The Crucible John Proctor Reputation Quotes

All references to witchcraft are connected with fear, suspicion and the collapse of normal social values. In the fervor of the witch trials, Abigail is put on a pedestal by the people of Salem and treated as though she has a direct connection with the Divine. Through cold calculation, Abigail carefully selects the people that she accuses in order to establish her credibility. Thus, she first accuses the town’s social deviants, as she knows the court is already predisposed to convict them. Soon a mere accusation from her becomes enough reason to convict even important, influential people.

just like today, kids will follow along with their peers or parents. “And Lewis said it was all the fault of Martha Cory, the very same Gospel Woman that Ann had already accused. Like Ann, Lewis claimed that she saw Martha Cory’s spirit roasting a spectral man on a spit inside her fireplace”(Schanzer 45). If one person became afraid of another because they were seen doing strange things or wearing strange vestments, then they might convince others that the person is an imp or a witch/wizard. “Common history has painted Annand her young peers as selfish, vicious fakers who fueled the witchcraft trials out of boredom or spite.

The girls blamed many people of the town of being witches and caused conflict all over the village. People in the village had power by influencing others to lie in order not to receive the consequences of witchcraft. Abigail shows power in the play by influencing the girls and what to say and do. She threatened all the girls she will hurt them if they open their mouth and say the truth. Abigail threatens, “Let either one of you breathe a word, or the edge of the other thing and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will being a pointy reckoning that will shutter you.”(Act 1).

Everybody makes mistakes in their lives, but how they react to them exposes who they really are. In the play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, the Puritan citizens of Salem are caught in a perilous storm of terror and accusations of witchcraft. The sins and choices of other characters in the play fuel the fire of injustice and cost the lives of many. There are two tested characters who played large roles in the outbreak of witchcraft accusations; they either passed or failed this test. John Proctor passed the trial of his sins, and Abigail Williams failed her test.

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. In the play Elizabeth the example of good.

Samuel questioned the girls until they eventually told him that his slave Tituba was a witch. The girls also named Sarah Osbourne as well as Sarah Good as the ones tormenting them. On March 1, 1692, Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osbourne were arrested for practicing witchcraft. Tituba confessed to having made a pact with Satan, causing a psychological dam to brake, releasing a torrent of emotion and hostility on the part of the girls and shortly thereafter on the part of the entire local community.9 The start of the accusations by the girls also initiated the executions. Over 150 men and women were accused and arrested for witchcraft and some were executed.10 The turning point for the Salem Witch Trials was the mass execution that took place on Sept. 22, 1962.11 (pg81-113) The Puritans, the court and even the Reverend were realizing that they made a mistake.

The author, Arthur Miller, wrote “The Crucible” that tells us the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. The society in Salem in 1692 was full of McCarthyism and fear because they thought their other citizens are doing witchcraft. Miller tells us that ignorance and fear combined can destroy a town’s social well-being. On the play, “The Crucible”, the citizens of Salem’s reacted with fear when they hear that someone has a sign of being a witch. For example, when someone coughs, society thought he/she’s a witch.

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. Before the book begins, Abigail Williams was fired by the Proctors because of her affair with John Proctor, the husband of the Elizabeth Proctor.

Their heads were smashed by Indians while Abigail, at a presumably young age, watched. This undeniably has caused some sort of psychopathy to have emerged in Abigail’s psyche. She has all the symptoms of psychopathy, being manipulative, apathetic, and ruthless. She wishes to rid herself of Elizabeth so that her and John can be together and this on its own signifies some sort of mental delusion, but the measures that Abigail takes to make this realization point to her true insanity. Abigail not only tries to make a charm to kill Goody Proctor, but when this attempt on her life fails, she convinces the Salem court that Elizabeth is a witch.

Abigail accused many innocent people of witchcraft and she also told lies about the people she thought were witches. She made her accusations very believable for the judges to put innocent people to death. In conclusion, I say Abigail Williams was the most to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trails. Her character flaws of dishonesty, envy, and lust costed many innocent people their lives and left survivors of the Salem Witch Trails wretched