Early Science?
After watching an excerpt from the Ergot video, what are you contemplating regarding The Crucible? Does the Ergot video's theory seem plausible? How does it force us to rethink the theocratic process of the Salem Court preceedings? Are we challenged to reconsider the behavior and attitudes of the characters in The Crucible? Please respond thoughtfully while addressing the drama and video. Complete your response by 2:30p.m. on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012.
posted by Greg T at Friday, October 05, 2012
31 Comments:
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The idea in the Ergot video gave some plausible ideas and would give some explanations for some events, like why the entire town went along with the questionable accusations and "proof". However, I think there was some sort of fishy stuff going on to start or prolonge this. If the Ergot video was right, then how did the town ever get out of this cycle?
-Gretchen
It seems like the fits that these people were having, was not related to being possesed or other supernatural causes, but because of this fungus called ergot. The fungus possed a type of lsd trip that caused people to hallucinate, and see weird things. This radically changes the way the salem witch trials were held because innocent people were killed because of a fungus reaction in other people. It causes us to reconsider how the characters in the crucible behaved because of something besides super natuaral causes were effecting these people.
After watching the Ergot video and reading The Crucible, it explains a lot. The fungus in the grain could have easily caused the hallucinations and the fact that they were uncontrollable in their movements. Back then, they did not have the knowledge to know that the ergot could cause hallucinations and cause people to contort the way they did. After the town doctors could not diagnose what was wrong, everyone jumped to conclusions and said it was witchcraft. If someone had the knowledge to identify what the true problem was then it would have totally changed the court proceedings and no one would have accused of witchcraft and no one would have been put to death for crimes that they never would have thought of committing back then. We are most definitely challenged to reconsider some of the characters in the play and their actions, especially the people who are rounding everyone up and accusing them. What they are doing is completely and utterly wrong and immoral.
The Ergot theory seems plausible towards what happened in The Crucible because it could be the way how a big group got affected the same way. I think that the court preceedings were only a way to find an answer to what happened to everyone and why they were acting so strangly. It was also a explanation because no one else knew about the desease so they had something to blame the cause. I don't think that the Ergot theory is the only thing that caused so many people to act that way because if it was it would seem strange that only certain people acted that way.
Even though the ergot video did have some information that makes sense, it doesn't have proof that would fit The Crucible. Like why was Abigail in the woods dancing with her friends and doing suspicious stuff? Now the fungus does seem like it could have grown on their crops and certainly gives the story a new perspective. But what about the people that weren't acting crazy, why were they exempt from the LSD.
After watching the excerpt from the Ergot video I am questioning the logistics of the citizens thinking in The Crucible. The theory stated in the Ergot video seems much more reasonable than the use of witchcraft. I believe in the scientific theory more because it has proof and reasoning while the witchcraft theory does not. At the time of the Salem Witch Trials they did not have the scientific tools or thoughts to test if the “witchcraft” was real or a drug. For the time the only logical explanation that made sense was witchcraft but now with technology we know that it is more likely a drug called Ergot. We are now challenged to reconsider the behavior and attitudes of the characters in The Crucible because the symptoms the “witches” had and the symptoms of Ergot are almost identical. This is much more logical because witchcraft is not normally the reasoning of events today. I believe that there were and are still not any witches and that all of the unexplainable events of their time can be explained today through science.
The theory proposed in the Ergot video seems plausible but not completely explainable. It is very difficult to diagnose a disease that took place so long ago. However, this theory seems to be accurate according historical documents. This theory helps explain the town’s fears and hysteria. Though witchcraft is a completely false and unjust accusation, I can better understand why they desperately wanted an explanation for such a bizarre disease. The Ergot theory helps me sympathize with those in the Salem trials. Without any medical knowledge, the effects of Ergot would be extremely concerning. Also, because they lived in a theocratic society, their most reliable explanation would be something ungodly.
After watching the Ergot video excerpt in class, it makes me think about the lives of the citizens in Salem when the witchcraft trials were going on. If the Ergot natural fungus were really growing on the grains the people were eating, then the hallucinations would have been causing the intense fits people were having. Because they thought the fits were the result of witchcraft, many innocent people were accused. This makes you think that the Salem court preceedings were unjust and killed many innocent people for no reason. The theory does sound plausible though. On the other hand, there was no way of knowing, the fits were being caused by something other than evil spirits. That is what seemed most likely to the people then, because that is what they knew. Knowing this theory now makes you rethink the characters in the Crucible. Maybe Tituba, Betty, and Abigail really aren’t involved in witchcraft, and they are telling the truth. They may be guilty for other things, but their confessions might have been just to save them selves from getting killed. It is hard to judge what is true though, because this did happen so long ago.
After watching the Ergot video, I have reconsidered my thoughts on some of the characters in the crucible. If the Ergot video is correct, then I believe the accusers of witches may have been not in their right mind, and their crazy accusations were not all their fault. I think the Ergot video's theory does seem plausible, and provides a reason for the crazy behaviors. I do still think the court proceedings were very unjust, there was just less betrayal between citizens if the Ergot video was correct. Based on this theory, while reading the crucible, it will be hard to see the accusors as guilty, however the accusors do take the witchcraft to a new level, and I do not believe Ergots ttheory is true in the crucible.
The ergot fungus theory makes more sense to me than witchcraft. People hallucinating and having fits are effects of ergot poisoning and these are the problems the people during the Salem witch trials had. I think the fungus' lsd effect on people would explain why what happened did happen. And if it is the cause, then the Salem court would have been condemning innocent people because of a bad fungus reaction. But they would have had no way to prove this and so witchcraft was the easiest explanation for them.
The theory of LSD getting into the food is plausible, however, why didn’t it affect everyone? I don’t have to rethink anything about the process of the Salem Court proceedings. I don’t think that God should have had anything to do with the decision of the court, but that doesn’t change the fact that everyone in that time period had very Puritanical thinking. They couldn’t find a medical reason, so they blamed it on the supernatural. I think it’s extremely probable that LSD got into the food at first, but I also think that the girls couldn’t explain what had happened, so they began making stuff up and pretending to be possessed in order to stay out of trouble.
Even before I watched the excerpt from the Ergot video, I thought the people who blamed everything on witchcraft didn't listen to what they were even saying. Blaming odd behavior on some sort of ritual with the devil doesn't really make any sense. The scientific proof that backs up the odd behavior and sudden illnesses are more accurate than some immature accusations. In the Crucible, the first reaction to the girl's dancing in the woods was... witchcraft-no question about it. This makes me wonder why the Salems Court proceedings happened the way that they did. A person is guilty for witchcraft because back then they didn't have all the scientific studies that we do now to prove that its because of something else. So there are no other thoughts about what could be happening. This makes me not only question the judgement of the people in the Crucible, but the people way back when who believed only in witchcraft.
After watching the excerpt from the Ergot video, I am convinced that the people of Salem weren't possessed, but in fact something much more serious was going on. The movie mentions the belief of a fungus or chemical infecting everyone including the animals. The Ergot theory does indeed seem plausible. If you think of the details of the Crucible, we can find evidence such as the girls running in the woods naked. In that scene they might have come in contact of the fungus and produced multiple symptoms looking like witchcraft. It forces us to rethink the reasoning and knowledge that no one knew about. I almost want to feel compassion and sympathy for everyone involved including the accusers. They honestly didn't understand the events occurring, nor did they have the knowledge or tools to figure it out logically. Although I agree with the theory expressed by the Ergot video, I do believe there was an "emotional crisis" or something going on with the community. When we examine the actions of characters such as Abigail, I see a problem coming from her past that encourages her to act out. I do believe we should reconsider the events and the actions of the people of Salem.
Since childhood, storybooks have taught me about witches -- a cartoonized broomstick and pointy hat, slightly scary version -- and my parents have taught me that monsters aren't real, we only like to tell stories about them.This makes it incredibly easy for me as an outsider to judge their opinions, but the puritans from the time of The Crucible have been taught their whole life that witches exist and they serve the devil. With modern science, odd unnatural seeming occurrences are begging to be explained-- we want to find a logical reason, and are less likely to assign these to a divine power. In crucible times, good things were attributed to god, and bad to the devil -- outbreaks of seizing, sweating, half conscious people were thought to have been afflicted by witchcraft, while modern people have a hard time believing this. This is why the ergot video makes sense -- ergot creates similar effects to acid,as well as those described in The Crucible. Only a year ago, tomatoes were contaminated with salmonella, even with modern technology and farming. It is not hard to believe a similar occurring could happen with the wheat during this time, and offers a logical reason for the behavior of the people in the play, which we as modern Americans are ultimately searching for.
The Ergot video did seem plausible because it gave a whole new perspective on the Salem witch trials and why they happened. This total idea of why these things happened in Salem, that is scientific and not theocratic. If only the people of Salem had known about Ergot and how the causes of their "witchcraft" is from a fungus that causes them to hallucinate. With this new evidence i think we have to also reconsider the behavior and the attitudes of the characters. We now have to look at all of the people in the town as victims, and only the few who realize this such as Abigail use this new found look at the characters to their benefit.
The Ergot video theory seems plausible. I think the fungus might be part of the reason for the "witchcraft" but I also think the girls acted as they did because Puritans are very extreme and live a very strict life. If I had to live such a strict life I would probably try to rebel or act out because I would get sick of being closed in all the time. I would want to discover whats out in the world and I think these girls were just trying things that were against what everyone else way following. I think we do reconsider some of the behavior of the people in The Crucible. Abigail and the girls that follow her might just want someone to look up too or they might want a leader. I think there is a better explanation of this situation than just witchcraft. These Puritans are so used to doing things their way that I think they just jump to conclusions when these girls do weird things. I believe research probably have not explored all the options or explanations of this so called "witchcraft".
After Watching the Ergot video regarding the Crusible, Ergot poisoning in the grain does seem like a very probable theory. The theory explains how the hysteria of the story could have started and also why no one knew what the cause of the sickness was. I do not think this knowledge affects the story very much because most of the issues and deaths of the story were caused by people and their fear rather than the illness itself.
After watching the Ergot video I believe that the citizens in The Crucible are not possessed, but that the girls are just having hallucinations. Back then, people did not know as much about many of the sicknesses we know of now and the Salem Court wanted to get rid of the cases and would blame anyone that was convicted of witchcraft. Also, many adults tend to believe what their children say because they are so naive and innocent, why would children lie? Abigail is a self- centered child that thinks she deserves everything she wants, but all of the other girls behaviors should be reconsidered because some of them seem to actually be sick mentally.
The Ergot video gave some insight and explained why the townspeople went along with the explanation of witchcraft. The story makes more sense knowing a little bit more about that era and that their doctors and medical tools were very primitive, so naturally they would believe that it was witchcraft. We are challenged to reconsider their behavior because people turned to the church for guidance so it makes sense why they would turn to witchcraft so easily. Also, there was a lot of fear, so people would lie in order to save themselves.
I believe that this plants a logical explanation to the origin of the issues, however there must have been plenty of very confused people because I do not believe that all of them were under the influence of this drug. Whether it be satanical or science driven something created serious problems for these people. In this era these people were so religious that anything that took place symbolized God or Satan to them. So they blamed the unknown travesties to Satan. Fear so evidently reveals itself in the core of these people that anything negative instantly becomes satanic. Looking back makes it hard to understand the emotions running through this town. We easily can say that all these people were crazy for believing in witchcraft, yet it is part of their culture. The Ergot video reveals a very plausible initiating idea about how these events started, once that happened the people let their own beliefs create more problems than their ever need be.
After watching some footage of Ergot, I different perspective on the crucible because it has shown me that the people turned to witchcraft. The doctors are more simple about their procedures so they turn to witchcraft when they couldn't explain the symptoms of patients. The doctors quickly realized that this was a much bigger problem then they had anticipated it on being. The theocratic process forces us to rethink by taking things a little more serious and not as a joke. Yes, we are challenged.
Although some of the concepts and ideas about the Ergot video were crazy regarding the storyline of "The Crucible," some of the details about it I found could be true and relatable to the witchcraft. I thought it was interesting that they brought up the fungus in the grain, and said that it could've caused the farmers to see things, or hallucinate. People back in the times of the play didn't know about hallucinations or distorted images processed from one's imagination, therefore they were shocked by what they were seeing. They were trying to make some since of what they saw, and because they knew this was clearly nothing holy or from the hands of God, they automatically assume that it could be satanic. This could've been the root that started the theory of witchcraft, brewing strange substances in caldrons could've easily been a mixture for hallucinating, and the dancing could've only been the strange behavior from the high. From all of this, I could believe that the researchers in the video were making since of what they were finding.
- MB
After watching the Ergot video and reading The Crucible, I think that it is possible that the LSD type fungus was the cause of the hallucinations and the fits that the girls were having. It seems highly unlikely that the girls were actually bewitched. After someone cried witch, the girls saw it as a way to get back at the people in the town that they didn't like. If medicine and science were as developed during the time of the trials as they are now, the people would have been able to figure out that the girls were not bewitched; therefore there would have been no witch hunt and no trials. We must reconsider the motive of the "afflicted" girls in The Crucible to determine whether or not there were, in fact, witches in the town of Salem.
I think that the girls in the Crucible could have had the sickness described to what the girls go through and that the hallucinations could have happened without the girls faking it. The theory seems plausible about what could have happened in Salem. This seems that it has facts that are truthful about the cause and it explains things by using the questions the person had and the evidence they found out to prove their answers to the questions. We are challenged to reconsider the behavior and attitudes of the characters in the Crucible since evidence is displayed before us and the reactions of the girls in the play seem to link to the evidence.
After viewing the Ergot video, it did give me more perspective on what actually might have been going on in the Salem witch trials. I found it intriguing that there’s a possibility that the fungus mentioned in the video was embedded in the grain farmers used for crops. They said the fungus would have caused the hallucinations and all the unexplainable sightings that were ‘witnessed’ could have been caused by the intake of the fungus. After the doctors of the town could not pinpoint what was wrong, the townspeople jumped to conclusions and determined that it must be witchcraft. Obviously if Salem had the medical technology used in here in modern day, the result of the witch trials would have a very divergent turnout. Overall, I do agree with the video presented in class because it insinuates to have all the right facts and has connected all the missing puzzle pieces together.
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After watching the Ergot video, I have reassessed my thoughts on some of the characters in the crucible. Although the ergot video did have lots of believable information that makes sense, it doesn't have proof that would fit The Crucible. SOme of the theories like some plants being traced to have amounts of LSD in them could be correct and the entire root to the problem. But again, we have no proof of anything, which i can understand since the town doctors at the time had limited medical knowledge compared to todays, they jumped to witchcraft when all resources were used and assessed. THey wanted to have an explanation instead of saying simply "I don't know" it seems. It makes us reconsider how the characters in the Crucible act after being presented with all these different theories, but I guess it will always remain a mystery.
The main conflict in The Crucible is that nothing can be explained, so Salem has to tie all the strange events back to witchcraft. However, in the Ergot video, there seems to be an odd scientific explanation for all of the strange hallucinations and visions people were having. Although it's possible that plants or crops had these hallucinogenic properties, you can definitely see why the people of Salem had to resort to witchcraft as their explanation. When things can't be explained, people do often start to resort to believing it's paranormal. You can reconsider and really feel for the characters when they describe witchcraft rather than a strange fungus.
After Watching the ergot video i think that this is plausible. This poisoning in the grain does make sense. This theory makes a lot of sense because this is a whole new way at looking at the salem witch trials because if they realized the ergot was poisonous they would have not hallucinated. Its like the court is condemning the people for the reaction of bad fungus. There was also a lot of fear. Instead of getting condemned people would lie to avoid it.
After the excerpt of the Ergot video it makes more sense to believe that these people were hallucinating the strange events. The theory that LSD caused the hallucinating is a strong theory because the side affects of LSD were present for ex: they had uncontrollable movements and would have horrendous outbreaks of fear and screaming.I think that if someone had this knowledge that one of two things would happen.One That person with the knowledge would be excluded because he is the only with the knowledge and they would wonder why and how he knows this. The next possibility that could happen is that the trials would end and a medicine would be made leading to less fear and belief in witchcraft.
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