Similarities Between The Crucible And Half-Hanged Mary

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a rich and enticing play set in the late 1600’s describing the epic horrors and emotions through the events of the Salem witch trials. The Crucible, focuses primarily on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. The play begins with the discovery of several young girls and an African American slave, Tituba, in the woods just outside of Salem, dancing and pretending to conjure spirits. The Puritans of Salem stood for complete religious intolerance and stressed the need to follow the ways of the bible literally without exception. The actions of the women in

Because the immigrants were extremely religious, they had formed a new church known as Puritan Christianity. In addition, the Puritans believed that there was no separation between the church and the justice system. One must follow the Ten Commandments strictly, or else they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The reverends or the judges, those who were responsible for resolving any legal matters, were said to be the ones pulling through with God’s will. Ultimately, the punishments brought upon the accused were extreme, as they were either publicly whipped, had their ears removed, or were ordered to be hanged.

When an entire crowd is choosing to go down the same path it makes it easy for us to follow the leader, even if the outcome may be against our morals or not truly what we believe is right. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, we see people follow one false accusation with more. Sadly, it’s human nature to choose to make the same decisions and behave similarly as those we are surrounded by. This is distinguished in two ways: mob mentality and mass hysteria. Mob mentality is the behavior of a large crowd who are solely followers. Mass hysteria is a condition affecting a large group, characterized by anxiety, irrational beliefs or behavior, and inexplicable symptoms of illness. All of these signs are very much present in the Salem mass, but when it comes down to it, who was the person that started all of this? Abigail Williams is the one responsible for creating the mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts.

Imagine feeling lonely, isolated, or like a outcast. Now imagine hundreds of other people cheering, having fun, and with a lot of energy; that is what it is like to be apart of a bandwagon, at first it starts off with one person doing it, then a couple of other people join in and a couple minutes later and everyone is doing it because it is the “cool” thing to do at that moment. The bandwagon effect has been present in many different types of situations whether they are big or small or whether they are noticed or not. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible portrays the bandwagon behavior throughout the book. It is also present in the Greensboro Sit-ins showing that many people came together as a group to accomplish something big.

The main quality admired and expected of women in The Crucible is submissiveness. It is clear from the play that Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, was largely a patriarchal society. Power in the hands of women was looked down on and even feared. Any leverage that women had was gained solely through manipulation. If the men suspected a woman of interacting with the Devil, she was expected to submit to their authority and confess her crime. If she rebelled and refused to confess, she was sentenced to death, no questions asked. However, the same was also true for men, though they were much more seldom found guilty of witchcraft.

During the early 1600s Puritans migrated to the New World in hopes of starting a colony where religion placed god and church in the center of their lives. From there many citizens suffered from the strict consequences of their sins. Punishments ranged from public humiliation, being hanged, or shunned. In the books The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter they show just how damaging the Puritan culture could be on society.

One of the three major themes that is brought upon in The Crucible is groupthink, a phenomenon where people in a group make irrational decisions in order to fit in with the rest of the group to stand out. In this play, witchcraft plays a major role in the fate of many, whether it be deemed real or not. The main ideology that makes this theme true is when the female characters in this story are encountered with being accused of witchcraft, such as Abigail Williams, and Sarah Good, etc. When caught dancing in the woods next to a burning cauldron, the ladies profusely try to deny and cover up their story, only to end up blaming innocent souls. Doing so, an ample chain of accusations spread rapidly through the church and the town, making nearly everyone insane. Abigail was one of the first to cause this by saying, “‘I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” (Miller 481). Another example, in the church/court,

The article begins by stating that the puritans came to America to set a model for the Anglican Church. In order to accomplish this, the puritans had to have many laws that were supposed to be met with harsh punishment. Among these laws were many

Hysteria is the vital aspect in the act “The Crucible” about witchcraft which spreads throughout the small town called Salem and involved having tragic events without any facts. Abigail Williams is a major character in the play “The Crucible” Arthur Miller, but she is portrayed as an great antagonist who drives the wheel in the play. She has an unnatural power to manipulate others and gain control over them. Abigail states "I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! (Miller 48). While confessing to witchcraft gets Tituba positive attention, and makes her a believable to accuse others, along with Betty she uses same technique to develop trust toward others. A major theme of the play is blame, revenge, and mistaken innocence. Abigail shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This furious act of selfishness soon becomes Abigail drive of power.

There are various ways you can portray women throughout, The Crucible. Some are raised with high expectations, morals, and the majority are raised in a Christian household. And some are raised the complete opposite. In The Crucible, women are viewed in many different ways based on their actions and behavior. In Margaret Atwood’s poem, “Half-Hanged Mary,” she often views women the same way. The author in The Crucible, Arthur Miller, uses very important women to characterize the certain roles of women. The author of the poem, “Half-Hanged Mary also shows how women portray the roles of how women were treated in the poem, as well as the story, The Crucible. Both of these authors, Margaret and Arthur, compare the similar roles of women based on their well being and moral upbringings.

“Think about the last sporting event or concert you attended. It’s unlikely that you would have been yelling or singing the way you were if you were the only person doing it!” (Donley). Being in a group, in some way, seems to make some behaviors acceptable that wouldn’t be acceptable otherwise. “The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs” (Bloom). Bandwagoning is also commonly referred to as “mob mentality” or “groupthink.” We can observe many instances of bandwagoning and mob mentality when reading about the false accusations and impulse convictions made in The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller and published in January 1953. This piece is a play inspired by the infamous witch trials that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s. How do the effects of bandwagoning relate to the Salem Witch Trials and why do we, as humans, allow behavior of others to influence our own?

In Act I of The Crucible, the suspicion of witchcraft arose in Salem. This suspicion had a major effect on the whole community, and all of the characters responded to the accusations brought upon them in different manors. The two prominent factors that effected the way each character responded were fear and shame. Other components that caused problems were the individuals who took control of the situation, and the individuals who had more passive responses. The behaviors of Abigail and Tituba had a very significant impact in the town of Salem.

Power is something almost everybody strives for at least once in their life. In Salem, the men who own the most land or people who have a great reputation for being very religious are the people with the utmost power. Slaves and women, especially unmarried ones, are the people with the lowest status. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the power dynamic dramatically shifts. Tituba, Betty’s family’s slave, brings a group of Puritans girls, including Betty, into the woods. Tituba is from Barbados and practices a different religion, which goes against parts of the Puritan beliefs. When the girls are in the woods, Reverend Parris, Betty’s father, sees them and they all scatter. Betty worries she will get in trouble, so she falls into a trance,

The Puritans goal in New England was to create the perfect pure society where nobody sinned and God ruled completely. They attempted this by making laws about and regulating every aspect of life in the colony. To achieve this, the church needed to rule the colony. And if the church ruled the colony, only the real Puritans could be part of the church. They believed only a minority of the population pure enough to be a part of the church. In reality very few people were ever able to give enough evidence that they had completed their part. As a result, two-thirds of the population failed to qualify as church members. The Puritans enacted many laws to keep the non-Puritans living religious lives. They created an official whose only job was to check up on ten families daily to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening and to make sure everyone who was able went to church. Their idea was that everybody, even if they weren’t part of the church, should be very religious. Therefore they created their laws with principles based on the Old Testament. They dreamed of a society where everybody followed the laws and lived a peaceful, god-fearing existence. To make this dream realizable, the Puritans created severe penalties for breaking the laws. These ranged from whipping and being thrown in the stocks for minor offenses, to banishment and death by hanging for serious ones. To be a good Puritan one had to work hard all

A second theme revealed in The Crucible is empowerment. During the trials in the play, many characters were given power, which they never had before. These characters were the women. Women in Salem are generalized to be governed by the men and have no choice in anything. The women either work as servants to men or get married and have children. An example of this theme is Abigail Williams. She’s seventeen-years-old and has a great amount of power with the witch trials. In one scene with Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, Abigail, Mrs. Putnam and Tituba, Abigail is explaining to Reverend Hale about the incident with Betty. Once she sees Tituba, Abigail points at her and says to Reverend Hale, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” Abigail also says, “She sends her spirit on me in church, she makes me laugh at prayer!”With these serious accusations, Tituba is imprisoned just because Abigail accused her of practicing witchcraft. The idea of empowerment is universal and enduring because anyone in the world with no supremacy, can suddenly have all the power. Today in modern society, people all over the world set aspirations in order to gain authority and be ahead of everyone else. Furthermore, many people in the world have power and authority over others. Empowerment will always be in societies around the world.