Witch Hunts In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

The court felt that God sent her down to expose all of the devil’s witches. , like god sent Israel. Although she was not sent by God. One might say that the girls also play a part in this; because they could come out and admit their frivolous cry of witchcraft.

(Miller 150) Abigail uses her envy of Elizabeth’s marriage to john and resorts to name calling to persuade john to come to her. The Evil practices and sins will cast chaos in the town of Salem from one person. For the most part, Abigail Williams stirred up drama and made her move by accusing Goody Proctor and changes her behavior constantly to ruin Elizabeth’s marriage.

This causes the whole ‘witch’ mayhem and in the end, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of ‘witchcraft’ by only pointing a finger at others, making sure none of the accusations fall back on her. This scene in “The Crucible”, is important because it shows that something did in fact happen between Abigail Williams and John Proctor, and that Abigail will not accept Proctor telling her to forget everything that happened. As seen in both the film and book, this causes Abigail to counteract furiously and overdramatically, which begins the chaos that the town

Mary desperately wants to tell the truth because she believes their punishment will be less severe if they are truthful. Because of this Abigail threatened her and the other girls, saying they will not tell the truth, so the girls decide to use the two afflicted girls to their advantage and claim witchcraft. Their claim of witchcraft leads to an entire mess of people being falsely accused. John Proctor knows that the girls are lying but doesn't do anything about it until his wife is arrested. Whereupon he forces Mary Warren to tell him the truth and say that she will tell the truth to the court to save all of the innocent people.

She was a savage, angry teenager who everyone thought was an angel. According to Shmoop, “Abigail flirts with John Proctor. She tries to get him to admit that he still wants her and expresses anger toward his wife for “blackening” her name in the village.” As we can see, Abigail Williams wasn't the kindest person out there.

No matter what Abagail will not get into trouble with Parris, so she resorts to lies, and threats meant to keep what happened in the forest a secret. Thus, Abigail keeps everyone in line by creating slanders about them that compromise their character, to where she will seem correct in any argument against her. Likewise, fear controls Mary Warren to turn on John Proctor. Warren, accused of witchcraft, abruptly exclaims, “ ‘I’ll murder you,’ he says, ‘if my wife hangs! We must overthrow the court”(Miller 119).

With her lying about being in the woods, all the way down to Goody Proctor, this never would have started without Abigail’s deceit. When accusing Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft she claims “Goody Proctor always kept poppets” (108). She does this so her whole plan can come together. The judges are already believing her dishonest stories so she digs deeper and tells more lies. When police are investigating Abigail’s stabbing incident, Abigail quickly blames Elizabeth and testify “it were your wife’s familiar spirit” (78).

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 madness that witchcraft was a problem came together when society combined the story of Adam and Eve (women acting out in abnormal ways and easily being convinced to do things), with the desire of wanting all women to act as the Virgin Mary. This created an unrealistic ideology of standards of daily conduct and if those standards were not adhered to they would be accused of practicing witchcraft (Broedel, Hans Peter. The Malleus Maleficarum and the Construction of Witchcraft), (Parish, Helen. Class Discussion). Thus, begins the belief that women being disobedient are having a relationship with the devil (Parish, Helen.

In the play Abigail only cares about herself and what she can do to protect herself. When the girls talk in Betty’s room and Mary shows weakness and wants to tell everyone about what they did in the forest, Abigail gets really angry. She threatens the girls and is not afraid to show what she is willing to do. “Now look you. All of you.

Now, everyone in the room turns on Tituba. Imagine an entire roomful of people bearing down on you, one being your master, and then Reverend Hale, putting tons of pressure on you. Parris threatens a good whipping if Tituba doesn 't confess to witchcraft, and Hale is in her face, demanding that she confess. Then if she does confess, it will be much easier for her; she won 't be punished as

Meanwhile apprehension grips Parris’s mind that it also compels him arbitrarily to allege many townspeople. Parris blames others to divert attention away from himself. He worries that if the townspeople learn that his daughter and niece have fiddled with witchcraft, his position as pastor could be expelled. Yet at the same time, in the beginning of the play, because Parris placed the title witch on the heads of even the most pious members of his community, he converts into an overly insecure character. All in all, Parris horrors the loss of his job, others finding fault in him, and

Around the time of the witch trials, the people in Salem were very religious. Rumors were easily spread and it was nearly impossible to prove yourself innocent if people were talking about you otherwise. During the witch hysteria, innocent people were imprisoned and and executed because someone has accused them of being a witch. It is understandable that some would accuse others to save themselves from imprisonment or from possible death. 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.

People were so full of fear that they would do anything to eliminate their anxiety. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950s reenacted the hysteria of the Salem witch trials of 1692 by spreading mass fear of prosecution, creating false accusations, and blacklisting people. The Salem witch trials were considered to be America 's most notorious episode of witchcraft hysteria. Many innocent people were killed as a result of false accusations, and many other women were put through trials to determine if they were witches.

During the witch trials, the accused were interrogated and forced to plead guilty of witchcraft or die. Most pleaded guilty just to save their life, but they were also forced to give up the names of other “witches”. Blaming others could also direct the blame from the accused to someone else, this way the accused could escape the pain and shame of being called a witch. In Cotton Mather Biography, it is stated that, “As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confesses to being witches.” This portrays the on going snowball effect of blaming other people of witchcraft.