Witch Trials, Research Proposal Example

For my research paper, I would like to focus my research on the importance of the interpretations made by the ministers and afflicted young people from both Salem and Northampton concerning the case of distressing and unpleasant events.  Since the primary meaning of those particular incidents is vague within each community during that period of time, the interpretations placed on these episodes by each individual especially the ministers Samuel Parris from Salem Village and Jonathan Edwards from Northampton might take a significant direction to the end.  Unlike an earlier generation from Salem Village, instead of executing 20 people being accused of witch craft, Northampton people managed to manifest their religious concerns leading to an occasion called a religious revival.

I will split my research into two parts in order to effectively point out the distinctive parallelism of the situation before further assessing my topic.  Along the course of the first part of my research, I will discuss as well as verify the similarities of these two events. I will examine the sources of the outbreak and compare and contrast the behaviors of afflicted persons shared between the two communities.  Likewise, I will also attempt to compare and contrast the differences between the actions of the clergy in their attempts to convert the afflicted persons.  In my attempts to examine the behaviors of afflicted persons, I intend to examine modern-day definitions of mental illness and treatment techniques to see how such behaviors would have been treated by medical professionals today. I will attempt to draw similarities between mental illness and the behaviors of the afflicted persons in Salem and Northampton that may have been caused by curable or treated diseases.

First of all I will investigate similarities of the sources of outbreak event within the two communities.  In order to find those similar patterns, I will compare the religious and social status of two ministers, Samuel Parris and Jonathan Edwards who were in-service at the church, by studying their biographies.  Furthermore, I will examine physical and emotional behaviors developed within the bodies of afflicted young people.  For this reason, I will also employ detailed biographies of four young persons, two afflicted girls, Elizabeth Parris and Mercy Lewis from Salem Village and two notable converts, Abigail Hutchinson and Phebe Bartlet from Northampton. With these biographies I intend to show the similarities and differences of afflicted persons as well as the impact that the church officials had upon the conversion of individuals from their “satanic” behaviors.

The church officials, such as Samuel Parris and Jonathan Edwards, performed many morally questionable actions that led to the deaths of many afflicted persons.  These wrongful deaths were eventually paid by the governments in reparations to the afflicted persons’ families for improper treatment and wrongful death.  One of the behaviors that Samuel Parris performed as a clergyman was called “jailhouse excommunication”.  This ritual was not only “unconventional in that it was done in a jail instead of before the assembled church, but it was theologically improper in that it did not intend toward reconciliation” (Duntley 58).  Instead, Parris performed the disciplinary action of “jailhouse excommunication” to force the afflicted persons to admit guilt “as a cutting off–a separation–not the humbling, spiritual, communal call to repentance that Puritans intended their excommunication to be” (Duntley 58).  His tactics were morally and theologically incorrect and likely caused more advanced damage to the afflicted persons than their original behaviors may have suggested.  This is a historical view of improper treatment for sociological, behavioral, and psychological illness.

Finally, I wish to analyze the psychological aspects of mental illness as they are applied to these two instances.  Although there did not exist the technological advancements of today, many of the current theories on mental illness could be applied to explain the types of behaviors that the afflicted individuals in Salem and Northampton performed.  One such article is from Scheff (1974), where the author attempts to examine the labeling theory that discusses how mental illness is determined and diagnosed in the medical profession.  If nothing else, we may be able to gain a closer examination of the exact behaviors and if the afflicted persons were actually possessed or if they could be diagnosed as mentally ill in terms of modern-day psychology.  I intend to examine the behaviors of afflicted individuals and examine them with similar behaviors of mental illnesses that are currently being diagnosed in today’s society to draw any relevant similarities.  Such an analysis could shed light on the situation and instead of viewing the afflicted persons as possessed or wicked, we may be able to view them as mentally ill and being the victims of a psychological, biological, or sociological disease that could be cured or treated today.

The Salem Witch Hunts and the events in Northampton have been and continue to be widely analyzed and examined by historians and social scientists.  I find these events very interesting, especially in the sociological aspects of what caused the afflicted persons’ behaviors and how they were attempted to be converted or cured of their wickedness centuries ago.  It is my intention to compare current mental illnesses with these historical events to try to explain why these people behaved as they did and what mistakes were made, besides the morally questionable actions of clergyman and Puritan culture.

References

Duntley, Madeline. “Clergy, Discipline, and the Salem Witch-Hunt: Popular Stereotypes vs. 17th Century Ecclesiology.” Journal of Religion & Abuse 7.2 (2005): 57-68. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 Oct. 2009.

Gatchet, Roger. “A Hystery of Witch-Hunting: Witch-Hunt Tourism and Public Remembrance in Salem, Massachusetts.” Conference Papers — National Communication Association (2007): 1. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 Oct. 2009

Latner, Richard “The Long and Short of Salem Witchcraft: Chronology and Collective Violence In 1692.” Journal of Social History 42.1 (2008): 137-156. America: History & Life. EBSCO. Web. 8 Oct. 2009.

McHugh, Paul R. “Hysteria in Four Acts.” Commentary 126.5 (2008): 18-24. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 Oct. 2009.

Scheff, T.J. “The Labelling Theory of Mental Illness.” American Sociological Review 39 (1974): 444-452.