The Crucible Dark Motives Analysis

During the trials, Hale explains, “I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it” (Miller 73). For Hale, “immaculate proof” requires accusations from multiple people. This requirement encourages people with grudges against others to manufacture false accusations in order to meet Hale’s burden of proof. For example, when Abigail claims to see Mary Warren’s spirit in bird form, Abigail’s friends, Mercy and Susanna, play along in an effort to condemn Mary for witchcraft. By establishing high standards, Hale thinks he is being more fair; however, he is encouraging citizens to create false accusations in order to eliminate enemies. These accusations also play a role in the execution and blame of John Proctor, highlighted by Elizabeth’s coverup.

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.

In the story “The Crucible” Abigail and her cousin are accused of being witches. IN act one it states “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it” (Abigail Page 1). They got caught dancing and doing things they were forbidden to do. Since that day the entire town thinks of then as witches. That being said Abigail tries to make things right. Additionally in act one Abigail states “let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about a thing or I will came to you in the black of some terrible night” (Page 19). From there forward Abigail started to accuse Tituba. Tituba then confessed “He say Mr. Parris must be killed! And No! I don’t hate that man. I don’t want to kill that man”. But he says, “You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free!”(Page 44).This confession and accession give’s Abigail and Betty a chance to act Innocent and accuse random people as well.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play set in the late 1600’s. The play is based on the events that occurred during the “Salem Witch Trials.” As a result, the council members bring the townspeople to the church to confront the problem at hand. In the play, a group of girls accuse townspeople of practicing witchcraft. One of the main characters, John Proctor, has an affair with a young girl named Abigail Williams. As a result of Proctor ending his affair with Abigail, Abigail accuses Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, of using witchcraft to stab her. Therefore,as a result from the stabbing, Elizabeth is arrested. In an attempt to free his wife, Proctor self-admittedly confesses his affair. When the church council brings Elizabeth Proctor forward, she denies the accusations in order to protect John’s reputation. Following the accusations of witchcraft, proctor is then arrested. John is given the option to confess to witchcraft, whether it is true or not, in order to save his life. After signing the confession, John is informed that his confession must be made public. After

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.

“Hale: Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws away for pride” (206). Reverend Hale’s eye-opening words make Elizabeth realize that John Proctor should do the right thing for God, even if that includes lying. This quote relates to the Salem witch trials because during this time, the court was getting involved with the town, so everybody had to constantly tell the truth. Overall, the play gives a feeling of the Salem witch trials by using facts and events relevant to the time period. On a similar topic, Arthur Miller feels that everybody is vindictive, manipulating, and betraying each other; therefore, Miller uses his troublesome experience to commemorate the demeaning investigations of witches. Miller’s high disapproval of the American government, especially how the court handles situations, is greatly represented in his play. The characters change throughout the story, and they start to realize that it is not all about what the government wants for their life. They soon enough start thinking and speaking for themselves which leads to big decisions and disapproval from the American government. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he artistically manipulates the authentic facts of the Salem witch trials’ victim John Proctor to fiction in order to similarly represent his interrogation during the Red Scare while also putting a spin on the trials through his style, characterization and tone.

1. Throughout The Crucible, the theme of mass hysteria is presented. For example, after Tituba “confessed” to have been working under pressure, Abigail screams “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!” (54) The reason why Abigail suddenly “confesses” starts with Tituba. Tituba was under extreme pressure when Reverend Hale and many others were screaming at her; therefore she decided to just give them what they want – a confession – so they would stop. Seeing this, Abigail joins in that she will not be interrogated later, thus adding to the overall hysteria and madness of a witch hunt. In addition, the theme of vengeance is also displayed when John Proctor blatantly states “I'll tell you what's walking Salem - vengeance is walking Salem… now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom,

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.

In the play of the crucible by Arthur Miller was about the witch trial in salem, massachute. A teenage girl named Abigail fell in love with a married guy named John Proctor. Abigail is doing everything to win John Proctor heart and be john proctor wife. Everything went wrong and she started to lie by accusing innocent people for being witches. Innocent people are getting hang up because of Abigail and her friends lies. The author's purpose of this play is to inform the audience about what happened during salem witch trials.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 caused hysteria throughout the town rapidly. Fear and paranoia were major causes of why this incident blew out of proportion and became such an intense historical event. When terror struck in the small town of Salem, the society went berserk. The fear of being hanged for witchcraft overcame the women of the community. The constant fright to be accused of trafficking with spirits, even if one knew they were not guilty, created this accusation frenzy. All the girls who had originally claimed they were “possessed by the devil” started blaming others for being witches and conjuring these spirits upon them, especially Abigail Williams. The court of Salem had said that all who did not confess were to be hanged because they were paranoid that if the women were to lie, there still would be witches lingering in their town. Some women decided to confess, even if they were innocent, because of the fear of death. Others did not confess because they were afraid of their reputation being ruined. Rebecca Nurse, a sweet, frail old woman in the town, exclaims, “Why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot” when the court tries to convince her to follow John Proctor’s lead and confess her sins. She will not confess because she knows she truly is innocent; she would rather be hanged over creating a lying confession and ruining her name. Fear and paranoia was the root cause of the Salem Witch Trials.

All of this relates back to the theme of the, The Crucible to not believe in false accusations, because that’s exactly what happened even though the opposite should’ve happened when Tituba got accused and Abby was the guilty one. Another part of the story to show the theme is when Rebecca Nurse is being accused and even though this is so odd because everyone knows how good of a soul Rebecca is they still believe it just because someone accused her. It is explained here in the text, “You will never believe, I hope, that Rebecca trafficked with the Devil. Hale: Woman it is possible”(32). This part of the story shows the theme, because Rebecca is being falsely accused but everyone is still going along with it. Arthur Miller writes about why he wrote the crucible and says, “There was bad blood between the two women now”(3). Miller is talking about Abigail and Elizabeth in this part about how Elizabeth fired Abigail and now Abby is accusing John of witchcraft. This can explain the theme, because since those two have bad blood between them you can guess that Abby’s accusation is not the truth. This shows to not believe in false accusations, because they could be accusing someone for other reasons than just witchcraft. All in all the theme in The Crucible is to not believe in false accusations or accusations that had no proof, all these examples from the story showed it well because all the

When John Hale notices the accused people of the town who tell the truth are being threatened and killed he begins to encourage the indicted ones to lie. For example, Rebecca Nurse, one of the most honored people in the town of Salem, was arraigned of witchcraft and told the truth but was still executed. On the other hand, people who didn’t actually do anything and said that they did do witchcraft when accused just had to ask for forgiveness from god and were able to continue on to their lives. In result of this, John Hale seeks to get people such as John Proctor to lie and confess even if they didn’t do anything. He tries to convince Proctor to confess so he can continue his life with his loving wife and children. To

“Elizabeth, I have confessed it!,” (113) he cries to Elizabeth who has just lied to save his name. He was finally letting out something that had been troubling him for so long, and making him feel ashamed of himself. By telling the truth, it’s like he has taken a load off himself. Proctor could not lay the blame at Elizabeth’s feet or pretend he wasn’t unfaithful or even that his unfaithfulness did not affect his character. Proctor accepted that it was his fault that his wife had been accused. He also knew that Elizabeth could not take the fall for his mistakes. He realized that most of his mistakes did not hurt him, but rather those around him, especially those he cared about. However, Abigail and the other girls when caught dancing in the forest placed the blame on other people instead of taking responsibility for their actions. Although this may be the only way for them to maintain their innocent names, there is an injustice involving innocent people dying to allow the girls to remain “innocent.” Hale sees this injustice too late after he has participated and denounced the proceedings and quits the court (120). However, Hale cannot quit the sentencing he has already done of people like Rebecca

Lying is a prominent theme that drives the plot of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. Abigail Williams lies to the people of Salem in the very beginning of the story to explain why she was so suspiciously seen in the woods with a slave, Tituba. She lies to protect herself of being accused of witchcraft, but she has no hesitation pointing a finger at any other innocent person just as long as she shifts the focus of the town away from her own self. She lied with a persistent and persuasive attitude; convincing many other girls to do the same, consequently allowing so many people to die in the name of witchcraft. Abigail’s lies became so involved they went as far as trying to separate John Proctor from his wife Elizabeth, thus Abigail could then

In The Crucible, how fear forces individuals to comply with the collective’s standards and beliefs are displayed through the characters’ struggles with their moral values and the belief of witchcraft in the community. When John Proctor demands that Mary Warren proves that Elizabeth Proctor is innocent by revealing that Abigail Williams stuck the needle in herself, Mary Warren protests, saying, “I cannot, they’ll turn on me---” (80). Even though Mary does not want Elizabeth to be hanged and knows that the spirits that Abigail and her friends claim to