PURITANS

❧❧ Left England in the early 1600’s because of profound

religious differences

❧ Set up a colony in Massachusetts Bay

❧ Colonial government was a theocracy (church state)

❧ Religious laws = civil laws

❧❧ Wanted to “purify” the church of England

❧ Get rid of the rituals that resembled Catholicism

❧ Reestablish the authority of the Bible

❧ Restore simplicity to services

❧❧ Ministers had “unofficial” authority, but

profound importance

❧ Only male members of the church could vote.

❧ Outsiders were not welcome – if they wanted to stay they had to convert to Puritanism

❧ Puritans were very nosy, always checking to be sure their neighbors were being “good” Puritans

❧❧ Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve’s fall, every person is

born sinful - concept of Original Sin❧ Unconditional Election - God “saves” those he wishes - only a few

are selected for salvation - concept of predestination.❧ Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for

everyone.❧ Irresistible Grace - God’s grace is freely given, it cannot be earned

or denied.  Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.

❧ Perseverance of the “saints” - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly.  If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism  

Basic Puritan Beliefs - Tulip

❧❧ A person’s natural desire to do good - this works

against predestination.❧ Dislike of a “closed” life.❧ Resentment of the power of the few over many.❧ Change in economic conditions - growth of

fishery, farms, ect.❧ Presence of the leaders of dissent - Anne

Hutchinson, Roger Williams.❧ The presence of the leaders of the frontier -

concept of self - reliance, individualism, and optimism.

Forces Undermining Puritanism

❧❧ Change in political conditions -

Massachusetts became a Crown colony.❧ Theocracy suffered from a lack of

flexibility.❧ Growth of rationality - use of the mind to

know God - less dependence on the Bible.

❧ Cosmopolitanism of the new immigrants.

Forces Undermining Puritanism

❧❧ Visible decay of godliness.❧ Manifestations of pride - especially among the new rich.❧ Presence of "heretics" - Quakers and Anabaptists.❧ Violations of the Sabbath, swearing and sleeping during

sermons.❧ Decay in family government.❧ People full of contention - rise in lawsuits and lawyers.❧ Sins of sex and alcohol on the increase.❧ Decay in business morality - lying, laborers underpaid, etc.❧ No motivation to reform.❧ Lacking in social behavior.

Visible Signs of Puritan Decay

❧❧ The need for moral justification for private, public,

and governmental acts.

❧ The Quest for Freedom - personal, political, economic, and social.

❧ The Puritan work ethic.

❧ Elegiac verse - morbid fascination with death.

❧ The city upon the hill - concept of manifest destiny.

Some Aspects of the Puritan Legacy: each has positive and negative implications

Characteristics of Puritan Literature

❧❧ To transform a mysterious God - mysterious

because he is separate from the world.

❧ To make him more relevant to the universe.

❧ To glorify God.

The function of Puritan Writers

❧❧ Rational and Orderly: because God’s creation was logical

and harmonious, all verbal representation should exhibit the same traits.

❧ Strenuous and Serious: because life was an unremitting moral struggle

❧ Used scriptural analogies: passages from the Bible, taken literally

❧ Very Sober: did not want to show light-mindedness or worldliness.

❧ Very Realistic: Used incidents from daily life exactly as they saw it

Plain Style

❧❧ Idealism - both religious and political.

❧ Pragmaticism - practically and purposiveness.

❧ Primary Dramatic Element was the struggle between Christ and Satan: Puritans believed themselves to be God’s chosen messengers.

Common Themes in Early Puritan Writing

Salem TrialsWitch hunt hysteria

❧Witchcraft Hysteria

❧In 1692, the Massachusetts colony fell victim to the fear of witches.

❧Over 170 people were arrested and accused of being witches.

❧However, this was not an isolated incident. From 1500-1700, it is estimated that between one million and nine million Europeans were executed as witches.

❧Puritan Girls Gone Wild!

❧ In Salem Village, the minister’s daughter and several other girls were caught doing fortune-telling with the minister’s slave, Tituba.

❧ When confronted, the girls began having “siezures” and have lapses into “unconsciousness.”

❧When In Doubt,

Pick The Old And The Homeless…❧ At first, the girls only accused Tituba (the minister’s

slave) and two old women of being witches.❧ Eventually, the accusations spread to many of the

prominent and respected members of the community.

❧The Witch Tests

❧ The “sink test” involved tying rocks to the accused and placing them in water. If they sank, they were proclaimed innocent. If they floated, they were pronounced a witch, and were then hanged.

❧ The Satan's mark test involved a body search for a “black mark of Satan.” They would look for an odd black mark on the accused witch's body. If found, the black mark was often poked with needles to see if the person felt pain or bled. If they did not, they were pronounced a witch.

❧More Witch Tests…

❧ The scales test involved weighing the accused against a metal bound Bible. If they were lighter than the Bible, they were found guilty of witchcraft. If they outweighed the Bible on the scales, they were innocent.

❧ The prayer test was another common test . The accused was asked to recite the Lord's Prayer. If they recited it flawlessly without problem, they were proclaimed innocent.

❧ If the accused stumbled over words, made a mistake or shrieked during their recitation, they were considered guilty of witchcraft.

❧❧ People were accused and convicted based on

evidence that only the accuser could see, such as apparitions or ghosts.

❧ The great mystery of the Salem Witch Trials is how an entire town believed this evidence, triggering mass hysteria.

How the witch trials were different from a typical court trial today.

❧1. Strong belief that Satan is acting in the world: "The invisible world": disease, natural catastrophes, and bad fortune attributed to work of the devil 2.  A belief that Satan recruits witches and wizards to work for him. 3.  A belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits certain symptoms. 4.  A time  of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan was active: Smallpox , Congregational strife in Salem Village,  Frontier wars with Indians 5.  Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba. 

Different theories for the Salem Witch Trials

❧6.   Convulsive ergotism, a disease caused by eating infected rye that can produce hallucinations, causing strange behavior.7.  Teenage boredom: No television, no CDs, instead lots of Bible reading 8.  Magistrates and judges receptive to accusations of witchcraft: See as way to shift blame for their own failures, Admission of spectral evidence 9.  Confessing "witches" adding credibility to earlier charges.10.  Old feuds (disputes within congregation, property disputes) between the accusers and the accused spurring charges of witchcraft.

Different theories for the Salem Witch Trials

❧❧ Crucible n. 1.a container made of a substance that can resist great

heat, for melting, fusing, or calcining ores, metals, etc.

2. The hollow at the bottom of an ore furnace, where the molten metal collects

3. A severe test or trial

Why did Miller name this play The Crucible?

❧❧ What do you learn in the prologue about the

Puritan people and the village of Salem? How were children expected to behave?

❧ What is ironic about how Parris feels about children?

The Prologue

❧❧ Rank the following girls by status, number one being

the leader, etc. The weakest girl should be at the end. Give short quote or explanation to support your choices: Betty, Abigail, Susanna, Mercy, Mary

❧ Review the introduction of Hale on pages 32-36. What points about the devil does the writer make?

❧ How can an accused person avoid hanging? How does this influence the chain of events that sets off the plot of the play?

Act 1