The Crucible Title Analysis

All characters in the crucible are puritans, which means that they are religious and they often attributed frightening occurrences to devil’s work, but Miss Putnam is the most pious puritan in this book. When Betty blacked out, Mrs. Putnam simply concludes that Betty is bewitched and cannot hear Lord’s name without pain, while Rebecca Nurse thinks that it is a normal disease that a child gets. Mrs. Putnam’s seven babies all died without any apparent reason. Convinced that someone used witchcraft to kill her babies, Mrs. Putnam sent Ruth to Tituba to contact the sprits of her dead children to find out who killed her babies. She doesn’t mean to harm anybody; she just wants to find out the reason why her babies have been dying.

Abigail believed that Proctor actually loved her and she waited every night for him. She was brainwashed to think he would leave his wife for her. The witchcraft accusation came from the beginning of the story when Abigail and the girls were dancing naked in the woods and chanting. She made false accusations that people in the village were worshipping the devil to cover what she had done. Many lives were taken but Abigail had no empathy for anyone who was hanged.

You can tell that Abigale is very lustful early into the story because of her obsession of John Proctor. After John respected her, She makes up lies in court in order to get attention to herself and get people in trouble. Abigale was completely and utterly obsessed with John Proctor. Abigale tries to get John’s wife in trouble with the court by saying that she is a witch so she will be killed. She does this so John will be forced to leave his wife and increase her chance of being able to be with John.

Does sin blind all aspects of reality for Pruitans? Do the hysterical cries of frenzied teenagers decide fate? The Crucible by Arthur Miller reenacts the Salem witch trials which took place in Massachusetts in the late 1600s. The protagonist in the play is John Proctor, an honest, hard working farmer and Puritan whom the readers later learn to have “fatal flaws.” (SparkNotes.) At the end of the story, John decides to confess a few secrets.

However, they cannot.Abigail threatens them “…we danced…and that’s all. And mark this let either of you breathe a word or edge a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the middle of some terrible night, and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shocker you…” (miller 1244). Abigail threatens the girls to lie for her. She has a lot of power over these girls, she is the boss. She does not want to take any chances of getting caught.

The Crucible is the story of a young Puritan woman in 1692 Massachusetts who made false witchcraft accusations in an attempt to save her life and to end a rival’s life. While her actions are horrific and the cause of numerous deaths, the actions of the adults around her that enabled her lies to cost lives are despicable. Through his dishonest characters, specifically Reverend Parris, Judge Danforth, and John Proctor, Miller exposes the evils of lying to save one’s name and the destruction that inevitably ensues. The first dishonest character mentioned in the play is Reverend Parris, a man who has worked to be a reputable, trustworthy church leader. After he saw his niece, Abigail, and daughter, Betty, dance in the woods, he suspects that they were involved in witchcraft.

The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller.It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts bay colony during 1692/93. Some readers may believe Abigail is the most admirable in the book the Crucible because She bears most of the responsibility for the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods Other readers believe Abigail Williams is the despicable character in the book because she lies, and a promiscuous girl. In the first place, Abigail lies about not doing witchcraft in the woods. She exaggerates seeing the devil, she was fibbing about who she saw with the devil, accusing innocent people. More towards people she disliked, or wanted to get rid of.

Anymore in today’s world people can not always believe what others tell them. For example, in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, when one of the girls accused someone of being a witch, everyone believed them, when in reality the person accused wasn’t really a witch. One of the girls in particular that accused others of being witches was Abigail Williams. When Abigail accused others of being witches, everyone listened and believed. This is how Arthur Miller used the character Abigail Williams in The Crucible to represent the devil figure; in doing so he sends the message that people can not always believe what others tell them.

The Salem Witch trials popped up around 1692 and they were a disaster. The reason why they came up was because of their religion. The people in the town of Salem were puritans. This means their religion was very strict and that they believed in the devil. The way this all started was that the people who were accused of being witches were acting funny.

So during the course of the drama, John is trying to find himself again by gaining back the trust of his wife Elizabeth Proctor, who is often called Goody Proctor (Miller). While Proctor does have moments of weakness, he is overable able to find himself again. One moment of John’s weakness can be seen when he and Abigail are talking; she tries to convince him his actions are not wrong and to continue on with the affair (Miller 1271). This plan however does not work. After their conversation Abigail decides to frame Proctor’s wife as a witch by stabbing herself with a needle and blaming Elizabeth with voodoo (Miller 1306).

This kindled a powerful hatred that Abby had towards Elizabeth that would soon cause much more than a little harm. Once the idea of witchery took deep root into the hearts of the people, many were accused and arrested. Out of the selfishness of her heart, Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft in an attempt to be rid of her so she could have John. She kept telling herself that she was in love with him, and she would use any opportunity to her advantage to be rid of Elizabeth. This however, would not bode well with John.

“There’s nothing remarkable in their making a man foolish, in women winning men To sin, for Adam our father was deceived just so, and Solomon, and also Samson, Delilah was his death and later David Endured misery for Batheba’s beauty. Women ruined them: how wonderful if men could love them well, but never believe them!” (130). Ever since Adam & Eve days, females have been seen as femme fatale. As “An alluring and seductive woman, especially one who leads men into compromising and dangerous situations.”- (dictionary). Sir Gawain expresses his thoughts and advices his audience that it is ok to love woman but never believe their stories nor fall for for their seduction otherwise a permanent scar will be carried upon sinners.

However, I believe Abigail should be held responsible for the imprisonment and execution of innocent people because she threaten the girls, so they would act bewitched and she also lied about getting stabbed by a needle and making it look like as if Elizabeth Proctor did it with witchcraft. To begin with, Abigail had control over the rest of the girls who were also caught dancing in the woods. The girls, after the incident in the woods, lied along with Abigail. Whatever lie Abigail came up with, the girls would support it. Even in court, Abigail had the support of the girls when she claim to have seen a yellow bird.

Many of those accused as witches died not just because of the accusers but, because of the unfairness of the trials.The judges of the trials used spectral evidence, ignoring the accused, and the judges were unfair because they believed in witches and want those who were witches dead. In the trials judges used spectral evidence. Spectral evidence is when the accused claim that they saw the spirit of the person on trial do something that they should not have done. In the book it states that “A woman named Goodie Bibber testified that the specter of Rebecca

“Abigail Williams, fingered 41 different witches for attacking her; Ann Putnam Jr. accused 53;her servant Mercy Lewis named 54; and a girl named Mary Walcott who was Ann’s step-cousin, named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This means they were fervently,maliciously, wanted to abolish some of these people,and that most of the accusers stated accused more than 40 people. “Not all witches are human beings. A girl accused 2 dogs of belonging to the devil and said they would cause fits by simply staring at their victims” this might prove that these people did not like dogs and