ncide closely with the east-west division.When the economical divisions of the village were examined, it was found that in general the western citizens of Salem Village lived an agrarian lifestyle and were hard-pressed economically. The land on the western side was well-suited to farming and grazing. By contrast, the villagers on the east side were mainly merchants and lived fairly opulently. The road to Salem Town traveled through the east side of Salem Village. Many innkeepers and tavern owners lived on this road and made a good profit off all the travelers. Tension often arose between the two groups because of their vastly different lifestyles. It is not difficult to see why a catastrophe such as the Salem witch trials occurred. Once one accusation was made, it was easy to release all the buried suspicions and hatred into a wave of madness. The Crucible simplifies the cause to make for a better story, but in reality the reasons for the witch craft accusations were much more complex. The reasons behind the accusations would result in many more quarrels over the years, but none as interesting or as horrifying as the Salem witch trials. In such a straight-laced Puritan society, there lived many people with hidden darkness in their hearts, and the Salem witch trials exposed and magnified the consequences of those black desires. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is explored in great detail. There are many theories as to why the witch trials came about, the most popular of which is the girls' suppressed childhoods. However, there were other factors as well, such as Abigail Williams' affair with John Proctor, the secret grudges that neighbors held against each other, and the physical and economic differences between the citizens of Salem Village. From a historical viewpoint, it is known that young girls in colonial Massachusetts were given little or no freedom to act like children. They were expected to...
