“Do not tell lies about your neighbor, betray him, or give him a bad name.” This commandment is one among several others the Puritans held themselves accountable to. Unfortunately, the breaking of one commandment by a young girl affected the lives of many. In his short story, The Crucible, Arthur Miller illustrates to his readers the events surrounding the witch trials in Salem. Some people believe that this event was too drastic and could not be stopped; however, though many were at fault, Abigail Williams and Reverend Hale had the choice to end the witch hunt altogether.
Some people believe that even if the girls did not lie with Abigail, the witch trials would have happened anyways since Abigail could have still faked it by herself. Abigail was too good at making people believe her story. Another argument made is that no one could have stopped the witch trials because it was too uncontrollable of an event. So many individuals were involved with the witch trials and the accusations of each other that there is argument that the witch trials were a group act., the actions of one individual, or even two, could not have stopped it.
…show more content…
In Act I, the reverend of the town asked for Reverend Hale to go to the Parris household to find out why Abigail was “sick.” Soon after, he confirmed she was bewitched, being blind to the fact that Abigail was faking it all along. Hale also said that Betty was bewitched and began to question Tituba after Abigail accused her of doing witchcraft. To try to get Tituba to confess, he told her, “You’re God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agent among us” (Miller 594). Abigail wanted that kind of special attention too, which was part of the reason she started accusing others
Abigail Williams is the source of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. Abigail is first accused of bewitching Betty Parris in the woods one night. She quickly disputes the accusation by saying they: Ruth Putnam, Tituba, Betty Parris, Mary Warren, and Abigail herself, were only dancing despite it also being highly looked down upon. By starting out with this single lie, her story snowballs and eventually leads to the downfall of Salem. By associating herself with Betty Parris and Ruth Putnam, both of which are sick while Abigail is well, Abigail is submitting herself to a fight she can’t win unless she lies.
When Abigail is being questioned by Parris and Hale she is asked if she saw any one else with the devil and starts throwing out names in society they are low questionable reputation. When Abigail is questioned she says Tituba, Sarah Good Elizabeth Proctor and, Goody Osborn. Even though she has no evidence she starts throwing put names that seem like they would be a witch because
Societies under a lot of stress will always give into taunters. Margaret Atwood’s theory that societies under a lot of stress will give in to a person or a group proves a struggle between weak people giving into stronger people. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the weak people are taunted by the stronger people to give in to admitting to witchcraft. In an article called The Single Greatest Witch Hunt in American History, For real by Stacy Schiff, a small village in Massachusetts is being accused of being involved with witchcraft and they are testing people and most are giving into the stronger people just to get out of trouble. In the article Fighting Modern-Day Witch Hunts In India’s Remote Northeast by Vikram Singh, who works for the New York Times, she
In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, several residents are unjustly accused of witchcraft. The accusers tended to have their own motivation behind accusing these people. For example, accusing people out of jealousy was a popular motive for the accusers. This can be seen through Ann Putnam’s accusation of Rebecca Nurse, who was accused of killing Ann Putnam’s seven infant children. Ann Putnam was jealous of Rebecca because while Ann had lost all of her children except one, Rebecca says she had “eleven children, and [is] twenty-six times a grandma” (Miller 15).
Chloe Pendleton Mrs. Liz Hall Honors English III 13 February 2017 The Witch Hunters’ False Accusations The Crucible by Arthur Miller tells the story of the vindictive town of Salem and its unproportional amount of accusations of witchcraft. Vengeful “witch hunters” left no time to spare when making accusations on their neighborhood enemies. However, many were guilty of caving into their own weaknesses and only feared to be caught in their acts of hypocrisy. Weakness, hypocrisy, vindictiveness: only few of the many words that describe the guilty desires and revenge that lingered among the town of Salem.
The stage is set, the French and Indian War has recently ended and tensions between the colonists and the British are only just beginning. However, despite all these influential happenings the people of Salem are focused on something totally different. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible these colonists in Salem are focused on something never seen or thought of before, witchcraft. This word and thought throw this small town into a frenzy and even some of the surrounding towns are caught up in this. The suspected witchcraft tests the colonists spiritually, emotionally, and politically.
Although Salem, Massachusetts was founded on religiously centered morals, nevertheless it turned to sinful behaviors because Arthur Miller wants to demonstrate that community can be shaped by social pressures. Arthur Miller portrays the detriments of a close-knit community and illustrates how small Salem truly is through everyone knew each other's business. One night, John and Elizabeth Proctor had an argument over Abigail Williams. Elizabeth accused John of cheating with Abigail and told him “if it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not” (Miller 52) Elizabeth Proctor supports her accusation of adultery with this statement.
In reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller, it seems unfathomable in today’s world of science and logical reasoning, that such mass hysteria could break out. While we don’t blame supernatural witches any longer for strange behaviors, there are still many cases in recent history that can be paralleled to the Salem witch trials. One example is a 2012 case of over a dozen high schoolers in Le Roy, New York who developed uncontrollable tics with no obvious cause. When I chose to read The New York Times article, “What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy,” by Susan Dominus, I thought the case would give a clear psychological explanation for the cause of the girls’ afflictions, and give insight into why girls in Salem acted the way they did. However, like
In the spring of 1692 an outbreak of which craft shadowed over the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Although which craft is non-existent it didn't stop these crazed occult activists from pointing fingers at people they have known there whole life. The Crucibles is a tragedy driven story based on the horrific events that took place in Salem. Nevertheless, all this talk of witches had to come from somewhere; surprisingly, it came from a group of girls dancing naked in the forest and drinking the blood of a chicken.
My English III class just finished watching The Crucible based on the true story of the Salem Witch Trials. There are many factors that contributed to the trials, but I have found three in particular that stand out. The citizens of Salem's religion, their gullibility, and jealousy all led to the deaths of many innocent people. Their puritanistic religion is the main reason the trials even began. The girls were extremely fearful of their strict religious elders.
Abigail lies to everyone and says that she was bewitched when she went dancing with Tituba in the forest, but that was just a lie to save her life. Abigail knew that if anyone found out that she knew what was doing when she was dancing in the forest, she would be accused of being a witch and practicing witchcraft. This was the type of society people lived in. To save her life, Abigail abandoned her honesty and claimed that she was bewitched and named many names to save herself. Abigail lied to save her own life, because a death sentence was worse than being
Imagine the town of Salem, Massachusetts,and how it screams witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the town’s reverend’s daughter, Betty, becomes “ill”. She had became this way because of what had happened in the forest. Everybody freaks out and Reverend Parris wants nothing to do with the thought of witchcraft in his very home. He sends for the town doctor, but the doctor finds no illness that ails Betty.
The town of Salem is known for its infamous witch trials that took place in 1692. The gruesome trials resulted in the hanging of nineteen people and the imprisonment of hundreds. The nineteen that hanged were put to death for refusing to admit to witchcraft. In the trials, the only evidence proving the accused to be witches is the actions of a dozen teenage girls. The girls claim to be possessed by the people they are accusing as witches.
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.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.