The Salem Witch Craft Trials began in 1692, due to illness upon two young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, which could not be diagnosed. The girls were victim to hallucinations and seizures. The Salem Village doctor was unable to diagnose any true illness, so concluded that the girls had been bewitched. In recent studies they thought that they might have suffered from encephalitis lethargica, though this is not a fact. The symptoms from the medical condition describe the same symptoms that one can get from eating moldy rye wheat bread, which was what the scientists in 1970 concluded. In this paper I will show you the fact and fiction of The Crucible, written by the famed playwright Authur Miller, and directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring Winona Ryder and Daniel Day Lewis.
The first witchcraft accusation took place in the Salem Village at the end of February 1692, the accused being a Parish of the town at the time.
Deposition of Abigail Williams v. George Jacobs, S...
Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)
Reverend Samuel Parris (1653-1720)In the beginning of the movie, there was a group of girls dancing around a fire, and trying to conjure the boys that they loved and wanted to be loved back by. Tituba was the leader of the dancing and the wild riots that took place in the woods that Reverend Parris walked up upon in the movie. Margo Burns, author of Authur Miller's The Crucible: Fact & Fiction tells us that this never happened. However, he tells us that some of the girls tried to discover the occupations of their "future husbands" with an egg in a glass, what now would be crystal ball style.
In Miller's tale, he portrays Abigail as a love hungry seventeen year old who is in love with John Proctor, a married man, so as revenge for not being able to have him, she creates...