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).
Rebecca Nurse was blamed for the death of all of Ann Putnam’s children, except for one. The events also caused numerous people to be convicted of witchcraft, some of them being executed. Two of the most notable people convicted in the play were John Procter, condemned for adultery and later hung, and Tituba, who confessed, saving her own life.
Towards the end of the play, Hale goes back into the town Salem and tries to have people confess to save them from being hang. Hale wants Proctor to confess so he can be with pregnant wife. Proctor ends up confessing to the judges to save Rebecca. In order for the confession to be complete Danforth tells Proctor to sign a paper stating that he is confessing about doing witchery.
It all started with Abigail and Betty lying to stay out of trouble. Then, Tituba and the girls accused innocent people of witchcraft because they could. Finally, John Proctor takes pride in his faith and honor and is hanged for not signing his name to a lie. Every decision made in Salem after the witch hunts started depended on truth versus lies because if they told the truth, they would die and if the lied they would live. This essay proves the development of the theme truth versus lies in the crucible by stating three major events in the play where truth versus lies depends on what the results are.
The emotions of people can be blinding and problematic. The emotions a person feels can cause people to do unimaginable things to themselves and other people. Throughout the book, people's emotions bring out the worst of the people of Salem. The people of Salem begin accusing people of witchcraft for their own personal vendettas and gain. In the book “ The Crucible” by Arthur Miller the people demonstrate, When reason fails, emotions control and results in the destruction of what is morally right or good.
In The Crucible, there could be many suspects to blame for the innocent deaths that happened in Salem. Proctor could be blamed for the innocent deaths because he lied about his affair with Abigail. Speaking of Abigail... in my opinion Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the innocent deaths because of the lies she told, the accusations she made, and the affair she had with John Proctor. 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.
In the play Abby tries to do witchcraft to kill John Proctor's wife Elizabeth. She almost gets caught doing it so she accuses many people of bewitching her and got many people hanged. She accuses Elizabeth of bewitching her to kill her. The court will not kill her because she is pregnant but John Procter ends up being hanged because he was accused.
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.
She lies, uses strong persuasion and then she gets power and money. Towards the end of the novel, The Crucible, Abigail Williams ran away with another girl and was not heard of again. Her lies work so well from the beginning, but spiraled out of control, if she came clean at the start it would have been so simple. The novel relates to today's society because both societies, now and then, have corruption in the government and the greed for power. Although the occurrence which took place in Salem could not happen now it relates to other problems we face, such as convicting or killing someone without evidence.
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.
Multiple accused individuals died while they were in prison, due to the terrible conditions. During the time of imprisonment the accused people were said to have been tortured and even denied water to try and get them to confess to being witches. One common story that is spoken with the Salem Witch Trials really shows how far they went with the situation. That story involves a man named Giles Corey, who was accused of being a witch, but unlike the others he refused to plead in any way. In an effort to get him to talk, Corey was forced to remove his clothes and lay flat on his back where they began to place large rocks on top of his body.
She caused proctor to cheat on his wife and then eventually causes Proctor to die. And she and other girls had to go to court because they lied about doing the witchcraft. She cannot excuse or pardoned because the outside forces “made” her the way she is because the forces are not going to change her. If Abigail wouldn’t of danced in the woods then she wouldn’t of caused the bad things to happen.
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.
The witchcraft of Salem, Massachusetts was an example of mass hysteria, it resulted in the hangings and deaths of many people from being charged with relations with the devil. The people who convicted the innocent were actually the ones who themselves had relations with the devil. The reasons the convictions happened were because of the young girls who got caught dancing around a fire in the moonlight and doing other practices, they didn’t want to get accused of the witchcraft so they ended up blaming other people who they were jealous of. Innocent people were accused and convicted on witchcraft making it the most unjustifiable testimonies in Salem.
Because of a servant telling the children of the town of sorcery and the devil, they began to believe what they had heard. The town was scared of the “possessed” people, thinking that killing them would stop the problem. Sadly, over 24 men, women and children died because they were assumed to have possessed by the devil. Bridget Bishop was the first accused and was hung on June 10, 1692. Many followed, until the court overruled the judgement of the mayor.