Chaos And Paranoia In The Crucible, By Arthur Miller

Between the years 1692 and 1693, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed from those false accusations in Salem alone. Although there were no actual witches, this was the result of all the chaos and paranoia. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, wrote about the tragedy of Salem and how deception and extreme hysteria tore the town to pieces. Arthur Miller wrote about how Tituba confessed to have affiliations with the devil and from her confession, many others felt as it was imperative to confess and accuse other people to save their own life which led to many more inaccurate claims. In The Crucible, Miller uses motifs to demonstrate how the idea of witchcraft that spread throughout Salem caused panic and chaos among the townspeople. One of the motifs that Arthur Miller uses to enhance the theme of the story is abandonment. During The Crucible, John Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams causing Abigail to be fired from working in the Proctor’s household by Elizabeth Proctor. Because of this, Abigail has lost touch with John and he no longer has any feelings for her which has made Abigail feel abandoned. As voiced by Abigail Williams, “John - I am waiting for you every night” (Arthur Miller 1246) and stated by John Proctor, “Abby I never give you hope to wait for me.” (Arthur Miller 1246), It validated how Abigail is waiting for John to come back to her and he continues to tell her that he is never coming back and not to get her hopes