Theme Of Innocence In The Crucible

14). Using torture as a way to extract evidence is an inhumane way to treat those under accusation.The argument that a confession given under these circumstances is legitimate, is a false claim. This is due to the victim's mindset being compromised from the extreme and extensive methods of torture. Another example of the unacceptable evidence used in court against those accused is the presence of the “devil’s mark”. “The belief was that the devil branded the bodies of witches with symbolic yet concrete corporeal malformations such as marks and growths” (Darr, 361).

One common question about The Crucible is how Abigail Williams is the most evil force in the play. It is shocking when a girl talks back to authority out of disagreement, but few go as far as Abigail Williams. While she may only be 11 years old, her manipulative and vengeful personality allows her fool her Uncle and later turns a whole town against each other. She is really a master of manipulation and trickery, and she gets herself into affairs without punishment and has threaten all who oppose here. Abigail really is the devil in human form.

Those who would admit to being a witch would go to jail, but for those who denied having interaction with the devil would have been trialed and hung, so really, anyway you put it it’s a lose-lose situation. Things like politics, religion, imaginations, and fear of people were just some of the main factors of what aided people into believing that Satan was upon the town of Salem. They believed that the humans were with devil and doing as he said which in turn gave them the power to harm others. One girl named Tituba was trying to save herself by confessing to witchcraft. She didn’t just confess but she also accused many other women about being witches and she said that they all were in the “hands of Satan”.

Miller uses irony to demonstrate the flaws, the corruption, within the court’s justice system. In this case, it’s emphasized when Giles is found guilty; even though, he did have evidence to prove his accusation. He states, “if Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeits up his property that's law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece”( Miller 89). In addition, he has a witness that heard Putnam thanking his daughter after she cried out on Jacobs.

Being naive and gullible trapped Hale from being able to rationalize and how later in the play, the hysteria of witches within the town would later convict innocent people to their death. Even though Hale wanted to do justice for the town, his personal flaws had allowed him to lowered himself as the tragic hero of the

Such similarities include the false imprisonment of innocent people based off of prejudice beliefs and heavily biased justice systems. The Salem Witch Trials began in the year 1692 when several young girls in Salem, Massachusetts were acting so strange that they were believed to be under a witch’s spell (Schiff). When confronted, the girls began accusing others of practicing witchcraft (Schiff). Many people were soon accusing others or being accused of witchcraft; they were being accused for various reasons such as unexplained illnesses, failed crops, or a woman could even be accused if she could open something a man could not (Brandt, p. 38). As stated in Anthony Brandt’s article, An Unholy Mess, “Legally, spectral evidence was not grounds for convicting a witch.

Abigail Williams’ Influence Is it okay for a person to lie and hurt other people just to keep him or herself safe? In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Abigail Williams lies, a lot, to keep herself safe. Throughout the story, many people are accused of witchcraft. When a person is accused of witchcraft, it is very easy for them to get out of the accusation if they lie. The lies that are told shifts the belief of who knows witchcraft, and Abigail Williams uses those lies to gain influence over other people.

Just like the girls in the Crucible the girls made claims that certain men and women were witches they didn’t have proof either. Joseph McCarthy made claims that ruined lived and lead to increased to hostility, same as Abigail and the other girls made claims that ruined lives. In conclusion Arthur Miller was commenting on the behavior of society, comparing the Salem witch Trials within the McCarthy hearings in the 1950’s, when the United States Government sought to identify any Americans were Communists or Communist protectors and friends. The problem for either side is never solved only by the ending of persecution of people with no

In the play, loyalty falls far below self selfishness in the face of mass hysteria. Abigail seems like an innocent girl to everybody however it is later found out that she is one of the people who puts herself before others and makes things worse to get herself out of trouble. In act one Reverend Hale was questioning Tituba, a slave from Barbados. Tituba was explaining what the dancing and the disturbance in the woods and Abigail says she “wasn’t conjuring spirits”(Miller ??) but in reality she was caught attempting to cast a spell on Elizabeth.

To demonstrate, in Act One of The Crucible, Tituba, a Barbados slave to Reverend Parris, was falsely accused of leading the girls of the play in witchcraft, but deliberately defended herself by stating that “I do believe somebody else be witchin these children”(Pg. 42, Miller). In other words, because Tituba was under the false accusations of witchcraft, she was forced to blame other people of the village as well in order to save her own life. Therefore, because all the villagers, especially Mr. Hale, another important character of the play, accused Tituba in a forceful manner, she was forced to take decisive action due to her society’s daunting influence in order to save her own life. The society of the Puritans had a strong influence on the actions of numerous individuals due to two key components.