It was the year 1691 in Massachusetts. The Puritan village of Salem experiences misfortune upon misfortune, and the village
people fear these to be the work of the devil. They look upon their new minister, Samuel Parris, for deliverance. However, not all of Salem believe in the minister. Important businessmen see him as another ploy of the Putnams to control the village. Envy and jealousy, though unspoken, abound in the village of Salem, and Puritanism dictates that if these sins are not erased from the village, punishment awaits. Punishment comes swift in the guise of afflicted children whose cries pave the way for hysteria and misery in the whole of Massachusetts.
Religion is now mixed with
politics. Soon, more than one innocent hangs at Gallows Hill...
This novel by Kathryn Wesley is disturbing, not so much on the plot but in the fact that the horrible events narrated in her work did happen. The work teems with controversy: be it on the field of politics, religion, law. Surprisingly, the controversy in each field still lives to this day, us with the supposedly modern and open thoughts and ideas. You shudder to think that people with such narrow view of things can be difficult to sway even when logic and humanity stare them openly in the face. Then again, many factors can contribute to such narrow-mindedness, or even stubbornness, not least of which is the desire for power. This is a very prevalent theme in Wesley's work. Another theme is the very subtle depiction of the madness a person possesses when eaten by jealousy.
I see the novel not merely as a narration of what happened in America's sordid past, but a warning on what could happen to the present world when driven with madness caused by greed and envy.