miller got his inspiration from because both time periods had fear of others and both are alike. Both the societies are very similar.
The girl’s stories could easier be believed; the bible says that children are pure innocent people. It mentions how adults should be more like children because of their innocence. The girl’s could easily be believed. If the society hadn’t of been religious then the stories probably would not of been believed.
The people had religious attitudes. Because of superstition and old grudges, people would accuse people of witchcraft for ridiculous things. When Mrs Putman lost her babies she accused Rebecca Nurse because she had lots of children of her own and thought she was using witchcraft. She mentions, “You think its God’s work you should never loss a child, her grandchild either, and I bury all but one?” This clearly shows how jealous she was of her and led into her being hung.
Other reasons for the hangings were people’s personal differences and grudges towards other people. Also personal differences complicated issues to do with the witchcraft also.
John Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams who was their former slave. Elizabeth Proctor fired when she figured out that they were having an affair. Abigail used this to her own advantage. As a physical appearance, Abigail is a “strikingly beautiful girl” but she is a person who is cruel with a cold heart when she cried viciously to Betty (Parris’s daughter) “I’ll beat you.” Miller tries to make Abigail liked because of the fact that her parents are all dead so that people feel sympathy for her. But Abigail is a person that wants a true family, hoping for a good impression when she shows her property and that she is here to give the impression of respect and politeness. But from time to time she can still be quite reckless when she shouted “your name is dead and buried!”
All Abby wants is John Proctor because if he accepts her, then she would be a changed person due to her ways of stress and her arguments with Parris would away and Abigail would totally relieved about finally leaving his malicious uncle into a new world. She is desperate for a less hard life. But she always shifts the blame of herself to another just to selfishly get out of trouble and exclaimed “Goody Proctor is a gassing liar!” with Miller creating a character that is dishonest about when her uncle was finding her in the forest. Then she emotionally threatens her younger cousin with a pointy reckoning suggesting that could be one seal of witchcraft really alarming her cousin Betty.
Abigail is not a type of person that actually cares about other people because when John Proctor’s wife was sick, John had an affair with Abby. Then when John Proctor’s wife eventually declared a divorce. He was left in despair bur Abby did not feel a thing and just kept going after Proctor.
Because of the Girl’s advantages being children and being ‘innocent’, they had a lot of power. People of the village start to realise this; Mary says to Proctor, “Four Judges and the Kings Deputy sat to dinner with in but an hour ago”. This tells us how important these stories are in the village of Salem. The Girl’s can make a difference, with gives them power.
When Mrs Put’m accused Rebecca Nurse of killing her children inside the womb it was also because she wanted the land. Many people accused people for their own selfish needs to claim the land around them for their own. This shows us that many people from the village were not friendly and what the society was like at the time in Salem.
The girl’s were afraid when they were caught dancing in the woods. Rather then accepting responsibility they blamed witchcraft. This is because anything that wasn’t part of Christianity was classed as evil because it would have the Devil’s influence in it. Everyday things such as reading and dancing were permitted. Even in this time that was seen as an unusual and strange thing to do. We know this when Parris mentions dancing being illegal, Hale replies, “You Permit Dancing?” as if he is shocked to here the words from Parris’ mouth.
Because of the power that Abigail and the other girls have they knew that they could get away with blaming witchcraft instead of confession to dancing. We start to realise that Abigail is knowledgeable of her power when she uses the suspicion of the village to her own use. She gets out of an execution by accusing Tituba, a black girl, for using witchcraft. She mentions, “I hear her singing her Barbados songs and tempting me with…” This was a cleaver move because they village’s fear of other cultures.
Because of the suspicious society they lived in, anything could of seemed like the Devil’s work. Elizabeth Proctor is prosecuted for reading a book because it was classed as the Devil’s work, for she was learning knowledge that was not Christian and was therefore evil.
A lot of the reasons behind the truth not coming out were also because of the vanity and pride that the society of Salem had. One reason being that Hale was too quick to jump to witchcraft, without thinking of a logical reason behind it; the society was that religious.
The girl’s were scared and didn’t know what to do; with this Abigail came along and told them what to do. The girl’s trusted and were led my Abigail because they didn’t know what else to do. Also were scary and didn’t want to be hung. Abigail enjoyed leading the girl’s because she liked her power. She likes to be in control.
The society has a strong pride. With the people of Salem not confessing to the witchcraft. Because they didn’t admit they assumed that they did do the witchcraft, so the girl’s stories were easy to believe even more so.
In conclusion the girl’s stories were easy to be believed because the society of Salem was an extremely religious. They were paranoid with fear, which made them venerable to small things: causing superstition. Another reason why the girl’s stories were easy to believe was because people wanted to believe them so they could end old grudges and claim land.
People were scared to question the Bible because they would be accused of doing the Devil’s work and then hung. The Religious views about Christianity were taken too literally and as a punishment over 20 people were hung because of it.
Chris Cheung
