Thomas Putnam plays a major role in the Salem witch hunt in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Inheriting a handsome amount of property makes Putnam a wealthy person; however, it doesn’t seem to satisfy his ambition. After the town terribly rejected Putnam’s brother-in-law, Bayley, Putnam’s bitterness has increased. Finally his prodigious involvement in the relentless accusations places him in the center of the spot light, making him a salient character in both the play and the indignant period of the American history. Thomas Putnam has a very large part in initiating the Salem witch hunt. He is the first character who blames unnatural causes for the illness among the children. Furthermore, he firmly believes in the …show more content…
Does Putnam simply wants to killed the witches and save the children? No, there is something bigger he is after. Thomas Putnam profits remarkably in the Salem witch hunt . The person who initiates the event receives all the benefit. Is it a coincident? It is not. Thomas Putnam must have a plan. At the beginning of the play, the argument between Putnam, Giles, and Proctor shows contentions between people over land. “The tract is in my bounds, it’s my bounds, Mr. Proctor,” says Putnam(32). “I bought that tract from Goody Nurse’s husband five month ago,” Proctor replies Putnam(32). “He had no right to sell it. It stands clear in my grandfather’s will”, Putnam tries to show evidence(32). Later in the play, Rebecca Nurse, Giles Corey and John Proctor are prosecuted. To whom will the tract go to? Only Mr. Putnam can afford to buy. George Jacobs is hanged because of Ruth. “If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property-that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbor for their land”(96). Putnam is a realistic person. His major plan is to become wealthier and destroy his oppositions in the witch hunt. In the end, Putnam completes his plan successfully. People like Putnam exists throughout the history of mankind, such as Joseph McCarthy and Adolph Hitler. They profit through abominations toward other
Many people may have heard of Witch Hunt, but only a very small number of people really understand the reason behind the comical history. The 17th century New England was in change. At that time, the traditional way of dealing with things, the means of facing dissension and the laws and rules of the new era caused a dramatic tension: the confrontation between judicial system and tradition mode. In the past, people's methods of dealing with difficult things tended to appeal to supernatural powers, which led to the truth distored or buried. The emergence of the judicial system had greatly challenged this traditional method. By reading Escaping Salem we can feel the transformation process.
Reverend Parris and Proctor are foils to each other because Reverend Parris cares about his reputation while Proctor does not care about how the village views him. For example, “PARRIS: To Tituba! What may Tituba—? MRS. PUTNAM: Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mr. Parris. PARRIS: Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the dead! MRS. PUTNAM: I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies? PARRIS, horrified: Woman!”. In this example, Reverend Parris is only concerned about his reputation and Mrs.Putnam is frantic about how all of her seven babies died. This shows that Reverend Parris is trying to sound reasonable for why Mrs.Putnam lost her babies and
Out of the eight times that Mrs. Putnam had been pregnant, only once did she have a healthy baby that lived past birth. Once the witch trials in Salem came to be, it seemed the perfect opportunity to fault somebody for it. She turned to Rebecca Nurse, who owned a lot of land, to blame in an effort to get that land. The narrator spoke of Ann Putnam’s thoughts toward Rebecca: “To top it all, Mrs. Putnam-who is now staring at the bewitched child on the bed-soon accused Rebecca’s spirit of tempting her to iniquity” (1.1111). The Putnams had always held a grudge towards the Nurse family, so accusing Rebecca of witchery was for their benefit. This example represented this motif because it was how Ann Putnam made an accusation for her personal motive: acquiring land and
The same with the Red Scare people in the United States lived in fear many people lost their job and citizens learned that politicians have their own agenda and they only crave more power than ever. Unlike the Salem Witch Trial the Red Scare inflict fear in the whole country while the trial just inflicted fear in Salem. In the Red Scare people were not killed for being communist but they lost everything to raise a family to make a living and transhed their career which prevented them from applying for another job. In the Red Scare many of the writer like Arthur Miller and his friend like Elia Kazan were accused of being communist and were
john proctor because the try of help the person and one women that is carry to the jail because thinks that is one She argues against the witch trial investigations. Mrs. Putnam accuses her of witchcraft and the have much respect because they care the boy that have in the house of john proctor and they no fue because Abigail Williams the they echo the fault a Rebecca nurse for that carry imprisoned and the querer to take out.
About 50 people were directly or indirectly accused by the members of the Putnam family which strictly followed the Puritan beliefs and customs, and strongly supported Reverend Samuel Parris, the initiator of the witch hunt.
This may have been one of the main reasons why there were so many people that were called witches or wizards. The Putnam and the Porter families are two of the largest families of the Salem Village and with that, they have many problems with each other. If you weren’t part of these families, you took sides, which one you lived next to. Putnam lived on the more infertile side of the village, which made problems for food and crops. One of the “witches”, Rebecca Nurse’s family harassed Ann Putnam’s family for many years. For this, Ann might have said she was a witch to take revenge against her and keep her away. More women said that other women were witches, why was this so? Was it because they really believed that they were witches or was it something
When Salem Farms won the small court case to have its own minister, it drove an even bigger wedge between itself and Salem Town. The Putnam brothers closely watched the new minister George Burroughs. The Putnam hated George Burroughs because he preached for money (Karson). Their hatred for Burroughs is the only reason Ann Putnam was branded as one of the “afflicted”. Her older brothers forced her to accuse Burroughs of being the leader of witches. That lie started the trials and sucked Ann in at the same time. According to Brooks, three of the “afflicted” were pariahs, which made it easy to accuse them of being witches. The Putnam brothers were acting as puppet masters during the trials and it was their hatred for Burroughs and Salem Farms that naïve “afflicted” accuse others in the community of witchcraft for revenge on those they didn’t like. The Putnam brothers convinced the community, which made the townspeople blame the “afflicted” for everything that went wrong because in their minds the Devil operated through witches. If it weren’t for the socioeconomic conditions of the time maybe the trials would’ve never
- Thomas Putnam’s greed for power in the court conquers his morals. - Due to this, the amount of suffering and devastation in the town of Salem starts to escalate because of the amount of false accusations Putnam is allowed to make and be successful in. - Abigail uses her innocence as a young kid to get the court to believe all she says; by doing this she gains power in the court. - When John Proctor forces Mary Warren to tell the truth about the voodoo doll and save Elizabeth Proctor , Abigail betrays her friends and goes into a state of insanity as if Mary Warren is sending the devil after her; all to keep herself safe and away from the accusations.
The Putnam’s felt as if the farming families were becoming really isolated from the rest of the town and they were quite amazed that they had made so much wealth just farming off their lands. Putnam’s were protestors known to be a rebellious group. This group had main ownership of the farming lands in the Salem village and they felt the need to form audience that can help them become a united group. In 1689, the religious audience was formed under the lead of Reverend Parris (Sutter). The religious audience was only a small group of the population of Salem and most of the members were the Putnam’s. The religious group and the Putnam’s were spilt into two fractions and divided into a contract under Reverend Parris who was employed to conduct church activities.
And the divide of the one area and a second committee also spurred a divide between families. The most significant of conflicts between households was amid the Putnam family versus the Porter family. It all began when the Porter family took control of the village committee from the Putnams on October 16, 1991. The Porters decision to not vote for a tax levy that would have resulted in a pay raise of Reverend Parris, the Puritan minister of Salem, angered Thomas Putnam as well as his followers. The minister, Samuel Parris felt that the refusal of the tax levy was because of a conspiracy going on within the village. He believed that the Devil had taken possession of some of the villagers. The enemies of the Putnams were not only the Porters, but instead a long list: The Howes, Hobbs, Townes, the Wildes, and also friends of the Porters, Daniel Andrews and Philip English. Another enemy to the Putnams was John Proctor, a tavern keeper who
Thomas Putnam was a family focused man. He and his wife lost seven of their eight children from supernatural causes due to witchcraft. Putnam started accusing people of being witches because their children had been grievously taken away from them. Because the Putmans had experienced the devils powers first hand, they did not want other families to experience this horrible phenomenon. They understood
Imagine the year is 1692. In a small Massachusetts town a culture of highly religious folk live in peace. Salem. It´s late January and the reverendś young niece Abigail and only daughter begin to act strangely. Rumors of witchcraft fly through town and fear runs rampant.In around a year 200 people are unjustifiably accused and 20 sentenced to capital punishment. Who is next? The strange widow down the road? The Coreys? In a time of obscured justice, line were crossed and innocent lives lost. In his breakthrough play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller spins a tale not far from the truth.Letting his readers explore a gruesome tale of blind hatred. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Abigail Williams embodies the wrongdoings of the Salem Witch Trials.
In “The Crucible”, a play about people being accused of witchcraft in 1692, both class and race played a part in who was accused and executed. The play began when the minister, Parris, catching local girls including his daughter, Betty, dancing at night with the black slave, Tituba. As soon as Betty became ill, Tituba was the first to be accused of witchcraft, and eventually executed. Soon, Tituba and Parris’s niece, Abigail started pointing fingers at many others in the community. Meanwhile, men with wealth or power such as Reverend Parris and Thomas Putnam, were trying to gain wealth and property by accusing others of witchcraft. An example of this was when Thomas Putnam wanted his daughter to accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft so Putnam could get his land. Judge Danforth, the person with the ultimate power, did not seem to seek justice for the powerless who were falsely accused. (Miller)
Throughout The Crucible, greed is a common motive for the witch hunts. Thomas Putnam exhibits this greediness as he wishes that George Jacobs would die, so he can acquire more land (Miller 150). Thomas Putnam even went to the lengths of making his daughter accuse George Jacobs of being a witch. By making this accusation, Jacobs would be killed and forced to give up his land. In today’s society, this still happens.