What is it about the society of Salem that allows the girls' stories to be believable? How does Arthur Miller make this plausible and why would it strike a particular chord with his audience?

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What is it about the society of Salem that allows the girls’ stories to be believable? How does Arthur Miller make this plausible and why would it strike a particular chord with his audience?

In the play of ‘the crucible,’ the restricted, rule-bound, Christian town of Salem was put under siege by the courts, who were trying people who were suspected of witchcraft, and then hanging them if they didn’t admit to it. Abigail William’s was caught dancing in the woods, along with the reverend’s daughter. She lied, and said that she was being controlled by the devil, and that was the reason for the suspicious dealings in the woods. She accused many people of dealing with the devil, who in turn accused others, to get themselves excused. Only a few people stood up to the courts and said they had no dealings with witchcraft, and they were each hung. After the hangings had taken place, it was discovered that the girls had been lying, and the innocent people had been hung for no feasible reason.

At the time when Arthur Miller wrote ‘the Crucible,’ there were current affairs which would have reflected the play. The threat of nuclear warfare was looming, mainly because of differences of opinions over communism. Many people were called to court accused of ‘un-American activities’ and persecuted if they couldn’t prove themselves otherwise. It was a way for the governing people to have a hold over the citizens. People were fleeing their country to escape the persecution they had to endure because of their beliefs. This was similar prior to when the Salem witch trials happened. People were leaving England for America for a new life as serious Christian communities, where they wouldn’t be mistreated because of their beliefs. The believers who set up the communities believed in absolute Christianity, and abolished and shunned anything that they believed was anti-Christian.

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The community of Salem feared anything beyond their own safe boundaries, so when the girls were discovered to have been dancing in the woods, that would have shocked on two accounts. The fact that they had left the confines of the village would have been enough to punish or persecute alone, but the fact that they were dancing was enough to almost damn them to the devil. Parris jumps to conclusions and thinks that the girls were conjuring spirits, when most likely they had just been dancing. Abigail is desperate to try and persuade him from his witchcraft theory, ...

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