Background

and

Introduction

to…

The European Witch Craze

• Charlemagne – at Council of Frankfurt, deathto anyone who burns witches (794).

-- Approx. 500 years later, Croatia and Switzerland begin unofficial witch hunts.

• Pope John XXII – auth. Rom. Cath. Inquisition to prosecute witches in 1320; systematically by 1400s.

• Malleus Maleficarum (by Heinrich Kramer?)• Latin = Hammer of the Witches• To convince/discredit skeptics• To claim most witches are female• Posits that women who don’t cry at trials are

automatically witches• Death by hanging or burning • 37 verified copies in existence in 1487• May not be as influential as thought

The European Witch Craze

• Total executions in Europe and America:-- 35,000 executions out of 80,000 tried

• Total executions in Britain and N. America:-- 1,500 – 2,000 out of 5,000 tried

1682 – last person put to death in Europe 1692 – last person put to death in America

-- Salem Witch Trials (The Crucible)

Witch Executions up to 1692

Common Punishments:

Salem Witch Trials of 1692

• 150 are imprisoned in N.E., mainly inMass., and mainly because Boston’sPuritan Rev. Cotton Mather has published pamphlets des. Witchcraft

• Salem – 14 women, 5 men are hanged(one by crushing), 5 die in prison.

The End of The Craze?

• Act of 1735 – (Eng.) – people will be prosecuted fraud instead of witchcraft.

• Up to 1940 – used for prosecuting Gypsies and spiritualists.

• 1951 – the Act is finally wiped off the books.

Arthur Miller

• 1915 – 2005

• “Death of a Salesman” -- Pulitzer Prize

• some believe him to be the greatest American playwright.

• pub. “The Crucible” in 1953

• Un-American ActivitiesCommittee – est. in1938 - anti-Communist.

• McCarthy – Sen. States,More than 200 “card-carrying”Communists in America.

• McCarthyism – the paranoid hunt for people who might be “reds” or symp.

themselves. They then could not find work, andwere put in jail if refused to name others. Thosewho were questioned include Charlie Chaplin, Lena Horne, Arthur Miller, Leonard Bernstein.

McCarthyism

Facts of “The Crucible”

• Puritan Salem – est. 40 years before. People live lives of hard work, isolation, prayer.-- the woods are dark, dangerous, myst.-- “autocracy by consent” (Miller 6).- united in religion that is basis for all that happens to them.

• Puritan Paradox – theocracy, or comb. of church and state to keep unity repression, esp. with any signs of increased individuality. (Hypocrisy)

• Rev. Parris – 40s in 1692; bad with kids; paranoid; has 3children and a slave, Tituba.- daughter Bettywas in reality 9 at time of trials.

• Eventually apologizes for his role in 16-mth. trials.

Facts of “The Crucible”

• Abigail Williams-- in reality, 11. Sheand Ann Putnum Jr.,and Elizabeth Hubbardfirst accuse Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne,Tituba.

-- ties in to Putnam v. Porter feud (all of Salem involv.)

Facts of “The Crucible”

• John and Elizabeth Proctor – in reality, he’s 60sand they have 3 children.

Facts of “The Crucible”

Things to watch for: