omicaldivisions of the village were examined, it was found that in general the western citizens of Salem Villagelived an agrarian lifestyle and were hard-pressed economically. The land on the western side waswell-suited to farming and grazing. By contrast, the villagers on the east side were mainly merchants andlived fairly opulently. The road to Salem Town traveled through the east side of Salem Village. Manyinnkeepers and tavern owners lived on this road and made a good profit off all the travelers. Tension oftenarose between the two groups because of their vastly different lifestyles. It is not difficult to see why acatastrophe such as the Salem witch trials occurred. Once one accusation was made, it was easy to releaseall the buried suspicions and hatred into a wave of madness. The Crucible simplifies the cause to make fora better story, but in reality the reasons for the witch craft accusations were much more complex. Thereasons behind the accusations would result in many more quarrels over the years, but none as interestingor as horrifying as the Salem witch trials. In such a straight-laced Puritan society, there lived many peoplewith hidden darkness in their hearts, and the Salem witch trials exposed and magnified the consequencesof those black desires. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is exploredin great detail. There are many theories as to why the witch trials came about, the most popular of whichis 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 andeconomic differences between the citizens of Salem Village. From a historical viewpoint, it is known thatyoung girls in colonial Massachusetts were given little or no freedom to act like children. They wereexpected to walk straight, arms by their sides, eyes slightly downcast, and their mou...
