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Fear In The Crucible

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Fear is necessary for life. When people are afraid, they will point fingers at those who wronged them. Adding in revenge, humans will destroy almost anything and anyone just to get back at others. In the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in the town of Salem, the townsfolk experienced this firsthand. In the story, a group of young girls were found dancing in the woods and were later forced into confessing to witchcraft. With the town now in fear of witchcraft, accusations start to run wild. With great sorrow, this leads to the death of many innocent victims. This play portrays how revenge and fear are a recipe for disaster among humans. Revenge is the action of hurting someone on purpose because they wronged another person. In The Crucible …show more content…

You didn’t tell him that! ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that again! You will never- BETTY: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! (p. 575). With this and all that Abigail has done, John Proctor ruins her name as a response to her actions. In Act III, line 524, John slanders Abigail's name, “You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!” (p. 655). These acts of desperation and wild attempts at revenge do not benefit anyone in the story. Since Abigail had tried to hurt John’s wife, he in return destroyed her name in the town of Salem. Not only does this repeat the cycle of revenge and hatred, but also shows that revenge can only hurt others and bring poor situations. Poor situations and bad times bring in the emotion of fear. Fear, while necessary in life, can also be very bad in communities and humanity as a whole. Fear is what makes people willing to do bad things and become erratic to save themselves. In Act I, lines 432-433, Tituba begins to display these symptoms of fear. PUTNAM: This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged! TITUBA, terrified, falls to her knees: No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir. (p. …show more content…

BETTY, staring too: I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil! PARRIS: She speaks! He rushes to embrace BETTY. She speaks! HALE: Glory to God! It is broken, they are free! ABIGAIL: I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil! It is rising to a great glee. (p. 595). When the girls were presented with the punishment of hanging, they started playing the victim and accuse others to save themselves. Fear made the girls turn on one another and endanger many others. They sparked fear in each other and in the town by admitting to witchcraft and accusing those around them to save their necks for a small while longer. When humans and communities mix these emotions together the result is disastrous. In Act III, lines 500-504, John Proctor is accused of witchcraft, as a result of Mary Warren being afraid of the other girls and having poor feelings towards him for forcing her to testify in court. MARY WARREN, pointing at PROCTOR: You’re the Devil’s man! He is stopped in his tracks. PARRIS: Praise God! GIRLS: Praise God! PROCTOR, numbed: Mary,

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