1. Home: Massachusetts Time Period: 1600s
Puritans
Home: Massachusetts
Time Period: 1600s

2. Religion in 1600s Believed good and evil spirits around at all times.
Martin Luther: “Pestilence, fever and other severe diseases are naught else than the Devil’s work.”
Believed God was sovereign over Satan.
There was an over emphasis on the supernatural because religion had been becoming too rational.

3. European Witch Trials
Witches had been executed in Europe for over 300 years.
Torture was used to gain confessions
Thousands were executed
Most burned at the stake.
In England witches were hanged as they were in Salem
Bible:
Christ cast out demons
Exodus “Do not allow a witch to live.”

4. What do you know about the Puritans based on this picture?

9. What do you know about Puritans based on this picture?

10. What do you know about Puritans based on this picture?

11. How would you describe their clothes?

12. What do you notice about Puritans in this picture?

13. What can you infer about the Puritans from this picture?

14. This is a picture of Salem Village around 1692
This is a picture of Salem Village around What conclusions can you draw based on what you see in this picture?

15. Puritan View of God and the Bible
Mysterious
Distant
Not understandable
Book of Law
Infallible

16. Five Basic Beliefs Man is sinful Man can’t save himself
God chooses people to be saved
God’s grace saves – not their actions
Once saved – always saved

17. Strict Moral Code Sabbath (Sunday):
A day of prayer & worship – no work
Levity – no laughing, silliness, life is serious
Gambling – forbidden, dishonest; a waste of time Drinking: no drunkenness
Idleness: Doing nothing was against the law
Death Penalty: adultery, murder, rebellion, witchcraft
Dancing not allowed
a waste of time - evil

18. Clothing Long sleeves Long skirts No jewelry No lace No ribbon
No fur hats
Women are considered “of the devil” or the “devil’s tool”

19. Worship Service and Building
Barren
Well lit
No musical instruments
Separate seating of sexes
1-3 hour service
How does this fit with the ideas of Puritanism?

20. Church Government Only property owners could be a church member
Women couldn’t vote
Theocracy (church & state are one)
Pastor was the head of the community

21. Attitudes Toward Others
Very Intolerant
“The Puritan community thought that heretics should have only the liberty to leave.”

22. Have we learned from the Puritans?
Plain living (basics)
High thinking
Work ethic
Morality
Democracy (Roger Williams)

23. Definition of a witch: A person possessed and controlled by the Devil
or one of his demons.

24. Facts of the Salem Trials Salem, Massachusetts
Lasted from May to Sept (less than 6 mos.)
There had been three separate instances before this in other communities in New England where witches were hanged.
If a witch confessed to being a witch, he (she) would NOT die.
Salem pastor was
Rev. Samuel Parris
He had a daughter (age 9) Betty (Elizabeth)
And a niece (age 11) Abigail
She is 17 in the play

25. More Facts
Abigail Williams led the girls
The girls listened to stories of witchcraft and magic told by a West Indian slave named Tituba.
They were found dancing in the woods at a séance.
The girls blamed the slave to escape punishment.
No one was free from accusation.
Even the wife of the governor of Massachusetts was accused.
Signs of the girls’ fits: Couldn’t talk; choking; acted like animals – barking; being pinched; falling into fits.

26. Physicians
could find
nothing wrong
with the girls.

27. Effects of Witch Trials
About 200 were imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft
19 were hanged
1 was pressed to death
Giles Corey years old
55 confessed to being witches and avoided death.
Other accused witches died in prison: Sarah Osborn Roger Toothaker Lyndia Dustin Ann Foster (As many as thirteen** others may have died in prison.) **sources conflict as to the exact number of prison deaths

28. 19 Were Hanged
Bridget Bishop Martha Carrier Martha Corey Mary Easty Sarah Good Elizabeth Howe George Jacobs, Sr. Susannah Martin Rebecca Nurse Alice Parker Mary Parker John Proctor Ann Pudeator Wilmott Redd Margaret Scott Samuel Wardwell Sara Wildes John Willard
George Burroughs

29. Bridgette Bishop Hanging

30. Important People in History and in the Play
Abigail Williams
John Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor
Marry Warren
Betty Parris
Rev. Parris
Judge Danforth
Rev. Hale

31. Arthur Miller

32. His Life Born – N.Y. City – wealthy family
Father suffered heavy losses during stock market crash of 1929
High School dropout
Worked as a shipping clerk
1934 – U. of Michigan accepted him
Married Marilyn Monroe (divorced)
Began to write in college
All My Sons – 1947
Death of a Salesman – 1949
Won the Pulitzer Prize
The Crucible – 1953

33. Themes in the Play Greed Betrayal Individual’s responsibility
to himself/herself and to
society

34. Why
did
Arthur Miller
write
The Crucible?

35. McCarthyism
McCarthyism

36. McCarthy Hearings
The McCarthy Hearings were being condemned by Miller as a witch hunt like that in Salem.
Many were accused of association with Communists in McCarthy Hearings.
People were found guilty with little or no evidence – guilt by association
Many lives and reputations were ruined by the Hearings.
Miller was not a Communist party member but advocated equality of classes.
He was disillusioned by Communism in the Soviet Union.
Arthur Miller himself was called before the U.S. Senate House Committee on Un-American Activities because of this play.