How Does Miller Present The Motivations In The Crucible

His genuinely concern for Salem and his desire to save the town is what makes him a respected judge. Most government leaders want to help their communities or countries which was what Danforth and McCarthy set out to do. Danforth was an effective government leader, as he states he has been a judge for 23 years, he wouldn't have been a judge for so long if people had thought he was inadequate. Just like McCarthy wanted to rid America of communism, Judge Danforth wanted to rid Salem of the devil. Danforth truly believes that he is guided by God and for that reason he cannot falsely accuse someone. This will lead him to never question himself. In The Crucible Act III Danforth says, “I judge nothing… I have seen marvels in this court. I have seen people choked before my eyes by spirits; I have seen them stuck by pins and slashed by daggers. I have until this moment not the slightest reason to suspect that the children may be deceiving me.” This quote is showing that Danforth really thought the girls were being truthful, he thought what he was seeing was real and therefore he wasn't trying to wrongfully convict anyone. Danforth had come to Salem to help the community and had no other objective just as McCarthy had when he started trying to clear America of

The characters in Arthur millers The Crucible can teach a lot about people. People can be horrible and terribly deceptive. When placed under pressures and after experiencing trauma peoples real character can come out. In the case of The Crucible Abigail is shown for what she really is. She gets a kind of power and this corrupts her to use the situation to have Elizabeth Proctor sent to jail. Abigail is not the only one who takes advantage of the

Through the characterization of Abigail’s Machiavellian nature, playing her uncle for a fool and using lies and her deceit to achieve power, Miller enables the reader to draw a direct feministic comparison between her and the powerless woman in The Crucible. The use of adultery and its connection to humiliation and lack of respect allows for a greater representation of Elizabeth’s and Proctor’s relationship with respect to Abigail. Elizabeth is victimised as she finds herself stumbling through her husband’s evident adultery “(Abigail) charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor! and his reprimands “Enough… Elizabeth! “I’ll whip you”. Submissive to his anger and with her own “She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife!” Elizabeth understands that it is Abigail who has driven a wedge between her and Proctor’s marriage. As a result, her situation contrives sympathy, a reaction that is similar to the highly respected Rebecca Nurse who Hale has “heard of your giving great charities”. Nurse, as a direct result of Abigail’s machinations is thrown in jail, labelled a “witch”. The helplessness of these woman is directly attributable Abigail’s lust for influence and recognition and represents the power imbalance between the woman of Salem.

In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible Abigail Williams, an unmarried orphan in the Massachusetts town of Salem, incessantly grows more jealous, her desire for vengeance only grows stronger, and her selfishness escalates. She repeatedly lies to save herself by denying her involvement in witchcraft. Abigail's Jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor intensifies in attempt to realize her desire for Elizabeth's husband John Proctor. In order to save herself she accuses the innocent, without any sense of ethical violation. Abigail proves to be a selfish antagonist in The Crucible that shows no sense of right and wrong.

The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller recounts the events from 1692 to 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, otherwise known as the Salem Witch Trials. Though set in colonial Massachusetts, the somewhat fictional piece serves as an allegory for the post-WWII Red Scare, or more specifically the McCarthy Hearing in the 1950's. Both incidents of mass hysteria had taken place almost three centuries apart, however, share the tragic theme of innocent individuals being accused and convicted of crimes without evidence. As well as, how the prior can be caused by economic instability and provoked public fear. The same theme of human nature is portrayed as Abigail, a young woman desperately in love with the older John Proctor, uses the growing suspicion of witches in Salem to attempt to get rid of Proctor's wife, Elizabeth. Several other girls of Salem follow Abigail as she begins to test the limits of who she can successfully accuse of bewitching her, this goes on until she feels confident enough to accuse Elizabeth Proctor. In quest of her goal Abigail, as well as her followers, become blinded by their new power in society, to the point of abuse. This abuse includes the witch hysteria that erupted in Salem due to their finger-pointing of 'witches' and overdramatic acting of being bewitched in court. Later John Proctor, Mary Warren, Giles Corey, and Francis Nurse try to disprove the accuracy of Abigail's and the other girls' claims. Unfortunately, Mary Warren ends up turning on Proctor,

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible presents Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams who serve important roles through their unique characteristics and thinking. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, has two defining characteristics that show throughout this play: she not only lives to please everyone around her and behaves passively, but she lacks the assertiveness to confront what lies directly under her nose. However, Abigail, the girl John Proctor commits the crime of adultery with, manipulates those around her. She is keen to act upon an opportunity when one arises and feels a determination to get her way. While Elizabeth and Abigail are similar in their love for John Proctor, Elizabeth differs from Abigail through her tendency to try to please everyone and keep her own emotions bottled up, while Abigail believes the world revolves around her and works to make things go her own way.

The sins of deceit and lust have plagued the human race since the dawn of time. These feelings and wishes can make people do some of the worst things known man. In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, these two sins are applied to many characters one of which is Abigail Williams. The play revolves around the Abigail and her friends attempting to cover up their past transgressions against the Salem community while Abigail attempts to get together with John Proctor. Abigail suffers from the sins of lust and deceit most chronically which she uses to fulfill her agenda throughout the play. Due to Abigail's lust for John and her constant utility of untruths lead the people to fear for their lives leading them to hurt innocent people making Abigail the main transgressor of the Salem condition.

Miller shows that much of a society’s stability could be affected by lies and by one’s own selfish needs. Abigail Williams is one of the characters that Miller uses to show how one person could have such a huge impact on a community. Abigail Williams’ affair with John Proctor starts an entire series of events that causes the witch hunts and false accusations in Salem. Her jealousy, envy, and need to stay socially acceptable makes her blame others by demonizing them and their actions. Others in the community take advantage of the beliefs of the Puritan leaders, for their

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail’s flaws- lust, jealousy, and mendacity- that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem. The Crucible focuses of the finding of young girls and a slave messing around in the woods, trying to conjure spirits from the dead. Rather than admit to their actions and face the consequences, the girls accuse everyone else of the crimes they were guilty of. Abigail Williams is the person who caused much of the drama in this story. She bears much responsibility for everyone meeting with Tituba in the woods. Once Parris discovers this meeting, Abigail attempts to keep her actions a secret because it would possibly reveal her affair with Proctor. Abigail lies to cover up her affair with proctor, and to stop the charges of witchcraft in order to prevent the terrible punishments that go along with the accusations.

Danforth focuses on the affect that a postponement will have on his own reputation, and in essence says that he cannot stop the hangings now, as it will show the failure of the court in fairly adjudicating the fates of those previously accused of witchery. Instead of being concerned with providing justice. Danforth attempts to save his reputation from the shame that would follow a stay of execution. He only truly cares about on the personal consequences for his actions, rather than acting as an impersonal arm of the law and declares that “there will be no postponement.” Judge Danforth does not heed the pleas of Reverend Parris, but instead says that if he stops the trials and hangings now, it will imply weakness on his part and be detrimental to his reputation. This decision shows that he is continuing the trials because he is more concerned with his reputation than he is with administering justice.

Then, after some arguments from Giles, Danforth continued to say, “Remove that man” (Miller 3.1.23). Danforth did not stand for anything unorganized, like a loud courtroom filled with people talking, unless the person talking was him. He did not like anyone who stood up to him; all the power in the courtroom had changed him, making him full of pride and vanity. Deputy Governor Danforth loved being the center of attention. The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, Deputy Governor Danforth considered himself all-knowing, this made him full of pride/vanity.

John Proctor is the a very important character in The Crucible. He is a good man, except for his one flaw of having an affair with Abigail. This affair leads to the witch trials because it starts with Abigail wanting to kill John Proctor’s wife so she could be with him. He changes from the beginning of the book to the end. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows the importance of reputation through John Proctor changing his mindset and actions from the beginning to the end of the book.

Proctor says “Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning clean as god’s fingers? I’ll tell you what walking Salem- vengeance is walking Salem.” This reveals that Abigail is protected and she knows that so, she is hurting Proctor by accusing Elizabeth. This shows that Abigail is out for vengeance against Proctor. Our world accuses others wrongfully to protect them. People usually do this to draw attention away from them. For example people involved in crimes point at someone else to protect themselves because they are scared and truly guilty. Miller suggests that our world isn’t always fair when it comes to justice. Many innocent people are tried for crimes they did not commit and are sentenced to jail. Justice in the world is incredibly unfair when it comes to those who are innocent in some cases and maybe Miller suggests that justice in the world needs to be improved for the sake of innocents.

The crowd then began to demand for payment for those who were wrongfully hanged. Danforth attempted to flee the scene during the mayhem but was dragged to the gallows to confess. He then spoke in a defeated tone, “ I continued to sentence people to hang even when what they were accused for started to sound like a squabble for petty revenge… I continued to hang because my job, my reputation, my life were on the line. I was not tied with the girls of Salem or anywhere else. I Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth… am guilty.

Jealousy and lying are two natural behaviors, that if not controlled, may spiral a situation out of control. In Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’, Abigail Williams was the antagonist that wanted to destroy the life of Elizabeth Proctor. Miller’s previous works, such as ‘Death of a Salesman’, follow the theme of the flawed ‘American Dream’, which states that hard work will lead to prosper in life. Similarly, in ‘The Crucible’, the Proctors worked hard throughout their lives, but despite all their efforts Abigail William’s envy and her talent of averting trouble puts John Proctor in a complicated situation; thus resulting in hardships faced by Salem. The moral integrity of John Proctor was contested. Either he could confess to save all or continue to lie. Consequently, ruining his reputation or having the weight of his friends’ deaths on his shoulders.