Tituba In The Crucible Essay

On February 25, 1692, the lives of two New England women and a household slave were turned upside down. On that day Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, along with a slave called Tituba were brought forth and accused of making a pact with the Devil and serving as his witches. Norton argues that out of those three women, it was the charges held against Tituba that were the most significant. Tituba’s race played an important part in her being alongside Good and Osborne as the first to be accused in Salem. Many historians believe Tituba to be an African slave. Norton points out that surviving records refer to her as, “…Tituba Indian,” “the Indyen woman,” “titibe the Indian Woman,” or the like, implying that Villagers viewed her ethnicity as an inseparable

In the 1950’s Arthur Miller wrote the play, The Crucible which reflects upon the Puritan Era in the 1600’s. In the play the characters try to survive a witch hunt that is quickly killing off salem due to Abby’s psychotic lust for Elizabeth’s husband, to reflect on the state of minds in the 1950’s during the communist hunts. Abby, in her late teens had an affair with John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband. After John broke it off with Abby, she went on to convince the town that there are witches in salem, and due to an idea she got once Tituba was convicted of witchery, she was intent on convicting Elizabeth as well. Even though Tituba, the only slave in salem, and Elizabeth, the wife of John Proctor , seem separated by race, religion, and status in the community, they are both very similar in that they have no power as women, and they are both victims, in The Crucible.

In the community of Salem if someone like Tituba looked out of place then they would be target of witchcraft. One reason that Tituba was such an easy target was because she was

Many people were accused of being witches in 1692 and hung or pressed to death for their crime, many others were thrown in prison for life. When the Salem Witch Trials Hysteria of 1692 swept Salem Village and surrounding areas, it was not a happy time. Many of the people living in Salem at the time were Protestants seeking religious freedom. Protestants were very religious people and looked to the Bible for help as God’s words were all true. One of the subjects that the Bible addressed was the Devil and how he possessed people to make them witches. When two young girls asked a West Indian slave woman be the name of Tituba to show them their fortunes, they begun to get more curious about her abilities. Tituba showed them the “magic” she knew from her former tribe, but when the young girls started acting strangely, she was accused for being a witch along side two other local white women. Instead of pleading guilty, Tituba confessed that she was a witch and told the audience of her trial that there were 6 more witches amongst them. This lead to a hectic frenzy to find the remaining witches and it turned neighbors onto each other, husbands on wives and entire families were thrown into prison for their crime. The three main reasons for the Salem Witch Trials Hysteria of 1692 were a group of young girls looking for attention, neighbor conflicts and gender/status/age.

As the story of Tituba unfolds, it reveals a strong and kind hearted young woman, very different from the Tituba we meet in The Crucible. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem unveils for the reader, Tituba's life, loves, and losses. Her long and arduous journey through life is inspired by her many female counterparts, yet also hindered by her insatiable weakness for men, who also press upon her the realities of life.

In the beginning of Miller’s play, Abigail, and other girls, are found by Reverend Parris dancing in the woods with Tituba. This event led Ruth Putnam and Betty Parris to lie still in fright, which in turn led to the summoning of Reverend Hale. When Hale arrived in Salem, he questioned Abigail’s innocence and good name by asking if she was the one who called the devil to Salem. Being the selfish character that she is, one of the most important things to Abigail was protecting her good name. Therefore, in response to these accusations, Abigail used Tituba as a scapegoat and ruined Tituba’s name, instead of having her own tarnished. By doing this, Abigail indirectly forced Tituba to choose death or confessing to witchcraft. In doing this, Tituba would eventually be forced to tell Reverend Hale who she saw with the devil, causing the beginning of the hunt for witches within Salem. Abigail should therefore be the character who is blamed the most for the tragedies in the play, as she indirectly caused the first accusations of witchcraft in

That was a quote from Mrs Putnam. I think the fact that she has lost 7 babies makes her think it is work of the devil trying to punish the “good”. Once everyone believed it was the work of the devil, they blamed Tituba who is only low class person in the household and her being a black slave makes it easy for everyone to blame her because as she doesn’t have any power or authority she won’t react and her coming from a completely different culture to than the people in Salem makes the believe that she is affected by the witch and devil.

Tituba was a women considered to be an outcasts of the village since she has very little dignity in being a slave. These false accusations lead Tituba to be condemned to death. This unjust act is only the beginning of a series of false allegations that take control of Salem, as well as the spreading of paranoia and hysteria through the village. This finally results in the deaths of the some of the main characters, such as Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, for carrying out acts of witchcraft.

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a rich and enticing play set in the late 1600’s describing the epic horrors and emotions through the events of the Salem witch trials. The Crucible, focuses primarily on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. The play begins with the discovery of several young girls and an African American slave, Tituba, in the woods just outside of Salem, dancing and pretending to conjure spirits. The Puritans of Salem stood for complete religious intolerance and stressed the need to follow the ways of the bible literally without exception. The actions of the women in

As the various characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller interact, the dominant theme of the consequences of women’s nonconformity begins to slide out from behind the curtains of the play. Such a theme reveals the gripping fear that inundated the Puritans during the seventeenth century. This fear led to the famous witch-hunts that primarily terrorized women who deviated from the Puritan vision of absolute obedience and orthodoxy. Arthur Miller presents his interpretation of the suffering by subtly introducing women who strayed from convention and paid the consequences. Throughout The Crucible, Arthur Miller delineates the historically austere Puritans’ perception and punition of women who differ from expectations, all while unraveling, through the characterization of Tituba, the harsh truth of how women were vided as lesser than men and feared if deviating.

This story shows us in many different ways of how people are scared of other being different. It shows us this when in Act 1 reverend Hale asked Abigail; “Abigail, it may be your cousin is dying. Did you call the Devil last night?” to which Abigail responded “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” Here we can easily see how Abigail blamed the witchcraft issue that she was being accused of on Tituba.

The trouble in Salem began in January, 1692 when Tituba, a slave from the West Indies was talking to Elizabeth Parris, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams about their futures. After telling them their futures, the girls begin to cry hysterically and act strangely as if bewitched. These fits could be brought on by the idea that their futures as Puritan child-bearing women was at risk or also by the girl’s wanted attention that they had no chance at getting regularly in Puritan society. Tituba also is undergoing torments at this time, seeing specters and having the same type of fits that the other girls are having. As the fits begin to happen to other

As he himself was unjustly accused of Communism, he is of the opinion that the motivation behind all these unfounded accusations is to intimidate people by creating a ‘politics of fear’. So too Tituba is accused of witchcraft although she is not in fact involved in it. The other representative character, Abigail Williams, prefers to accuse other people around her in order to refute the accusation of witchcraft’ levelled against her. Tituba is the ideal person to accuse of witchcraft. Because she is different; she can be more easily associated with Devil; her color is as black as the Devil’s.

“He say Mr. Parris’ must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean man and no gentle man, and he bid me, rise out of my bed and cut your throat!” This quote was said by Tituba in The Crucible after being accused of bewitching the girls. Tituba was a slave from Barbados and was taken to Salem after being bought by Reverend Parris. She was mistreated by Mr.Parris and was constantly whipped and beat. After confessing to witchcraft, Tituba goes crazy in jail and starts saying she and Sarah Good are going to fly with the devil to Barbados. Tituba and I have a variety of similar personality traits in that we are unique, caring, and an outcast.

When Abigail accused her of witchcraft, Tituba dined all of the accusations. Unlike Abigail, Tituba did not have a plan to defend herself. She was also not able to control the girls and make them tell the truth. When Tituba was threatened to be hanged, she changed her mentality on the situation. Instead of dining what she had done, she confessed her sins. During her confession, shame affected what she revealed to the others. Tituba said that the devil had control of her, and wanted her to kill Reverend Parris. This was Tituba’s way of admitting that she had thought about killing Reverend Paris. Tituba also took the center of attention off of herself by