The Crucible Bird Scene Analysis

For example, the better off people were the ones mainly accused of being witches because the accusers would gain more land if they were hanged (Linder 5). The accusers used the logic “guilty until proven innocent” for the trials. This used Puritan law to make sure that anyone accused would be convicted and hanged. Just like in the book, The Crucible, when John Proctor was accused of being a witch, he was asked to prove that he was

The main character, John Proctor, may seem to be a normal, middle aged man living in the Puritan town of Salem, but however, he holds a dark secret: he cheated on his wife with a girl named Abigail Williams. What he doesn 't know, is that by cheating with Abigail, he partly started the Salem witch madness; John makes Abigail very envious of his wife, and thus, she begins accusing others of dark sorcery and witchcraft. John, at first, is very reluctant to tell everyone the truth about why Abigail and other young girls are accusing his wife and other older women of being witches because he fears it will ruin his good name and reputation. However, after he realizes that the situation has truly gone out of control, he tries to confess his wrongdoing, but is only imprisoned and accused of witchcraft as well.

The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller and published in 1953. The play is about the Salem witch trials that happened in 1692. In these trials, people were hanged because the townspeople didn’t want the devil in their town. The people that lived in Salem were very religious so they believed that hangings would get rid of the devil, who was possessing and controlling certain townspeople. The Crucible starts out with a scene where a young girl is sick with a mysterious sickness.

Today, Your Honour we are here to exonerate the wrongfully convicted men and women of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts. Men and women were accused of witchcraft, 19 well respectable people were hung. As we know religion has no place in court, therefore eliminating the conclusion of witchcraft. Leaving us to look for other reasons and motives that appeal to human emotion such a s fear, greed and jealousy. Emotions like this led to the deaths in Salem.

If Mary would have stuck true to herself in court rather than turn on John, the play could have ended better, and innocent people

Transitioning to Act Three we see a side of Elizabeth that wouldn’t expect which would be dishonesty to save John from his death. Elizabeth being known through Salem for never telling a lie, is asked to tell the truth about John committing adultery so they can both be free. “I came to think he fancied her. And so one night I lost my wits I think, and put out on the highroad,” (1148). From that quote she broke her streak of honesty because she couldn’t tell if John wanted her to tell the truth, so she lied to court about John not being a lecher.

Thirdly, Mary and Dora’s reactions to their husbands’ deaths are different. Because Mary does not seem clever enough to cry false tears, it is obvious from the tear Mary sheds for the death that she gets upset without a need to pretend to do so. On the other hand, Dora just says “I do declare (6).” without showing her sorrow or pain. She

For example, it is normal behavior that a bereaved woman must show some remorse. This isn’t the case in her situation as she moves on as if nothing had happened. This aspect even shocks her son. Besides that, she continuously betrays her rebellious son in order to continue being relevant in her new relationship; it is only an evil person who is capable of such acts.

In The Crucible, many people take advantage of the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime, earning the accusers trust and letting them take control of any situation that a witch hunt opposer is beginning to dominate. Almost every time John Proctor is in the play, he almost ends the girls’ crusade, so they repeatedly have to find ways to stop him. During the trial with Mary Warren, when the girls see the proceedings begin to go Proctor’s way, Abigail wants to draw away the attention of the court and destroy Mary’s credibility. In an extravagant attempt to achieve this, she screams like a crazed banshee, “Why do you come, yellow bird?” and “Mary, please don’t hurt me” (Miller 191).

Indeed and truly, you’ve chosen a bad place to be lame in. And she moved toward Darzee’s wife, slipping along over the dust” (para 76). Thus, Nagaina is gullible because she believed that a bird who got her wing broken would even come near her nevertheless start talking to her making its presence known. Also, gullible differs from Rikki’s personality because Rikki would never be gullible enough to presume that somebody or something that fears him would suddenly give him the perfect opportunity to kill it. Knowingly, it proves that Nagaina was gullible enough to believe Darzee’s wife which gave Rikki a chance to steal her cobra eggs.

During the witch trials, the accused were interrogated and forced to plead guilty of witchcraft or die. Most pleaded guilty just to save their life, but they were also forced to give up the names of other “witches”. Blaming others could also direct the blame from the accused to someone else, this way the accused could escape the pain and shame of being called a witch. In Cotton Mather Biography, it is stated that, “As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confesses to being witches.” This portrays the on going snowball effect of blaming other people of witchcraft.

One of the first accused was Samuel Parris’ own slave, Tituba. It was unheard of for a Reverend to have witchcraft practiced under his own roof, and Parris could not afford to lose his reputation. Samuel stood by his children in court as they testified against the accused, and he even helped them by testifying against Rebecca Nurse. People thought for certain that if the Reverend was standing with the girls against the so called “evil witches” that there must be a real problem. Parris even made a statement that the witches were plotting against Christianity, which made sense if the witches were indeed working for the Devil.

In the book Witches the Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer, there was a religion, puritanism, and they believed in witches. They accused people for being aligned with the devil. It started with two girls who had symptoms of histyeria and others who were not sick also joined the. Nineteen people were wrongly accused of being witches and executed. Later in the book it stated that many of the people that accused those who died, lied.

In conclusion, the characters of Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams influenced and shaped the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams and Putnam started the first accusations which led to widespread fear of witchcraft in the village. This same fear was exploited by Williams and Putnam in order to achieve their selfish motives. Without these characters, the Salem Witch Trials might have never occured which brings us to realize how much damage vengeance and wealth can cause. All in all, Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam’s grudges and selfish intentions were what caused Salem Witch Trials and the destruction of several innocent

The most abominable part of the Salem trials were the abominable deaths of the so called “witches”. As you can see the town of Salem was very religious. In Salem, religion was part of everyday life. It was against the law not to attend church where people were arranged by gender.