The witches give Banquo the prediction of “‘Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none’ ” (Shakespeare 9). The reason to blame the witches is because before this prediction Macbeth and Banquo were best friends. Then when Macbeth becomes king he fears that Banquo will try to kill him because he knows that Banquo’s heirs will some day have the crown. Macbeth no longer trusts Banquo and is driving crazy thinking that his friend will come after just to make sure that Macbeth’s heirs will never get the crown, so Macbeth orders the death of both Banquo and his son to make sure that there is no one else to take the crown away from him. The only reason Banquo is murdered is because Macbeth becomes paranoid after the witches prediction.
(Sowers, Campbell, and Key) He exaggerated and exploited the evidence and ruined many reputations. The phrase "witch-hunts" derived from the hearings due to the similarity to the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trial is analogous to the McCarthy trials of 1950; in both situations wide spread hysteria occurs, deriving from existing fears of the people of that era. The Salem witch hunt trials parallel the McCarthy era in three crucial aspects: unwarranted accusations, hostile interrogations of many innocent people, and they demonstrated how hard times lead to society's need to find a scapegoat. The unwarranted accusations that Joseph McCarthy and the citizens of Salem made are what fueled the widespread hysteria in both situations.
The unstable conditions of Salem were also a cause of the Salem Witch Trials (Interpretation G). During the years leading up to the witch-trials Salem was in a time of a time of political, religious and social unrest. The charter that granted them their colony was lost and a new leader appointed by the crown was sent to rule all of Massachusetts. Also, the citizens of Salem had a genuine fear of God’s power and the destruction he could bring to the colony if they discovered to be in cahoots with the Devil. This made the prosecution and search for witches a very serious and high priority matter.
He is questioning himself and his judgment on all the witch trials. He shows how he is losing his confidence by saying this specific quote, “I have seen too many frightful proofs in court- the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!”(miller71) Reverend Hale doesn’t like the fact that there is so many accused of witchcraft. He says that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the person that the finger is pointed at. In the middle of the book Hale is for the first time, second guessing himself, which is different from the beginning of the book. The middle of the book is where his confidence is beginning to be lost and starting to see what is actually going
He has becomes obsessed with preventing the overthrow of him as a king. Some may say Macbeth became stronger as the play went on, but evidences shows he had become weaker as the haunting of the ghost Banquo broke him down to a point where he was questionably insane. He relied far too much on the prophecies and the supernatural, which in the end was his downfall. Towards the end of the play Lady Macbeth has died and the battle is drawing closer to Macbeth. After hearing the news of Lady Macbeth’s death Macbeth appears unemotional “She should have died hereafter;…” Macbeth is overly confident due to the witch’s prophecies telling him that anyone born from a woman cannot harm him.
These men being in power for so long could hardly bare the thought of change “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change” (Shelley). They were being threatened with losing their power over people. These puritan ministers decided they needed to do something so they could remain in power “The ministers were believed to have encouraged the strange behavior so that they could increase their own influence over the people by showing that they were able to rid the afflicted from evil spirits” (The Salem Witch Trials-Home). This path they chose made monsters out of innocent people. Now for who was the real monster’s behind this is hard to tell.
At a first glance, many assume a direct connection does not exist between the play and the dark event in history, but analyzed closely, the Crucible parallels the events of the Red Scare. Transpiring in a period of suspicion and distrust, the events that lead to the persecutions in the witch trials correspond to the proceedings that took place before the Red Scare began. Setting the stage for the persecutions, both Salem and the United Sates were in a state of constant paranoia where “neighbor looked on neighbor with some suspicion” (Bigsby xii). Before the witch trials began, the crown had revoked Salem’s royal charter, leaving it in a state of havoc and
When Macbeth was on the throne, he became scared that someone is trying to put him down. That is when Macbeth went to the witches again. There he received the other apparitions, which made him feel invincible. This false security finally destroyed him. This shows how the witches influence on Macbeth shaped the
She develops a twisted plot to secure John for herself. She tries to accomplish this by accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft, that ultimately leads to Elizabeth's arrest. Many other good-willed people in Salem also get accused of witchcraft. Proctor realizes that he must end this hysteria in Salem, and to do so, he has to confess to his adultery. Such an admittance would ruin his good name and Proctor is a proud man who, above all, places great emphasis on his reputation.
In the beginning of the scenes Macbeth goes from noble, to guilt-ridden. He is pushed by his wife Lady Macbeth into killing king Duncan. His head is filled with thoughts of becoming king ,and that this little task is all that is needed for him to rule the throne and gain power. He knows that it is the wrong thing to do, yet the thought of becoming king overwhelms him