At this point, my influence has grown stronger amongst the townspeople of Salem. After following along with Tituba’s plan, the girls and I have kept ourselves shielded from the likelihood of being hanged. It is also exceptionally fun to have the potential to decide the fate of random women at my command. My enemies will wish they never crossed Abigail Williams, for I am a force not to be reckoned with! And now with this control, I have a few enemies in particular that I ‘sense’ have been up to some witchcraft. I think today I must visit court to report a case of bewitchment in the Proctor house! The ‘spirits’ have been mentioning Goody Proctor for some time now, and of course it is my honorable duty to protect the people of Salem from these
In 1692, when the Salem Witch Trials thrived, everyone feared a common enemy, witches. Abigail Williams, the niece of the powerful Reverend Parris, begins accusing women of being witches after she herself is accused of conversing with the devil. “...I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(45) The people of Salem originally had nothing to fear until Abigail William’s wild accusations. These claims led to the majority fearing that anyone was capable was witchcraft. This turned friends and even family members against each other. John Proctor, a seemingly innocent man, had been accused of participating in dark magic. Reverend John Hale is conversing with his wife to convince her to persuade her husband to confess to his sins.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller creates several characters that do not have many direct characterizations. This play shows the thoughts of some of the people in Salem during the time of the witch hunts. These people also had accused their neighbors simple for more land, animals, and money. Some of the characters offer a lot of indirect characterization such as Giles Corey. In the beginning of the play Giles Corey is suspicious of witches like most of Salem, but over the course of the play he believes it was pure superstition.
he mood and situtation that he was in. At the end (Act ]I[) John Proctor was
Summary: Court is in session. Proctor confesses and accuses Abigail along with himself of committing adultery. Consequently, everyone is astonished. The court is hesitant to believe him and Abigail tries to deny the accusation.
Abigail’s fear of prosecution and of losing John Proctor causes her to cry witch. When Reverend Hale asks Abigail if she called “the Devil last night” (42), she realizes her peril, and says “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba . . . “ (42), diverting the accusations from herself onto Tituba. Abigail notices Warren storing a needle in the belly of a poppet after sewing it in court. Abigail sticks a needle into her stomach the next day and cries witchcraft. Later, the blame of witchery falls on Elizabeth Proctor because Mary Warren gave her the stabbed poppet. Abigail designs to see Elizabeth Proctor hanged, and believes that John Proctor will be “singing secret hallelujahs” (152) with her when she does. Abigail cries witch on Elizabeth Proctor so that she does not lose John Proctor. The driving fears of Abigail and Tituba contrast in that Abigail’s are complex and twisted whereas Tituba’s are primal and straightforward.
I hope you are well despite the recent events that have disturbed our town. In the past, I understand that I may have hurt you. However, I write to you as a man who fears for the stability of his town, not as a former companion. I always take it upon myself to judge others, and now I judge myself as well. Since I believe in the need for honesty, I am prepared to go to court to expose us if I must. I simply hope that will not be necessary, and that you and I can come to a compromise. Think of how it felt when your heart broke, how easily that could happen, and how debilitating heartbreak can be. This town is as fragile as a heart, and it feels the strain of jealousy and mistrust. Like a heart, after just one break or crack, it takes time and care to make the town whole again. As loathe as I am to admit to my selfishness, I must disclose that I do not wish to tarnish my reputation. Abigail, it is absolutely imperative that you reveal your lies because, if you do not, countless innocents will die and mistrust will thrive.
American playwright Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible (1952) displays to us that which hunt still exists in American society. Miller supports this claim by drawing parallels between the Salem Witch trials and the senator Joseph McCarthy. His purpose is to warn his readers of the dangers of mass hysteria. He uses emotional appeals and logic to convince the readers that mass “hunts” are still a danger to Americans today. The crucial way however, that Miller achieves his supreme objective of revealing the risks of reputation vs. integrity is through a fascinating character, John Proctor. John is an example of an internally conflicted character because he had a huge argument with Elizabeth over Abigail, Proctor also had an affair with Abigail, and lastly John had a choice between life and death at the end of the play.
The reader can infer that Proctor is a highly respected, and even feared individual in Salem. He speaks his mind, and strikes down any malevolence. For this, Proctor has a very good reputation in the town. He maintains this good name by being very immersed in town issues, but being detached when not needed. Unlike many of the other characters, Proctor lives away from the town center. This is symbolic of his stance in conflicts and his opinion of Salem’s leadership. When all the leaders of Salem erupt into a frenzy about the possible issue of witchcraft, Proctor silences the chaos by asking if anyone can “speak one minute without we (Salem citizens) land in Hell again?” (30). Later in the scene, Proctors goes even further to point out how the current ministry is broken by saying, “I mean it solemnly...I like not the smell of this ‘authority’” (31). His distrustfulness of nature is what makes him the leading protagonist against the many ensuing problems so deeply ingrained into Salem’s population. Proctor is not only unwilling to join the current ministry due to its blind leader, but also the first character to see the irrationality of
Like others, Corey’s internal conflict is deciding if he believes in witches, or if the whole commotion is just a fabrication. When Corey tells Hale that his third wife reads books in secrecy, he does not mention it because he believes she is connected with the devil, he is just not use to this, due to the fact that none of his other wives showed an interest in reading. One of the external conflicts that Corey faces, is when he begins to question Parris for being so quiet during the horrid witch trials, and wonders if the minister really does praise God, and is curious if he believes in witches or not. Giles Corey is often found motivated to prove that the group of girls claiming to have seen townspeople associating with the devil, are indeed
In Act 1, the dramatic tension is started when Hale finds out about how Abigail and the girls were dancing in the forest and begins to interrogate her. This puts pressure on her and she tries to minimize the situation which can be inferred in the line "Why a very little frog jumped" (35). She uses the phrase "very little" which makes the "movement" insignificant. Eventually, the pressure gets to Abigail and she blames Tituba which immediately reduces the pressure on her and starts the process of accusation. It also increases the tension because a part of the story has unravelled to Hale- who is currently the most powerful person in the room. The blame can be evidenced in the quote "I never called him! Tituba, Tituba-"( 35). She chose to blame
Abigail is a victim of society because the court gave her power which influenced her to continue in her games instead of the court questioning and looking into her theories. The fact that she had an awful uncle who “may [not] pray to God without [his] golden candlesticks upon the altar” (Miller 62) and would only care about himself especially when people start questioning witchcraft because “for surely [his] enemies will, and they will ruin [him] with it” (10). Her actions were also influenced because of the lack of authority from parents because “[she] saw Indians smash [her] dear parents heads on the pillow next to [hers]” (19) and has had to live with her selfish uncle. Along having no guidance from parents and especially not from her self-absorbed uncle, Abigail was heartbroken because the love of
The Red Scare provides many ideas of witchcraft, as well as rumors or non-real statements. Rumors play a big part in any matter. Including in The Crucible, which is based on the Red Scare.
Ad Hominem: Latin for “against the man,” and refers to the logical fallacy (error) of arguing that someone is incorrect because they are unattractive, immoral, weird, or any other bad thing you could say about them as a person. (https://literaryterms.net/ad-hominem/)
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a tragic story of injustice suffered by an innocent community who are subjected to the hypocritical, prideful judges of their trial. These Judges use their power to eliminate evidence of their mistakes and return their community to puritanical ways. The leaders of Salem are not concerned with seeking the truth and justice, but with maintaining their authority and reputations; this objective leads them to consistently rejecting truth, against all logic and evidence of their senses.
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is a great portrayal of humans and their struggles. This