The Crucible
In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, the superstition of witches existed in a society of strong Christian beliefs. Anybody who acted out of the ordinary was accused of being a witch and then the accuse would actually be forgiven if the blamed their accusations on another individual. This was the main idea of a play entitled, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this play a group of young girls act up and are then accused of being witches. These girls then blame other people in order to get out of trouble and even pretend to be "bewitched" in front of the court during a trial. This leads into the deaths of some innocent people who were accused and automatically found guilty.I believe, in many ways the people of Salem were responsible for the witch hysteria.
The person with the most influence was the character, Abigail. Abigail had an affair with a man by the name of John Proctor. Proctor broke contact with Abigail and spent time and interest in his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail gets jealous because of this and Abigail, a few other girls, and a servant from the Caribbean named Tituba dance around in a order that they believe it will kill Proctor's wife. Rev. Parris, Abigail's uncle, sees this and reports it. When Abigail is questioned about this, she denies everything and doesn't tell the truth about what really happened. The news of her and the other girl's strange actions gets around and the hysteria starts. Without Abigail's superstition, and her fear or telling the truth, I think the events in The Crucible wouldn't have gotten as serious as they did or even started.
John Proctor was another catalyst to the witch hysteria in Salem. John Proctor has an affair with Abigail, but he and his wife do make up and get along well. John Proctor adds to the hysteria when he and his wife are talking about Abigail and why she is acting so oddly. Although John Proctor knows she is making up everything and blaming innocent people, he is reluctant to travel to Salem and testify her as a fraud to the court. If he would have done this the witch trials could have stopped there. Another way John Proctor could have contributed to this madness but his moral didn't let him occurs when at the end of Act IV he says he will confess to the law...