Similarities Between The Crucible And Witchcraft

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The Crucible, The Craft, and The Blair Witch Project are three critically acclaimed movies--about witches. Society today obsesses over every potion-making, spell-casting, broom-riding aspect of the magical witch. The fever started sometime in the 17th century. However, the people at this time felt fear instead of fascination toward the idea a witch. Series about the adventures of witches were not written, but rather books condemning the use of witchcraft. The phobia of witches spread across colonial America like a plague and it hit Salem, Massachusetts the hardest. Hundreds of young women were tried for being an accomplice of the Devil, dozens were jailed, and some were even executed. While witch trials occurred throughout the country, they…show more content…
In the 17th century, things that could not easily be explained were often blamed on the supernatural and were sometimes used as proof to convict someone of being a witch. This is called spectral evidence. In Salem, common people could testify against a witch and say that her ghost attacked them, much like Allin Toothaker did against Martha Carrier. “When he rose again he was going to strike at Richard Carrier but fell down flat on his back to the ground and had no power to stir hand or foot until he told Carrier he yielded, and then he saw the shape of Martha Carrier go off his breast.” (Mather 78) Because spectral evidence was allowed in this court, Toothaker’s likely made up story counted as testimony against Carrier. Yet, in cities other than Salem, the idea of using spectral evidence in court was absurd. They knew that not everything could be blamed on witchcraft, even though it was a possibility. “But they sought, in addition, to understand the why of it all--the motives, whether human or supernatural (or both), which lay behind the events.” (Demos 31) Salem was the only place that saw something unclear and immediately pointed it to witchcraft without an investigation. The more scientific approach the other towns had lead them to agree that allowing ghost stories without proof in the courtroom was

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