Salem Gets Witchy

            So many things happened in our country’s early history.  One of the blemishes of that history is the constant accusations of witchcraft.  As I discussed before, the book “The Crucible” was written by Arthur Miller.  It recounts the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts that began in 1692.  In it, John Proctor and Abigail Williams were said to have had an affair.  After some research I have concluded: that is utter fiction.  Some of you may already know the falsehood of this untrue falseness (heh heh). 

            But what you do not know is the actual ages of these two major characters.  At the time, John Proctor was actually 60 years old and Abigail was 12.  So there would have been something very, very wrong if they did have an affair.  Besides, they lived more than eight miles from each other.  Considering that the fastest way of travel in that time period was by horse, it would have been even more difficult to have constantly rendezvoused with each other.

            Our next novel of choice (although we didn’t actually choose to read “The Crucible”) is “House of the Seven Gables”.  In this fine yet complex story, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the tale of a large house in the 17^th century.  The plot of land it sits on was originally owned by a man named Maule that was hanged for witchcraft.  Now think: the actual house of the seven gables was completed in 1668.  The Salem witch trials commenced in 1692.  Could these witch-related events be a coincidence?  I think not.

This..means WAR!!!

"I hate you!" 
"I hate you more!"
 "Not as much as I hate you!" 
"Go jump off a bridge!"
"You first!"
So goes the conversations inspired by violence and hate.  Fortunately, these conversations sometimes turn into:
"I'm so sorry."
"Me too.  Can you forgive me?"
"Of course I can."
     But unfortunately, some arguments don't get resolved.  They can even sometimes end in death.  That's what happened in the case of Romeo and Juliet.  I know that they didn't really exist but I still think it is a prime example of a disagreement that leads to death. 
     As most of the world population knows, Romeo and Juliet were not the ones with the animosity toward each other.  It was their parents.  Their parents hated the idea of the other family so much that they were willing to take blood.  Knowing this, the lovers had to keep their relationship a secret.  In the end, (spoiler alert!) they die.  They died because of the secrecy of their love.  If their parents had not hated each other so much, those two lovebirds would still be alive to this day in Fairytale Land.
   Why didn't the families just settle their differences?  Why not just bury the hatchet?  Why not just get along?  Where did the hatred come from anyway?  I don't know.  (Really, I don't know.  Did they say why in the book?)  Whatever the original reason, there was no cause to keep the contention going.  Someone should have been the bigger person and tried to reconcile the families.  I guess those someones were Romeo and Juliet.  Too bad they had to die to accomplish it.