Early Science? Modern Science? "The Crucible?"
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 proceedings? 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, November 4th, 2015.
posted by Greg T at Monday, November 02, 2015
27 Comments:
What I am contemplating with the crucible is that I think it's really messed up. To me it doesn't seem plausible at all but to him it obviously does. It helps us to rethink the process of Salem Court proceedings because it showed a different perspective or different insight on the idea and process. We're not challenged to reconsider at all because it is not necessary at all.
To me the argument of LSD being the "illness" seems plausible, except one thing. Even if it was a bad acid trip, I don't think it would last a week or how ever long they were sick. It may last like 8 hours, but days, or even weeks doesn't seem possible. The challenges that we are facing is still out there, and all though it may not have been witches we are still not 100% sure. If we see more evidence of the symptoms, and how long they lasted we could be more sure that it is lSD but we don't know enough.
AAfter watching the video Ergot, it leaves me with questions. I do think it is a possible answer for what has happened but looking back on acid or the drug they say these people were unknowingly taking, the history doesn't show them to be like animals and screaming and yelling and feel like there are pins all over there body. I think they need to get more in depth with the fungus that has grown on the wheat instead of just linking it to acid. I feel as though they are on the right path. They just need to explain more and maybe they will find the real reason.
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The Salem Witch Trials is an example of religious fanatics taking the lives of innocent people because they didn't understand something. The illness that caused the accusation of many to be witches has since been related to am LSD like "trip" and that almost makes the whole thing more of a joke. The loss of lives isn't funny but the fact that puritans who didn't know how to explain a sickness blamed witchcraft is in a way and the fact that it was caused by a fungus in their rye and bread that caused the whole town to trip acid and go crazy killing each other is also a little silly.
I believe that they could of hit the nail on the head with this one and at the same time they could be trying to put a logical answer so something unseen. The connection to lcd would make since the fact that 90% of what they classified as "whichcraft" was compulsions and hallucinations and that the fact it was something that they could not explain.
After watching the video about ergot poisoning it does seem possible that the citizens of Salem actions could have been influenced by some contaminated grains. I think it seems possible because their main food source was grain, which is the easiest to have a fungus on it, and because they were having a very similar phychadelic experience to that of ergot.
This theory does seem plausible, but only to an extent. Yes, I could see how eating this Ergot gave them hallucinations, but in the video the woman stated that this ergot would've infected close to all of their wheat supply. If the lady in the video was right, if this wheat was their top food source, why isn't there a significantly larger number of people affected by these "fits"? Also, many of these people, specifically the girls who were "infected" had to have made up their accused victims. Both theories can work off of one another.
Considering symptoms recorded by the court, the both livestock and humans were afflicted by this strange disease it seems that it would have come through a central source, like grain, that's contaminated. All symptoms point toward a hallucinogenic type drug such as LSD, this would explain the terrible convulsions, hallucinations, strange behavior and "needle pricking," and the sudden deaths of people and animals. Ergot poisoning lines up almost exactly with the symptoms described in the trial making it a completely possible explanation for the sudden sickness to effect the people of Salem.
After watching the Ergot video I am now thinking that a plausible reason for the outburst and hallucinations is the fungus that creates hallucinogenic properties that may have been growing on their grains. This theory seems plausible to me because it explains how people were thought to be controlled by the devil but really they just ingested numerous toxins that led to their sickness. I am now reconsidering some of the actions of the young women in the Crucible because it is very possible this fungus infected their food source leading to their strange actions.
After watching an excerpt from the Ergot video, I believe people were over exaggerating a lot. I don't believe it's really plausible. They took many things way out of proportion. They definitely made the situation a lot worse than it should horse than it should have been.ave been. LSD wasn't much of an illness, though to many people it was thought of as one. I can see where they thought it was though.
I think the video’s explanation for those people’s actions could be very plausible. During those trials they did not have the knowledge or science to try and understand what was happening and why people were dying. If we look back on this event we know that there is some explanation to what happened it was not just witchcraft and this explanation has quite a bit of science and resources to back it up. The process of the Salem Court proceedings could be a bit one sided because and there is only one outcome. This explanation could be the one that reveals the reason for the witch trials.
Courtney Caviness
The video presents an interesting theory as to why the people in Salem experienced what they experienced. I think that it seems unlikely however because there was no evidence of any positive tripping experiences which "hippies" so often encounter. It was all negative and seemed quite different from the symptoms of consuming LSD. The characters in the crucible seem very negative and the symptoms of those that are supposedly bewitched are odd and unnatural. I believe that it was likely a virus and don't subscribe to the idea that all of those people were simply tripping balls and setting each other on fire.
The theory that the Ergot video presented did seem plausible. The symptoms of the LSD matched the symptoms that were recorded during the witch trials. The people back then wouldn't have known about the drug so it is likely that the theory is accurate. The only thing that I was wondering was how they became sick. I wonder if the drugs were part of the process and there was still another illness. The whole idea shows how that the Salem Court proceedings thought this had to do with religious punishment or something else.
What I am contemplating with the crucible is that I think everything they are talking about with witchcraft and everything is just super messed up. I don't really think that the Ergot video's theory is plausible just because that is a lot of crazy stuff for one subject, but that is what the other believed.The video's theory helps us rethink the theocratic process of the Salem Court proceedings because it had shown us different perspectives.I believe we are challenge to reconsider the behavior and attitudes of the characters in The Crucible because it makes us see what they were going through.
We are challenged to rethink the behavior and behaviors of the characters in The Crucible because to them everything revolved around their religion. Every decision they made was based from the bible because like the video said they were trying to accomplish being pure for their God. The video also said that if a storm occurred instead of using science they thought it occurred because their God was angry with them. Ergot's theory forces us to rethink the theocratic process of the Salem court proceedings because if someone accused you of witchcraft there was basically nothing you could do to prove that you're innocent and your reputation is crumbled because if you admit you're guilty you're defying God and if you don't confess you are out to death according to the video. I don't think that Ergot's theory is plausible.
The Ergot theory seems highly plausible, with hallucinations, "fits", and many other things happening not only to the girls but to every including animals, it seems like the only legitimate answers. The behavior of everyone in the play is quite frankly still silly, however, I find it understandable, as they didn't have the scientific means to get the answers needed, so they turned to the only other source they could think of and used religion and witch craft as a scapegoat, much like how Hitler accused people of Jewish descent for the downfall of Germany. I believe that we should be thinking critically about their behavior no matter what, but this theory does seem to help give more insight to their thought process.
After watching the Ergot's Theory and reading part of the crucible, I have come to conclusion that the video persuades viewers that the behavior of the witches were similar to when tripping on LSD. I would have to disagree with the video, because I look at the Salem Witch trials to be more spiritual and interacting with a different kind of energy to make them behave the way that they did. I do think the negitive energies sickened the women to become ill and brittle. I did think Ergots theory was interesting but I don't think it is very accurate.
The idea of Ergot poisoning in the grains is definitely a plausible theory, but there isn't really a way for us to know whether or not the fungus was actually there at that time. I don't think that the people who caused the Salem Witch Trials were bad because in their time, they probably didn't have any idea as to what a fungus even was. We might not have to re-look the attitudes of those in the play but we might have to look at it while understanding that in that time, those people did what they thought was completely correct though it may or may not be in our times.
The idea sounds plausible but it is very far stretched for me to believe. It seems that they are just trying to avoid the fact that it could be a spiritual cause. Or maybe they want evidence to help them better understand. But without living in the time period there really is no way to know.
The idea that the people were experiencing effects from consuming Ergot is a plausible theory that could have resulted in the idea that witches were living amongst the people of Salem. The effects of the fungus ergot are similar to the ones which some of the people of Salem experienced. People living in Salem committed fully to God and followed all of his teachings and beliefs, because of these beliefs they immediately jumped to the conclusion that there was a witch living among them. These beliefs hurt the community because they were disregarding any other reasoning for these symptoms. The characters in the crucible devote their lives to God and what he teaches so it is understandable that they would jump to such dramatic conclusion.
After watching the ergot video I think it's plausible that LSD caused it, because they were most likely eating the tainted grain at high volumes. So they were probably feeling the effects for several days and they weren't really living in a happy warm environment and that's why they went a little crazy. I think that the people back then were straight forward and single minded and when they see something out of the ordinary like this they don't try to solve the problem instead they just blame it on witch craft. If they just would have communicated with each other they might have been able to work out the problem.
I have also seen a documentary on the history channel about ergot and the salem witch trials which leads me to believe that ergot poisoning is the single most feasible reason.
The theory that Ergot poisoning was behind all the Salem hysteria seems very plausible to me, but at the same time it seems a bit imaginative. Back in those times there was no scientific way to know that ergot was infesting everything they ate, or at least they had no clue how to identify it. The way it affected people is what makes me believe there was maybe something else, Im not saying witches. But the spasms and the convulsions that all the victims claimed to get just seem unexplainable by the ergot. Also the length of the poisoning seems unreasonable unless they were still ingesting the ergot frequently.
After watching the ergot video I think it's a possibility and actually seems very likely that LSD caused everything that the puritans thought was possession and witchcraft. It's likely that they were eating much of the tainted grain which means that they would've felt the effects for several days. From what we've seen and read it seems that the people were very close-minded so it would make sense that they would think anything out of the ordinary was caused by the devil or witchcraft.
After watching the ergot I think that's it a huge possibility that is was LSD. The ways the people are acting in the crucible when they are "witches" is much like how the people act. If it was LSD it would make sense since its a pyschadelic and it would make someone act very out of the ordinary especially when everyone acts so similar and there is such a standard for how people are supposed to act. In this society people weren't really open to "different" and with all these rumors of a bunch of witches people would believe that all these people acting weird would be cursed.
After watching the Ergot, it seems as though all this started because of the fungus growing on grains which cause the same affects as LSD. Behavioral effects of LSD are paranoia, jumping to conclusions and from thought to thought. Also along with hallucinogenic affects causing these people possibly see things that didn't actually happen. Although this still doesn't justify the actions of these people. It explains why they came to the conclusions they did.
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