ution. Salem was turning into a ghost town. With the community turning on each other, the church loosing its respect and influence, and an unjust legal system, it is only natural that the people were in a state of total chaos. John Demos writes:…only at Salem did any considerable number choose to convict themselves, and there, it seemed, confession was the strategy of choice if one wished to avoid the gallows. Endless rumors was made up because people did not want any blame put on to themselves. The social breakdown in Salem was the major factor in the tragedy that took the lives of many innocent people. There was more than one tragedy happening in Salem. The first was the murdering of many innocent people, and the second was that a community that was once very close had been broken apart. Often the people of small puritan villages like Salem were like a family, but isolation probably made them unable to adapt to the difficult situation. It is ironical that the attempt to create a society based on rules and regulations given by the church and the most influential men back fired and created a state where people ended up questioning their religious beliefs. That is probably why writers like Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in the following years tried to move away from the general puritan ideas and move society into a new and more tolerant age. As the trials went on the accusations became more and more bizarre. When a child became ill, or a cow ceased to give milk, the neighbor was suspected of magic. An accusation of witchcraft brought into court all the accuser’s enemies and rivals with stories of the mishaps and disputes of the last ten to twenty years, interpreted in the light of vicious occult powers. Also disturbing is the Puritan disregard of justice. The upper class was treated leniently when accused, and placed under house arrest, rather than being consigned to months in a crowded and stinking jail. Bec...
