Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorn on the contrary had only political authority in the town.
The respected citizens within the township were Francis and Rebecca Nurse and Thomas and Ann Putnam. These people were respected by the lower order in the community because they were landowners.
John Proctor was a tragic hero, he was essentially a good man, but not perfect and his adulterous lust for Abigail Williams started off the whole set of tragic events which changed the village forever.
Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Ruth Putnam and Mercy Lewis were the teenagers who rebelled. The rebellion ensued owing to ‘the constant winding of the spring’. The theory that too much law, order and restraint will eventually lead to chaos because people feel the need to break free. The lowest and most despised inhabitant of Salem was Tituba, the black, slave-girl of the Reverend Parris. As the hysteria within the community increased, their social positions are dramatically changed.
The chaos started when two of the town’s teenage girls, Betty and Ruth were struck down by a mysterious illness. The girls had been participating in a black magic ritual in the Virgin Forest the previous night. Once the townsfolk heard of this, they immediately connected the two events and assumed that the devil and witchcraft had infiltrated the village.
Miller linked this to communism spreading through America. As in the Salem witch-hunts, special committees were set up, led by McCarthy. Their aim was to search out Communist sympathisers in the United States. Many ‘suspected’ Communists were persuaded to confess and name other sympathizers to avoid punishment. As a result there was a mad hysterical rush to falsely accuse fellow citizens, thereby shifting the possibility of guilt from themselves.
Once these rumours started, the townsfolk of Salem were able to use the situation to accuse their enemies of using black magic and witchcraft to gain vengeance and retribution. Any old grievances and jealousies wee reawakened. Upon hearing about the success of the persecution of fellow townsfolk, mass persecution began and hysteria spread. Innocent people were accused of being evil and being in league with the devil. Examples of this can be seen primarily in Thomas Putnam, who for a number of reasons including land disputes and election issues, had a bitter grudge against Francis Nurse and his family. He accused Francis’ wife, Rebecca, of supernaturally murdering his wife Ann’s seven dead infants. He used the witch trials to gain satisfaction from this underlying resentment and Rebecca was hung. Ann was able to relinquish some guilt she harboured for the death of her children with this warped sense of justice. Also, Abigail wished Elizabeth Proctor dead because of the confrontation over Abigail committing adultery with her husband, John Proctor.
Their plight to purge witchcraft from the village went so far that the religious covenants set by their puritanical religion were contravened. The very issues and rules, which the citizens of Salem adhered to so strictly, were relentlessly broken.
By trying to maintain their virtuous society according to their beliefs, they were effectively destroying it.
Towards the end of the play the hysteria only existed because people wanted it to. It “suspends the rules of daily life and allows the acting out of every dark desire and hateful urge under the cover of righteousness.”
At the end of the play the religious framework was drastically changed. The leader of the community, Reverend Parris, had his power usurped by the ‘black magic worshipping, teenage girls, in the fervour of the mass hysteria. He was not excused from the accusations either from Tituba. The hysteria surpassed racial and sexual prejudices. The teenage girls soon found, that if they made a simple accusation, this could incarcerate and convict some of the most important citizens of Salem. The once respected and worthy citizen, John Proctor, no longer had any social clout and found himself examining his own conscience and responsibility for the mass hysteria that had swept his town.
Because the people have been suppressed in their thoughts and actions for so long, they were unable to apply mature thinking and reasoning to the events surrounding them.
10th November 2004
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