Ad Hominem In The Crucible

An ad hominem means that it shifts the argument away from the issue to a personal attack on the person involved. It is used to draw away from a person's counterargument through addressing something unrelated. When this fallacy is used, the unrealistic characteristic is undesirable, causing the other person to look bad. There are two examples of Ad hominem from The Crucible in Act 2 and Act 3. In Act 2, the fallacy starts out with Hale speaking to Abigail. Hale: What sort of soup were this Abigail? Abigail: Why it was beans and lentils, I think, and-.Hale: Mr. Parris, you did not notice, did you, any living thing in the kettle? A mouse perhaps, a spider, a frog-? Parris: I- do believe there was some movement- in the soup. Abigail: That jumped in, we never put it in. Hale: What jumped in? Abigail: a very little frog jumped- Hale: Abigail, it may be your cousin is dying. Did you call to the Devil last night? Abigail: I never called him. Tituba. Tituba… Parris: She called the Devil? This quote is a great example of an ad hominem attack. As Hale uncovers the holes in Abigail’s story, Abigail begins to worry. She attacks Tituba, claiming that she had

Parris: Beware this man, Your Excellency, he is mischief. Hale: I think you must hear the girl, sir, she--. Danforth: Peace. What would you tell us, Mary Warren? Proctor: She never saw no spirits, sir. Danforth: Never saw no spirits! Parris: They’ve come to overthrow the court, sir! This man is--. This quote is another example of an ad hominem attack. Proctor goes to court with Mary Warren to try to plead for Elizabeth’s innocence. Parris fears that Proctor will upset the trials which are giving a lot of power to himself and his church. Parris wants to do anything he can to make Proctor’s testimony less believable, so he uses an ad hominem attack. He attacks Proctor, saying that Proctor has come to overthrow the court, which is entirely unrelated to Proctor’s