"Why is the accuser always considered innocent?"
The quote above, from Act II, basically sums up what my main question throughout the play was: Why did everyone believe the young, childish girls throughout the trials, while no one ever believed the accused even if they were good people known throughout the town? Since this is not a fiction play, but a play based on events that really happened in Salem, Massachusetts almost 400 years ago, I guess none of us can really analyze what Arthur Miller meant by the play or what the purpose of him making everyone believe children, rather than adults. I don't think even Arthur Miller analyzed those things while writing the play, but instead I believe that he was just trying to accurately portray what happened during The Salem Witch Trials, while still making it entertaining for the audience. With that said, I think that the point of reading this play was to try and understand what we would do if we were in a similar situation as the people of Salem were in, in 1692, and also to try and understand the reason behind their ways of thinking.
I honestly don't believe there was anything close to witchcraft going on in Salem during the witch trials, but instead a group of young girls bored with their everyday lives and a town that was also so bored with their everyday lives, that they would believe anything just to be entertained for a little while. This is shown when during town meetings the so-called "bewitched" girls would fall into fits the entire town would break into hysteria and some even began falling into fits like the girls. The townspeople would "believe" there was witchcraft going on in the town until they were the ones on trial for doing the witchcraft, and then they would suddenly say that the girls were lying and there was no witchcraft going on. The ones who didn't believe in witchcraft from the beginning of the trials would all of the sudden say they were bewitched when they were on trial for bewitching the girls. To me, none of it makes sense, which leads me to the conclusion that the town had a bad case of extreme boredom and nothing but a little bit of excitement could make it go away.
Although I don't believe there was any witchcraft going on, I do believe that the effects of the trials were very real and brought up a good point in the play: puritan morals and beliefs. In the Epilogue of the novel it talks about how the town took a while to recuperate, because while many of the townspeople were in prison or were attending the trials, their crops, animals and some children were being neglected. The reason for the trials( in my opinion) was of course the boredom and need for excitement, but also the town's Puritan beliefs and morals. The morals the town had were kept in place to make the town and townspeople perfect, and these beliefs and morals were used throughout the Salem Witch Trials, to restore the "perfect" life in the town. Ironically, the result in the Salem Witch Trials was not restored perfection but instead, ruined crops and abandoned children. So, I guess what I"m trying to say is that from this play I got that the people of Salem in 1692 were bored, hypocrites, and I think that Arthur Miller did a good job of portraying this and even making it a bit entertaining.
I so agree with the quote and the way you worded everything! I think that was kind of my point in my post, but I couldn't find a way to make it get across!
ReplyDeleteI sort of thought of Arthur Miller to be like William Shakespear only Miller's play was way easier to read and understand than any of those written by shakespear!!
My question for you is why do you think (in modern society, for example) that the accuser is considered innocent? This is always true at some point in the case.
I like how you went into detail about how people tend to believe the accuser instead of a person they trusted for a very long time. When I interpretted the Crucible, I thought that people believed the accuser because they were so afraid of the "witchcraft" going on that they decided just to believe them guilty. In my opinion they did it out of fear. What Do you think?
ReplyDeleteThe thing you said about how he made the purpose of people believing children rather then adults, that actually was what happened. It sort of goes to show you though that people want to believe what they want to believe. Like, who would want to believe that their children were condemming others to death? Remember though, it wasn't just the children who were pointing fingers, some adults were too.
ReplyDeleteWhat you said about people "thinking" they were under a spell reminds me of a story that a teacher at Roncalli told us. He was a bartender when he was younger and this guy would come in and drink every night at this bar, but he hated the taste of alcohol in his drink and was always trying different ones to see if they tasted any better but they did not. This guy was always complaining to this teacher. Finally this teacher stopped putting alcohol in this guy's drink and the guy, not knowing the difference, really liked it. Evidentally the guy started falling over tables and he couldn't even sit up straight because he had like five of these drinks. This guy was actually drinking the equivalent of a cherry limeade. This story shows that you may think you are experiencing something, but you are not. This is what I believed happened to the people of Salem. They thought they were being overcome by witchcraft and some spell, but they were only doing what the other people were doing. The hysteria made them do crazy things, and they thought they were being bewitched, but they were no different than you or I.
ReplyDeleteYour idea that the girls did everything for entertainment is interesting. It kind of makes sense to. In the scarlet letter Pearl was considered a devil child for playing. The only holidays were religious, it makes sense the only entertainment was religious too, no matter how malicious it may be.
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