Religion and Witchcraft Essay

The book The Crucible outlines the era in which Salem, where the plot took place is maneuvered by set of religious practices that must be strictly followed. These days, there is only one basis for righteousness, and allegiances are only between church as the protagonist, or question the church and its tidy sum and vex looked upon as bad citizens. As such, the ten commandments is the central point wherein the people and the church base their criteria for being right.This fact, was detailed in the book, wherein John Proctor was impeach of being not a Christian just because he does not regularly attend Church masses. This showed lack of reasoning from the people, no one seek or understood how Proctor justified himself from doing so. It is only a case wherein, everyone belongs to either God or the Devil. This quote merely states that when someone does something, it is entirely found on being good or evil, nothing should go halfway between it.This kind situation in this era have pus hed the people to ruin new ways of interpreting their beliefs or disbeliefs in some cases. The emergence of the idea of witchcraft became a necessary evil that shall offer explanation to the peoples questions. For example, the deaths of Putmans babies after birth were attributed against the existences of witches. This happened because no one was able to offer any explanation, and thus they retorted towards putting the blame on someone, or something else in order to provide explanations for those occurrences. II. Witchcraft DiscoveredAs narrated in the book, the outbreak of witchcrafts discovery in the Salem caused massive disturbances amongst the people. The witch hound and trials that came after the so-called discovery of witches in the town has become a practice that sought for revenge rather than truth. The whole trial became a caper of the disbeliefs of the people and the fact that no one could explain how things happened around them. The witch-hunt was a long overdue opportu nity for everyone so inclined to publicly express his vice and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims. (Miller 7) This quotation from the books explains exactly how the trial turned out. As the book expounded, the character Abigail, who was the first to be suspected and who first confessed as having been mired in witchcrafts, was the first to pinpoint witches in the town. Abigail however, used this as a means to punish people who have offended her. She used her dark spell and manipulative ability to lure people into believing her. She has used the towns fear to her gain and nurtured the growing chaos in the community to protect her advantage.This misinformation about witchcraft and the religions constraints that limited the people to know more about the situation has lead the town to vulnerability. It caused the people more strain and fear and lead to the sufferings of people being accused, and death to those who were not convinced to lie and confess about the accusations. The death of Proctor and Corey is a significant graphic symbol of the story. It teaches people the value of upholding ones integrity and principle to save loved ones from further humiliation and injustices.It shows the value of upholding truth even if it meant dying. In this light, as religion has pushed people towards misinformation and disillusionment, people should learn from the story. Innocence and narrow-mindedness has caused detrimental effects not only to ones self but in the society as a whole. Therefore, as religion becomes part of our life, it mustnt dictate the way of living in general. Work Cited Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York Penguin, 1995.