In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts.
Abigail was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft, but she dismissed the accusations by accusing and blaming others. She and the other girls first blamed Salem’s pariahs: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Goody Osburn because they were afraid of the consequences and saw the three outcasts as easy targets. The girls are considered to be an important catalyst for the witchcraft hysteria. The girls did not want to be punished for lying and doing things the society would not condone, so in order to take the attention away from them, they confessed and accused others of witchery. In the play, Mary Warren betrayed the other girls when she claimed that they are all pretending and lying about the involvement of witchcraft. Using self-preservation as a motive, Abigail pretended that Mary Warren was possessing an imaginary bird who was going to attack her and the other girls. The other girls caught onto what Abigail was doing and followed Abigail’s improvisational acting. In a panic, Mary Warren realized that there was a better chance for self-preservation if she goes along with the girls’ acts and accuses Proctor, so she plays along with the girls. During the trial, Danforth became suspicious of the girl’s integrity. In order to save herself, Abigail threatened Danforth with accusation of witchcraft. In a moment of panic, she stole money from Parris and ran away from Salem later on. Abigail decided to run away from the consequences
During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible.
In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller tells the story of the Salem witch trials taking place in
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment. By examining the characters of the play, I believe that the three major characters who should be blamed the most for the witch trials are Abigail Williams,
The witch trials in Salem occurred because of Abigail and it is her fault. She started something she could not finish and by starting it killed many innocent people and ruined many reputations. Abigail is at blame because she was the one who is basically the "psycho girlfriend" who is obsessed with her ex. But because she is desperately in love with John Proctor, she is willing to do anything to have him all to herself. Just like how she drank a chicken blood charm to kill Elizabeth, which is against her religion. She is willing to go against her religion to satisfy her desperation for John. But obviously John does not want this because he knows his affair with her was a mistake. She is not the victim in the crucible. She is the person who
Have you ever blamed your younger sibling for something you did just so you would not get in trouble? That is what Abigail Williams did in The Crucible, yet she blamed the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts resulting in a massive witchcraft hysteria. The witchcraft hysteria was a tremendous outbreak of multiple irrelevant trials causing 20 people to get hung. All these deaths and trials were all caused by one girl, Abigail Williams. I think Abigail Williams is responsible for the witchcraft hysteria because she lied about getting stabbed with a needle and she blamed everybody else for being a witch but herself.
Like Abigail utterly told liars about how Elizabeth spirit had stabbed her at the dinner table but actually Abigail framed Goody Proctor with the doll Mary Warren had made as evidence to stable herself. Also Abigail accused Mary Warren for working with the devil in the setting of act three in the courtroom. The girls in courtroom acted as if Mary spirit was attacking them ,to scare her back to their side. Giles Corey also accused Thomas Putnam for being gluttonous for more land and therefore accusing his neighbors for it. The indictment of witchcraft are lies told in statements as if death is a game to play with. The whole conflicting trials in Salem, Massachusetts began with Abigail the deceiver of all the
When a person does something they shouldn’t be doing, they’re definitely going to be scared of the consequences behind it. Due to this, people will lie or do whatever it takes to save themselves. Furthermore, acting innocent and putting on an act that they didn’t do anything. Abigail Williams was in that situation and it lead her to no good. It lead her to being held responsible of the Salem Witch Trials. Indirect characterization is what supports this. It all began with Abigail and a couple of other girls dancing through the woods. One of them naked running through the woods and then Abby drinking a potion to kill off Elizabeth Proctor. She wanted to kill Elizabeth because she’s in love with her husband, John Proctor. To continue, Abigail somewhat lies about what happened, “we did dance, uncle,...and there’s the whole of it…..There is nothin’ more. I swear it, uncle.....There be no blush about my name”(Miller 25-26). First off, dancing is against their morals and can get someone in deep trouble if caught.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about what happened during the Salem Witch Trials. It gives insight about what people had to deal with in this situation and how they handled it. The trials were basically a big test which helped figuring out whether or not people were guilty of witchcraft. This is an example of what a crucible is. In our world today we still have crucibles and even though they are different than back then, they all relate to each other because of what influence they have on people. These “tests” make us act a certain way to achieve a reputation that we’re proud to display in public. But what exactly do these crucibles really do to us?
The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.
Abigail and a group of girls went to court and blame 200 people. Abigail went to court, and told them that Elizabeth Proctor was practicing witchcraft, and got her arrested. When John Proctor went to court, the girls pretended that he was the devil. Giles tries to explain to the court how Abigail is pure evil, and trying to get revenge: “Aye, how she is solemn and goes to hang people!” (3.1.875). John Proctor also claims in court that “she only pretended to faint” to try to convince that she is being attacked by witches and devils. Abigail Williams evil actions caused lots of people to suffer.
Abigail Williams told many, many lies in The Crucible. The reason the witch trials began in the first place was because of the lie she told about being in the woods. She didn’t want to tell the truth about what happened in the woods to the adults because she wanted to protect herself. She manipulated the young girls to lie and say they were only dancing, “And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”(Miller).
The witch trials in Salem in the year 1692 was a scowling time in American history. The New York Post explains about The Crucible play that “... at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witchhunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil.” In The Crucible, John Proctor and his wife are hit with many situations which burdens their relationship. While this is going on, many people were being accused as witches for little incidents which they thought would add up to witchcraft. During this time period, the grudges and personal rivalries between people makes these witch trials immoral and unethical.
The Salem Witch trail took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. A group of girls accused of witchcraft, when Reverend Samuel Parris niece and daughter were ill and rumors spread that it was witchcraft. Sarah Osborne, Sarah Goode and Tituba were accused of being around when the girls were doing rituals and made the girls do the rituals. Abigail’s allegations began to grow blaming many innocent people. Tituba confessed which then assured the people that they have indeed the meet or seen the devil and are witches. People all throughout the town started accusing each other for ridiculous unreasonable explanations. Even kids were accused of witchcraft from all ages. John Protors wife was accused of witchcraft about a week later he