Reputation Preserving one’s reputation is a prevalent theme in The Crucible. Would you rather retain your reputation or tell the truth? Being honest builds on your reputation, I would not want to be infamously known as a liar. The truth is eventually found out, it is better to share it sooner rather than later. Several characters in The Crucible are worried about how they are perceived by others.
“But in the trials, neighbors also testified against neighbors, bringing up grievances as a way of getting revenge”(-Spiritual Travels). This would explain why so many people were accused. “In conclusion, the residents of Salem Village usually accused their neighbors of witchcraft because it was very common to have a history of conflict or tension with your neighbor at the time”(Teenink.com). Even if no one can prove that these were the main reasons for the Salem Witch Trials and there are still many other theories, these three give the best explanation. These three theories show that the girls only did i because they were ill or believed that it was right because someone they looked up to told them to do it.
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
Power in our society nowadays is very misgiven and abused. When people have power they tend to use it for their own benefit and to manipulate people into believing them. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692 in order to show his audience how easy it was to be accused and hung for witchcraft. In the Crucible a group of young girls were caught dancing in the woods and in order to not receive a punishment they lied saying they got witched. The girls blamed many people of the town of being witches and caused conflict all over the village.
In “The Crucible” Abigail is one of the main characters, because she is dealing with witchcraft. She is lying a lot, for example, she says “Elizabeth Proctor is an envious, gossipy liar!”. She says things about other people, witch are lies, to distract from herself. She is lying about the meeting in the woods, witchcraft and about his love for John Proctor. On account of Abigail other people died in the play, because she shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft.
In The Crucible, there could be many suspects to blame for the innocent deaths that happened in Salem. Proctor could be blamed for the innocent deaths because he lied about his affair with Abigail. Speaking of Abigail... in my opinion Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the innocent deaths because of the lies she told, the accusations she made, and the affair she had with John Proctor. Abigail Williams told many, many lies in The Crucible. The reason the witch trials began in the first place was because of the lie she told about being in the woods.
The Salem Witch Trials, with lies, manipulation and so much more. Abigail should be held responsible for the imprisonment and execution of innocent people. Abigail was spreading rumors and messing with bad spirits, also lying about Elizabeth haunting her during trial. At the beggining of the story, she spreads rumors of the so called bewitchment instead of denying it and saying that all they did was run into the woods. The religious people in town started hearing more rumors.
Reverend Parris, worried for his own job, explains to Abigail that her “punishment will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.” Even the idea of witchcraft in Reverend Parris’s house could ruin his reputation in the town and therefore risk his job. By Betty being ‘afflicted’, she is holding power over her own father and his position in the town. She knows that the longer she is asleep, the more desperate her father is going to be blame someone for the witchcraft who is not her. Putnam claims that “There is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark.
So when an opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth comes up in the form of power to accuse people of witchcraft, Abigail jumps at the chance. John sees Abigail’s intentions and portrays this when he says “she thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave,” in a confession to Judge Danforth about his relationship with Abigail (Miller, 110). Not only did Abigail want John Proctor all to herself, but also she was concerned about people finding out what she actually was doing in the woods with Tituba and the other girls. It is revealed early on in the play that Abigail cares about her reputation, for example, when she was concerned that Elizabeth was “blackening [her] name in the village” (Miller, 23). If people found out Abigail were trying to put a hex on Elizabeth Proctor in the woods, then sooner or later the truth about John and
If turmoil comes over your town, would you take advantage of it? The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a shocking novel about witchcraft in Salem in the late 1600s. Many girls, including Abigail, were caught in the woods doing what was thought to be “witchcraft”. Once the rest of the town hears of this the accusations start. With little evidence to prove innocence, confessing or hanging were the only options.