Culture and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Culture and Religion - Essay Example This paper talks about the physicians who attended the girls were unable to offer any plausible explanation. The confusion escalated into mass hysteria and people believed that the hovering presence of the devil over the village caused this problem. Tituba, a migrant African, confessed that a conspiracy of witches permeated Salem Village. Thus began the Salem Witch Hunt. The episode’s far-reaching ramifications are dealt in three classic works: I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, a novel by Maryse Conde, The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, and Young Goodman Brown, a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The themes of all three stories are inspired by historical accounts of the Salem witch trials. All of them attempt to comment earnestly and staunchly on the hypocrisy and social stigmas; class, ethnic and racial distinctions that draw the fine line between the privileged and under-privileged, through the literary devices like theme, characterization, symbolism. There is always an association between forests and evil because of its dark and gloomy nature. That is why the witch meetings were held in the midst of it. The minister and the deacon are also corrupt and evil. They all are considered to be holy and people of God, but they are just the opposite. This essay makes a conclusion that a reader can easily recognize a common thread of the authors’ criticism of the evils of Puritanism, of religious and class bias that served only to marginalize a certain segment. The extent to which race, gender, class and other indicators play a part in the events that form the basis for human history has been artfully and subtly dealt by all the three authors.