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Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Abigail Miller

1724 Words7 Pages

Everyone has lied during their life for different reasons. A four-year-old will lie about the cookie they stole, or the haircut they obviously just gave themselves. A teenager will say they gave their best effort on their homework when they were really watching Netflix. Both people want to avoid trouble, yet the consequences of getting caught are not life threatening. However, there are periods in history during which people needed to lie to save their lives. The Crucible, a play focusing on the events of the Salem Witch Trials during the 1600s, highlights the mass hysteria which plagued the people. In this play, a group of girls led by Abigail Williams claim to be the victims of witchcraft. Abby repeatedly puts blame upon others to better …show more content…

Mary Warren, the Proctor’s servant girl, gives a glimpse of how quickly the number of witch accusations have grown when she proclaims the number of people arrested jumped from fourteen to thirty-nine (Miller 1117). Abigail, being the prime perpetrator, has no desire to stop and think about her actions. Besides, she has a story to keep up, and morals would be a distraction for her. Abby even goes to the extreme length of self-harm to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft. She stabbed herself in the stomach with a needle after seeing Mary make a doll for Elizabeth (Miller 1126). Abby is going to crazy lengths to defend her story, yet is unfortunately heading further away from a chance of redemption. The more she lies, the harder it will be to tell the truth. Later, in the courtroom, she lashes out against Reverend Danforth, questioning why her reward for doing her duty is to be mistrusted, denied, and questioned (Miller 1145). Even though Abby has abandoned her integrity, she now questions the integrity of others. This is a hypocritical phenomenon which resulted from Abby having so much power in the community. Abigail is enjoying her freedom to speak her mind and not face repercussions for her actions, revealing her character to be egocentric and

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