Tituba: “scenes of Schizophrenic, Ego Centric, Paranoiac, Prima Donnas”

Tituba: “Scenes Of Schizophrenic, Ego Centric, Paranoiac, Prima Donnas”

The times of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts were tough and cruel. Arthur Miller makes this very clear in his play based on true events, “The Crucible” (1952). Though Miller fictionalized many things in his play, it was indeed based on true events. There have been many documentaries, stories, films, and reports written about the Salem witch trials, some of them support the thought that the Devil was truly loose in Salem Village. Mr. Miller’s play seems to support the more logical side of the events; The Puritans were greedy, and did anything to gain land and possessions - which means accusing their foes of witchcraft, and basically condemning the foe to death with pride, or a life cursed with accusation of witchcraft.

A person contributing greatly to the starting of the witch trials in Salem Village was Tituba. She was a servant in the house of Reverend Parris. Tituba was a dark woman from Barbados, and could have quite possibly been the cause of the horrible events in Salem Village starting up.

Many girls from Salem Village were caught by Reverend Parris as they were dancing in woods while Tituba stirred a stew in a crucible, and chanted words in her Barbados tongue. Supposedly, Ann Putnam sent her daughter to Tituba to try and conjure the spirits of her dead babies. She wanted to find out who had killed them at birth, and she suspected Rebecca Nurse, as Rebecca had been a midwife for Ruth in more than one case where the baby “shriveled in her hands”. Of course, nobody had anticipated the girls being caught...

At first, the girls involved were being accused of witchcraft, but Abigail Williams

convinced everyone that they had been under Tituba’s spell. When Tituba was accused of witchcraft, she denied it. She claimed she “never saw no devil”. But as the threats and violence rang out towards her, she broke under human nature. She confessed