Elizabeth Proctor Salem Witch Trial

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Witch Trial Analysis: Elizabeth Proctor The Salem Witchcraft Trials took place in 1692, where over 150 men and women were accused of practicing witchcraft. Taking a deeper dive into the trials, focusing specifically on the proceedings of Elizabeth Proctor, we will overall focus on the reasons she was ultimately accused, as well as what factors led to her survival. American author and historian, John Putman Demos, wrote the award-winning book Entertaining Satan, the book contains a chapter that discusses the nine characteristics that the 114 focus suspects seem to almost all share. These characteristics include but are not limited to sex, age, background, marital status, familial relationships, criminal deviance, occupation, social standing, and …show more content…
He goes on to mention the relationship between the accused and the accuser, where the accused were majority middle-aged women, and the accusers were majority younger women. So why would age play a part in whether or not someone was considered a witch? There seemed to be a large stigma that was rooted before and even during these trials, that “witches” were old women, wrinkly, and full of malice. Creating a hierarchical situation where young pure women are being tormented by older, wiser women that hold authority over someone younger than them. The next point that Demos writes on is the gender factor, this is the largest overarching theme for anyone who has ever heard of the Salem Witch Trials, a historical event centered around women. He includes charts that show how out of the 141 cases he examines, 103 of those accused were women. There are hundreds of theories and works of research to uncover this question of why women are so important. Author and historian Elizabeth Reis covers a very well-researched point of view on this topic that has to do with faith and