Examples Of Selfishness In The Crucible

Yelitza Andrade Pyles English 11 Honors 6 October 2015 Witch-hunts Justification Outline It should never be necessary to target a group of people for being different. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, a group of girls were found dancing in the forest. Betty, the minister’s daughter, becomes sick and they believe she is possessed. Abigail, the minister’s niece, is questioned but blames it all on Tituba. Tituba confesses to have signed a deal with the devil and is seen as saved by God so then Abigail confesses to also be saved and not hung.

During Act 1 Mary attempted to be righteous, by trying to get Abigail to confess about what the dancing in the forest. She doesn’t want to be hanged for witchcraft and breaks down to the point Abigail smashes her across the face. Mary claims that they’ll “only be whipped for dancing’.” (Miller 18).“Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error’.” (Miller 18). Mary was afraid of Abigail Williams and didn’t tell the truth fearing that Abigail would hurt her.

However, as the whole incident becomes out of control, he realizes something is wrong. Hale points out to the judge, “I may shut my conscience to it no more—private vengeance is working through this testimony! (Holt p.1150)” Hale does not keep silence when he discovers that the whole incident is a hysteria starts by a girl who wants private vengeance. In the play, Corey also stands out to point out the flaws of the whole witch hunt incident. Despite the risk of being accused, Corey stands out to accuse Thomas Putnam of encouraging his daughter to accuse George Jacobs in order to get his land.

This is an example of Dramatic Irony because the reader already knows that John has confessed to adultery, but Elizabeth doesn't so she lies in hopes of protecting his reputation. Elizabeth's attempt in maintaining John’s Power caused her and John to both have bad reputations, and resulted in John being out on death row. from this, more chaos in the community is created because of more deaths of significant characters, leaving the town to run with orphans and rotting from lack of order. In the text, Irony is used to really create a lot of the conflicts in the

It makes her look like she is being mistreated, even though John Proctor is just trying to save his very innocent wife from her execution. Before both characters were misinterpreted in the appendix, John was a hardworking and generous man, while Abigail was a sneaky and untrustful young girl. It would be a mistake to include the appendix in the production because it makes Abigail look innocent when this whole situation of the Salem Witch Trials is her fault. This extra scene portrays Abigail as a young, naive, innocent girl. It portrays her as the exact opposite type of person that she truly is.

Cassandra is one of the few characters in the play who can see with clarity. She has been given the gift of telling prophecies, but has also been cursed so that no one believes her. While standing outside the house, Cassandra begins to tell the prophecy of Agamemnon’s death to the chorus of men. These men do not believe her, and just think that she has gone mad. While the chorus of men are unable to believe Cassandra due to the curse, the men are also ‘blind’ and do not suspect Clytaemestra of wanting to kill her husband.

The Puritans in The Crucible see anything weird as witchcraft. The girls were trying to do witch craft, but nothing supernatural happened. The townspeople then start doubting anything that comes up. Danforth explains why witchcraft is so controversial when he pronounces, “But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime is it not? Therefore, who may possibly witness to it?

Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor only seem to have one thing in common to readers: their love for John Proctor. Although John Proctor does not feel the same way towards Abigail and even says, “My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one!”(Arthur 111), when talking about the innocence of his wife and the promiscuity of his mistress, Abigail Williams. While Abigail is young and naive, Elizabeth is mature and wise. Elizabeth uses her wisdom to recognize the flaws of the young girl to ultimately conclude that Abigail’s accusations of witchcraft were not true. According to the Puritans, a relationship

It last theory is that the afflicted girls accused the victims because they wanted revenge, but it is unlikely for children to hold a grudge with so many people. Most of the accusers came from high families, “Was some of the witch hunting the result of that big fight between Reverend Parris and the members of his congregation who refused to pay his salary”(- Schanzer 113)? Could it be that the parents of the accusers were malicious and fervently wanted to purposely cause their enemies to be condemned to death. It is quite a possibility due to the fact that people were not as friendly with each other as they are today. “But in the trials, neighbors also testified against neighbors, bringing up grievances as a way of getting revenge”(-Spiritual Travels).

Rather then acknowledging that they didn’t understand events. They said it was the devils work acting through someone in town. For example Abigail’s accusions were all just games to her but it forced people to have to choose death or not going to heaven for lieing. Many people wouldn’t confess, in fear of abandoning their friends, like when John Proctor was forced to sign a confession. After everything was said and done, Abigail left town and never had to face up to what she did to many innocent people.

It was easy to blame Tituba, since not only was she a slave, but the mysteries of her culture would come to make it seem easy and that she was to blame. Abby cracks, screeching out, "Tituba! Tituba made me do it!" Abby was afraid of getting in trouble for the dancing and spell-casting, so she blames Tituba for doing it. Now, everyone in the room turns on Tituba.

She was a part of the faction that prevented Thomas Putnam’s brother from becoming the minister of the town. The Putnam’s are very upset about this and Mrs. Putnam also accuses Rebecca of murder. Rebecca is also upset at Reverend Parris because he refuses to preach to the children, even though they seem to be possessed by the devil. She also doesn’t support Parris’ idea to bring Reverend Hale to Salem to help with the witchcraft because she believes that it will send the whole town into arguments and thinking that something is seriously wrong. She believes it would be better to just pray and let the doctor try and save Betty.

Though there were many people who contributed to what happened in Salem, I believe that Abigail Williams was mostly to blame. I think this because she lied to save herself, made up false scenarios and blamed innocent people, and enjoyed the attention and power. In the beginning of the play, Abby is caught dancing in the woods. She herself drank a blood charm in which she wanted to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Though Abby wasn’t the only one who was caught, she lied to Reverend Parris so that she would not be hung once witchcraft was being talked about throughout the village.

People saw the death from the plague as a paranormal incidence as divine punishment for the people’s sins. People tried every type of remedy, popular cure and prayer, but nothing had any effect on the fast-moving disease. This led to cities burnt down by the townspeople to drive away the rats, but that caused the plague to spread faster (Backman 350). When nothing seemed to work everyone turned on the Catholic Church. Most believed that the church failed them and were not able to save them from this punishment.

3. Tituba- Rev. Parris Slave Abigail- Parris Niece and also John secret side chick Betty- The Daughter of Parris 4. Mrs. Putnam’s Believes there are witches because she knows that Tituba does rituals so she believes that Tituba is a witch 5. Thomas is bitter because he wasn’t able to be the mister because of the fact that the townspeople rejected him 6.