Supernatural In The Crucible

People believe that actions happen for many different reasons and tend to blame others before themselves. Some believe that the devil is doing the work in the body of someone else, and some believe that the devil does not, and some even believe in witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, nineteen innocent people are hung for accusations of performing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of young girls go out into the woods which is forbidden in Salem. They are sent into a frenzy when the town’s reverend, Parris, spots them dancing in the woods. The girls are led by Abigail Williams, a young teenage girl who lives with her uncle, reverend Parris. Abigail is not the most truthful girl, which ends up causing 19 innocent people their lives. Previous to these events, Abigail was a servant in the Proctor household, but was sent off after Elizabeth Proctor found out about the affair between Abigail and her husband, John Proctor. In Abigail’s case the more lies she told, the more lives she ended.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an elaborate play that tells the story of the village of Salem and how the community slowly falls apart because of a strategic witch hunt ploy. The fear of witchcraft turns the once peaceful village upside down and accusations destroy the lives and reputations of so many people. Different characters’ actions have different impacts on the community, but one character stands out the most. Abigail Williams from The Crucible is a clear representation of how impactful the power of manipulation and deception is in a vulnerable society to create mass hysteria.

In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts a small group of girls joined together to go in the woods at night to meet a slave woman name Tituba. Tituba is a slave of Reverend Parris. During their meeting all the girls are dancing

In Act I Abigail says to Betty, "I talked to your papa and I told him everything." This line like the many others spoken by Abigail is a lie and is spoken with the intent of manipulating another character into doing something that will somehow benefit her. In his play, "The Crucible," Arthur Miller uses the character of Abigail Williams to exemplify the theme of deceit. This play is set in Salem, Massachusetts, in a time period when villagers were prone to accusing each other of witchcraft in order to save themselves from being hanged. Hence, a major theme in this play is deceit.

Over a few months, the girls then acted strangely: “getting into Holes, creeping under Chairs and Stools… uttering foolish and ridiculous speeches…” (Background Essay). Soon, their behavior showed in other young girls throughout Salem. Due to coercion from Betty Parris’ father, the girls confessed that two local women and Tituba were witches causing the odd conduct. One theory for all of this is simply that the children were looking for outlets. Children were expected to act like adults, for they were treated as adults. They were not allowed to play with toys or participate in games. Boys, at least, had a few creative outlets such as school, crafting, and exploring the outdoors. Because Salem, like most societies, was patriarchal, many girls were not sent to school and were expected to tend to the household. This was the world that Betty Parris and Abigail Williams lived in. There was little for them to feed their imagination with, so they may have decided to make up rumors and have some fun. Evidence of this is found in Salem Witchcraft when Charles W. Upham writes, “They soon … became intoxicated … by the terrible success of their imposture (acting), and were swept along by the frenzy they had occasioned…” (Document 7). Upham furthers his writing by talking about how the Devil and witches were fake and the girls were faking it for their own amusement the whole time. The historical context Salem Witchcraft is significant because Upham goes against the Bible, which goes against the Puritan belief. We possibly see more of this acting take place during Bridget Bishop’s examination. Whenever Bishop would move, her actions were influenced upon the afflicted girls. For example, when Bishop shook her head, the girls were tortured (Document 6). It would appear that Bishop was controlling the girls, but the girls could’ve mimicked Bishop to

A court case is an event of great importance, and most trails ultimately end with the person or concept on trail being condemned to be guilty, or being declared innocent of the charge.Some trails take session upon session to find the truth of whether one is guilty and innocent. The longer the trail, the harder it often gets to tell between right and wrong. However, the guilt of some is painfully obvious. The deceptive girl, Abigail Williams, in Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible, shows her guilt by trying to sway John Proctor’s feelings for her, threatening her friends, and accusing so many people of witchcraft.

Life in the 1600’s was arduous for members of Puritan society. Strict social rules, including defined gender-specific roles, mandatory attendance at church, no self-indulging activities, and limited personal freedoms, forced people to repress their feelings and opinions to maintain a good reputation. God was involved in every aspect of life, and punishment fell upon those who were seen as not doing God’s work and deviated from the norm. The Crucible, a play set during the events of the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts during this time, focuses on the mass hysteria which plagued the people and their reactions. A group of girls went dancing in the woods, and were caught by Reverend Parris. To avoid getting in trouble, the girls, led by Abigail Williams, claimed being the victims of witchcraft. John Proctor, who previously had an affair with Abby while she worked for his family, refused to believe the accusations of witchcraft. After Abby accuses his wife, Elizabeth, John does his best to prove her innocence, yet ultimately ends up being hanged himself. The events are tragic, and many people died as a result. Abigail’s “in the moment” survival is evident in her disregard for virtue in favor of reputation throughout The Crucible, whereas John Proctor ultimately decides integrity is more important than survival through his admission of guilt.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It all started when Reverend Parris discovers a group of girls dancing in the woods. After he found the girls in the wood, his daughter Betty fall ill. Since Betty wouldn’t wake up, people become paranoid and started believing that witchcraft was real. Fake accusations were made and innocent people kept dying. In The Crucible there are many people to blame for all for everything that occurred, characters such a Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams is to blame because she accused everyone else just to protect herself. Reverend Hale is also blame because he was the one who got people to think that witchcraft was real. Lastly Reverend Parris is to blame because he was just worried about himself and his reputation in Salem.

Miller starts the play with a bang, with a quote from Abigail. When the thought of witchcraft goes through the town. With two girls who “cannot wake”. The town starts to get worried there could be a witch in the town, and Abigail takes the opportunity and “confesses” to the devil with an unexpected quote:

Lying is a common occurrence throughout the play of The Crucible despite every character being a “believer.” In this play, Miller demonstrates characters being freed by the sin of lying. This theme has shown that the people of Salem lied to protect themselves or others. This also happens in everyday life and is a common issue that can be shown through false confession. The Crucible has shown many ways of how this theme is influenced in the real world. The two main situations from the play that show this theme of lying for self-freedom or the freedom of others involves John Proctor and Abigail Williams.

The theme one could say in the play is, believing and spreading false accusations can be life threatening. In The Crucible, this happened quite often as people who had no relation to Abigail’s spell in the woods were accused of witchcraft. If they refused to confess to practicing witchcraft, they would be killed. If they confessed to practicing witchcraft, (even if it wasn’t true), they would be jailed and have their lives saved, but their reputations ruined forever. I think the author, Arthur Miller, is trying to teach readers and viewers a lesson that even innocent people can be accused of crimes they did not commit and to not believe everything we hear when people are panicking and are in fear. Abigail Williams is a prime example of spreading false accusations, even early on in the play when she falsely blames Tituba for everything Abigail says,“She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!”(23). In Salem, everyone was panicked and spreading rumors out of fear, and falsely accusing people of witchcraft, even unexpected people, like John Proctor’s maid, Mary Warren when she turned on him to save herself and said to him in court, “Don’t touch me - don’t touch me … you’re the Devil’s man!” (52). This betrayal and false accusation is what eventually causes Proctor to give up his fight.

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.

The Salem witch trials took place between February 1692 and May of 1693. It happened because people thought the devil was lose in Salem so they accused many people of witchery. Every person that confessed or accused was hung because the judges thought that they had access to the devil and could put a curse on anyone they wanted to. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams and her friends are accusing people around the town of witchery and having contact with the devil. A total of 14 people was hung, and many more are still to be hung. There are three ways that Abigail Williams could have changed in the Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Imagine the year is 1692. In a small Massachusetts town a culture of highly religious folk live in peace. Salem. It´s late January and the reverendś young niece Abigail and only daughter begin to act strangely. Rumors of witchcraft fly through town and fear runs rampant.In around a year 200 people are unjustifiably accused and 20 sentenced to capital punishment. Who is next? The strange widow down the road? The Coreys? In a time of obscured justice, line were crossed and innocent lives lost. In his breakthrough play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller spins a tale not far from the truth.Letting his readers explore a gruesome tale of blind hatred. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Abigail Williams embodies the wrongdoings of the Salem Witch Trials.

The day after his daughter betty was not waking up and Parris is thinking that the girls were conjuring spirits and that his daughter is possessed “Parris says that if the girls were conjuring spirits, he needs to know because his "enemies" will surely find out and ruin him”(Miller, Arthur “The crucible act 1 summary and analysis)  Parris is not worried about the fact that they were dancing, he is worried about his reputation. Days past and the town are begging to find the witches so Reverend parris contracted a witch hunter Reverend hale a very good trained witch hunter who promise to hunt down all the witches in salem’’Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army’’-Hale.(Miller, Arthur’’ search quotes reverend parris quotes’). Reverend Hale meets and have a talk with all the girls afflicted with the girls dancing in the forest because he wants to know who started it.