Cruelty In The Crucible

The girls blamed many people of the town of being witches and caused conflict all over the village. People in the village had power by influencing others to lie in order not to receive the consequences of witchcraft. Abigail shows power in the play by influencing the girls and what to say and do. She threatened all the girls she will hurt them if they open their mouth and say the truth. Abigail threatens, “Let either one of you breathe a word, or the edge of the other thing and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will being a pointy reckoning that will shutter you.”(Act 1).

Everybody makes mistakes in their lives, but how they react to them exposes who they really are. In the play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, the Puritan citizens of Salem are caught in a perilous storm of terror and accusations of witchcraft. The sins and choices of other characters in the play fuel the fire of injustice and cost the lives of many. There are two tested characters who played large roles in the outbreak of witchcraft accusations; they either passed or failed this test. John Proctor passed the trial of his sins, and Abigail Williams failed her test.

Seven months before the play began, Abigail Williams worked for the Proctor household until John Proctor and Abigail Williams began to engage in an affair. John’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, soon found out and fired Abigail on the spot, but the situation did not end without any consequences. Abigail had developed angry feelings against Elizabeth and fell hopelessly in love with John Proctor. Abigail holds a hope in her heart that John loves her and John will leave Elizabeth for her, despite John Proctors’ constant rejections to Abigail. So when an opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth comes up in the form of power to accuse people of witchcraft, Abigail jumps at the chance.

n The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, the play involved various themes. A very popular theme in the play is lies and deceit. The small town of Salem was all fouled that witchery was happening by a group of girls. Many people got involved in the court cases, and some people had very bad consequences then just being blamed. Lying only leads to the truth being told and having worse consequences for the people committing the lies.

“Common history has painted Annand her young peers as selfish, vicious fakers who fueled the witchcraft trials out of boredom or spite. This portrait, however, is somewhat flawed as it appears that in Ann’s case at least, the parents of the afflicted must have a strong influence with the child, as did the other adult accusers. Initially, Ann was fed names by her parents and minister”(-Minerdescent). The girls that were tricked into believing that the accused were guilty were most likely convinced that this was pious and that God wanted them to accuse the innocent. Or the girls might be influenced by their religion, reverends, and ministers.

Soon a mere accusation from her becomes enough reason to convict even important, influential people. Abigail uses the witch hysteria that consumes Salem to secure herself from accusation, and gain control of the trials by accusing respectable people, before moving on to Elizabeth, and then in her desperation, she manipulates Mary Warren into eventually accusing John. “Abby' s lust threatens Proctor in many ways: she tempts him to sinning adultery in the first place;

Elia Kazan a Greek-American director once said, “Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy” In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the town of Salem gets warped into a loop of lies and false accusations. A group of girls claim to be able to see spirits to avoid being called witches, and accuse others of being witches, starting a chain reaction. Now others accuse people of being witches in order to get rid of those they don‘t like, and so they be hanged. Hysteria and conformity cause an uproar of lies that kill innocent people in Salem. Hysteria makes people become irrational , and innocent people die because of false accusations.

In “The Crucible” Abigail is one of the main characters, because she is dealing with witchcraft. She is lying a lot, for example, she says “Elizabeth Proctor is an envious, gossipy liar!”. She says things about other people, witch are lies, to distract from herself. She is lying about the meeting in the woods, witchcraft and about his love for John Proctor. On account of Abigail other people died in the play, because she shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play full of suspense and suspicion. Many people involved in the Salem witch trials died because of vengeance which is amplified by many groups. Problems arose when people began to choose sides. In the Crucible, the conflicts of the play illustrate the power of a crowd mentality to influence the actions of people. Abigail and all the other girls act differently when they are together.

I am discussing how the Theme of revenge in The Crucible make it both universal and enduring. There is a lot of different ways that revenge is expressed in The Crucible. Every time the girls pretended to be taken over by spirits, or see someone send out their spirit to harm the girls and call out witch on an innocent man or woman because they wanted attention or had a grudge they were holding against someone who had wronged them or they just didn’t like. Just as Abbigail having a grudge against Elisabeth Proctor for being Johns Proctors wife. Abbigail still loved John after their affair they had together and John wouldn’t be with her any longer.