Examples Of Witch Hunts In The Crucible

* Why did Mary defy Mr Neal? What did she achieve? What role does the character of Mary play in the text?

While in court one day, she sews a poppet for Elizabeth and leaves her needle in there. Abigail sees this and later at dinner, she stabs herself with a needle and accuses Elizabeth of doing so. This results into the police going to the Proctor household and questioning Mary about the doll. “Why, I meant no harm by it, sir.” Mary admits that the doll is hers, and tells Cheever that the cries of witchery are all pretense. This all leads to John convincing her to tell the truth. Mary tries to take responsibility, to help, but nobody believed her. Even though she did take responsibility for her actions, Mary had to lie in the end to save herself.

The sudden change in Mary’s opinion of both the girls and John Proctor, exhibits her apparent inability to stand firm against the manipulative powers of Abigail. While this trait could seem negative, passed off as fickle, Mary was able to keep her true identity a mystery to Salem.

When Mary Warren is in court she also tries to blame someone. On page 195 Mary Warren says to John Proctor “Mr. Proctor, in open court she near to choked us all to death.” Even though Mary Warren knows this is a lie, she says it so she doesn’t get blamed anymore. But this isn’t the end of the girl’s similarities.

In the play, Mary Warren was one of the girls that was seen in the woods by Reverend Hale. When they go caught she told him that she was not participating she was just watching. In the book she felt guilt for the poppet, and it causing suspicion on Elizabeth. She was also scared of Abigail, because of the things that she did and she she wanted John Proctor to love her the way she loved him. ( Miller 2)

In Act 3, the theme of religion has a different meaning than before. Now, the theme of religion is used in a manipulative way so the people can get what they want. Abigail and the rest of the girls are using Mary Warren because she has turned against them. Abigail pretends Mary is a yellow bird and is taking over their spirits. “Draw back your spirit out of them!” As soon as Abigail and the girls blame Mary for witchcraft Danforth believes them and starts to accuse Mary. “You have seen the Devil, you have made compact with Lucifer, have you not?” Mary Warren responds to the accusations with turning against Proctor. She completely disregards the pact they have made in order to save herself. “I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God.” In Act 4, Arthur Miller uses religion to test the characters.

In the beginning of the play, Mary Warren’s character is well known as being wimpy and afraid. She is under Abigail’s control and will do everything she says. According to Sara Constantakis in Literature Resource Center, “she is weak and easily influenced. She is one of the girls who took part in the voodoo ritual and is terrified when the talk of witchcraft begins, as she knows people who are convicted of being witches are hanged.” This opinion of Mary is further proven by her action of not telling the truth about what happened in the woods because she knows Abigail would kill her. Abigail even screams “I say shut it, Mary Warren!” (Miller, Act I). Mary is always listening to Abigail’s demands, even when she knows the right thing to do. Mary Warren is seen as a poor little mouse who is too quiet to ever stand up for herself. In addition to this, Mary wants to confess about what happened in the woods, but Abigail won’t let her. Mary cries, "Abby, we've got to tell. Witchery's a hangin' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things!" (Miller, Act I). Mary knows she is innocent and for that reason, she is ready to own up to her sins, however Abby knows that she

Mary Warren is a young girl, 18 years of age. She lived as a servant to John and Elizabeth Procter. She is one of the many girls that went into the woods to “dance”. After the girls were caught they tried to take the attention of of themselves and put it on others. This caused a big commotion, that in the end caused many people to lose their lives. The girls were saying that people are witches in order to save there own lives. Marry being one of these girls was not completely happy with what she was doing.

Defense of Mary Warren When it comes to Arthur Miller’s allegorical work, The Crucible, very few characters can be deemed completely innocent. While just about every person in this story has a flaw of envy, pride, or selfishness, characters can often be sorted into the “accuser or accused” categories. One exception to this is Mary Warren. Throughout the story, her loyalties switch back and forth between these two sides. Due to this, she may seem like a selfish and unsympathetic character; that is not the case, however. Mary Warren is an abused and manipulated child, whose decisions in the story are certainly justified, given her situation. The first we see of Mary is when Betty falls ill after the the girls are caught congregating in the woods. Immediately, we see she is terrified, fully aware that them being accused of witchcraft would be “a hangin’ error” (1268). Abigail responds to her fear with an order to lie; she threatens them with violence should they not obey her. Abigail is one of Mary Warren’s main abusers in the story. John Proctor, Mary’s employer, enters the scene next. When he sees her away from his house, he scolds her in a humiliating fashion, even threatening to whip her. From the stage directions, we see she tries “to retain a shred of dignity” (1269), when this happens, leading to the belief that this reproach from Proctor is common in her life. We don’t hear from Mary again until the beginning of Act II. She

The townspeople of Salem feared that they would be called witches so they lied and blamed their family and friends. Mary Warren being one of those people feared being hung and Abigail’s vengeance. When John tells Mary to go to court and confess, Mary refuses, knowing that Abigail will act out of revenge and in court she faces what she had been avoiding “ABIGAIL. Her eyes fall on Mary Warren. MARY. Abby!”(101). Mary Warren knows that Abigail will claim she is a witch so Mary goes along with it to escape death and she blames John Proctor by saying “You’re the devil’s man!”, instead of possibly ending the trials once and for all.

Mary Warren is a girl who is faced with this inner turmoil throughout this play. At the outset of the play she is perceived to be a very shy girl who will never speak her mind as shown when

Beginning Mary Warren’s narrative, she first comes off as a timid person. “Abby, we’ve got to tell” (Miller 18). After a group of girls, including Mary, have been discovered dancing in the woods, Mary pleas to the others that they must reveal what they have done, or

Although she was considered a child rapist, it did not stop her from being with Vili because they got married. Mary was in love with Vili and did not care if she lost her job or was considered to be a rapist to everyone. She took ownership on her choices and actions because at the end of the day, she was with Vili and felt it was worth it at longest she was with

Mary is playing for everyone that is in attendance when Mr. Bennet comes and tell her this. Mr. Bennet is really just trying to have her stop playing and singing. After hearing her father say this to her in front of everyone, she is truly embarrassed. She was just attempting to impress her mom, and failed. This made her really upset, but back then it did not matter if a girls’ feelings were hurt due to what her parents thought of her.

Mary is The Bad Guy, who they really could have made an interesting character out of, but they didn't. They wrote her as the evil, cruel queen as she is written in history.