The Psychology of Self-Preservation and Its Relation to the Salem Witch Trials An analysis of the Salem Witch Trials reveals several commonalities shared between those who were accused and confessed to the malevolent crimes of witchcraft; one of which was the fear of death leading to self-preservation. Self-Preservation is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as the “natural or instinctive tendency to act so as to preserve one's own existence” (2016). This instinct remains innate inside…
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headaches. Theoretically if these girls ate infected rye they could experience strong hallucinations like for say seeing the Devil with witches. This has led some to believe that an outbreak of ergot in bread in the town of Salem in 1691-1692 was the cause of one of the biggest witch trials the world has seen.…
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What did John Proctor have to do with the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials? Some say that the Salem Witch Trials all began with, John Proctor. If John had never gotten to know Abigail Williams in an intimate way, Abigail probably would have never gone into the woods with Tituba and the other girls, to cast what they thought would be “harmless spells.” If no one was in the woods, then no one would have been caught “dancing,” thus no one would have had to accuse anyone of witchcraft to save their…
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The Salem Witch Trials 1692 My extension history project is looking at the controversial issues surrounding the cause/s of the 1692 Salem Witch Trial. February 1692 to May 1693 a series of hearings and prosecution in Salem Village, Colonial Massachusetts took place as the town’s people were accused of witchcraft .The trials were conducted after a group of young girls claimed that they had been possessed by the devil, in conclusion accused several local town’s people of witchcraft. Furthermore the…
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Introduction It's 1692 and many of your fellow townsmen are being brought for trial on the charge of witchcraft. Panic fills your town and you're not sure who to trust anymore. There's a knock at your door, the priest says you're under arrest on the charge of witchcraft! The Salem witch trials, a period between 1692 and 1693 where more than 200 women were tried and twenty hung for being witches. The Salem witch trials are a fascinating subject that we wouldn't have known about had it not been so…
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The changing historiography of the Salem Witch Persecutions of 1692. How current/contemporary and historical interpretations of this event reflect the changing nature of historiography. The number of different interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials illustrates that historiography is ever changing. The historians, Hale, Starkey, Upham, Boyer and Nissenbaum, Caporal, Norton and Mattosian have all been fascinated by the trials in one way or another because they have all attempted to prove or…
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Trials of Conspiracies Something that is so controversial and still stirs up paranoia is witch trials. Witch Trials have been around for centuries and follow the practice of magic and use of spells and spirits towards others. The Salem witch trials in specific were significant because the public had let this topic become out of control and so widely spoken of so soon. In Massachusetts 1692, three young girls had a strange feeling coming over them. They started feeling controlled and would convulse…
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Williams. The play takes place during the Salem witch trials where Abigail and other girls are claiming that they have been possessed by the Devil and start naming others who they saw affiliated with him and who dabbled in the arts of witchcraft. They accused women of witchcraft but only those who they have a grudge upon. An example of this is when Abigail acused Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail also is to blame for majority of the events in Salem during the trials. She manipulates others to turn blame from…
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Witch Trial Analysis: Elizabeth Proctor The Salem Witchcraft Trials took place in 1692, where over 150 men and women were accused of practicing witchcraft. Taking a deeper dive into the trials, focusing specifically on the proceedings of Elizabeth Proctor, we will overall focus on the reasons she was ultimately accused, as well as what factors led to her survival. American author and historian, John Putman Demos, wrote the award-winning book Entertaining Satan, the book contains a chapter that discusses…
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the Crucible was written by Arthur Miller during an era known as McCarthyism. McCarthyism was a search, or “witch hunt”, led by Senator Joe McCarthy, for Communists in the United States Government during the nineteen-fifties. This “witch hunt” indirectly shed light upon “...one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history”: The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a drama of the true story which took place during the seventeenth century. In The Crucible…
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