The Puritan Tradition

            When the topic of a Puritanical society is brought up, people tend to think of a rigorous, conservative, highly devout society. While this description is generally true, it seems as though half the time it is false. The Puritan society is known not only to act out of brotherly, Christian love, but is also known to cruelly lash out on those who sinned or were deemed unfit for society. Such authoritarian actions lay the groundwork for its demise. It was only a matter of time before something exploited the population's weakest qualities and insecurities and brought forth its collapse.
             The isolation of the Puritan society created a rigid social system that did not allow for any variation in lifestyle. The church was against the Devil, and at the same time it was against such things as dancing and other premature acts. The Puritans were a God-fearing community. The reputation of the family was very important to the public. Young Puritan children were given little or no freedom to act like children. They were to be seen and not heard. It is not surprising that some would rebel against this constricting lifestyle. Though this society was thought of at the time to beperfect?, it was not taken into consideration that humans were not perfect. The secret grudges that neighbors held against each other and the physical and economic differences between the citizens is one factor which brought forth tragedies such as the witch trials. Within this model society lived many people with hidden darkness in their hearts, and the Salem witch trials exposed and magnified the consequences of those black desires.
             A community living in a Puritan society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a difficult time dealing with evil. Salem's hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs that they were trying to strictly enforce. Their justice system was hypocritical to the people that it was designed to protect.