The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible by Arthur Miller follows the story of Salem as they battle the devil and witchcraft. This story goes through the many unfortunate deaths and sacrifices that occurred in the 1690s. Murderers follow these deaths.Many people in the town are wrongfully accused and convicted without any evidence.Those innocent people who were murdered died because of the lies of their peers, so now the liars have become the murderers. Although many characters are involved with the continuation of the Salem witch trials, nevertheless, Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams have the most responsibility for never stopping the trials because they allowed Abigail’s lies to spread and avoided telling the truth for their own personal gain.

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She is a self-revolving character who does not notice her own wrongdoings. She puts herself first when she is risking the lives of her family and close friends. This is evident when Abigail says, "Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night with a pointy reckoning that will shudder you..."I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!" (Miller 1.2.160) Instead of admitting everything that had been done and receiving minimal punishment, she continued to lie. which forces everyone to hide the truth. When she forced people to stay silent, it caused more issues down the road because they had to stack lies on lies until they could get away with the crime of witchcraft. This was one of the first times that the Salem Witch Trials could have ended. A different time when she could have stopped the trials from continuing is when she says, "But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face." "Envy is a deadly sin, Mary." (Miller, 3.1.440) When Abigail screamed this in the courtroom, she was being "attacked" by a bird that Mary Warren had apparently sent. She took her power in the court and used it to silence Mary. At the time, Mary felt like she no longer had a choice but to accept the fact that Abigail was too deeply involved. But Abigail could have stopped it if she had admitted to all the accusations that Mary was sending her way. Instead of admitting it, she lies more and continues to dig a deeper hole of