The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Finally, the last reason why Mary Warren is a outwardly conforming character is throughout the play she is very quiet and scared which shows that she’s afraid to say anything or do anything that doesn’t go with the “rules”. In the play John Proctor states” You will tell the court what you know.(Act II, 38)” In the play Mary also says” I cannot, they’ll turn on me--(Act II, 38)” This shows that Mary “cannot” tell the truth about what the

Mary Warren, a young woman living in Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, shows no exception to differing viewpoints. Throughout The Crucible, in which Mary Warren is a character, the very children whom the town considers holy, appear also to perpetrate the vicious crime of murder through false allegations of witchcraft. Unable to recognize the children’s crime because of their innocent appearance, citizens of Salem conduct dozens of

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 Salem witch trials cause confusion among people, because it forces them to question their beliefs, which are the basis of their entire lifestyle in Salem. Reverend Hale, coming to Salem believes he is doing good, and helping to destroy the devil, but as the trials progress, we learn that he is doubtful of his faith. Arthur Miller masterfully shows the counterproductiveness of the trials. The purpose of the trials was to preserve the people of Salem, but it actually achieves to opposite by destroying people’s belief in their beliefs. During the trial scene, Arthur Miller also uses the character of Mary Warren to show confusion. Mary Warren knows the truth, but she manages to convince herself otherwise. In Act three, during the court scene, there are a few solid moments, where Mary Warren is unsure of her own beliefs, and of what she saw, or didn’t see. Another example of this is in Good Night and Good Luck by George Clooney when Edward R Murrow is unsure if he should continue his quest to end the Joseph McCarthy trials. His boss seems to be unhappy with his program on CBS, and he is unsure of what to do. Finally, an example of this confusion caused by the trials is illustrated in Elizabeth Proctor, when she differs from her beliefs to state that she doesn’t believe in witches. In Puritan society, witches were the ultimate evil. In some ways, they were a

The Salem Witch Trials: a time where the innocent were guilty and the guilty got away with murder. This horrendous event can be further explained through Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. Miller has won many awards in his time for writing many dramas that are very popular amongst the people and The Crucible just so happens to be one of them. It tells a story about a harsh time that many people faced when they were losing loved ones who were found guilty since they didn’t confess to a crime that they never committed. While reading the play, a person will find a theme of power. One specific character, Mary Warren, helps show this theme because as soon as she gains power, her character changes drastically. Throughout The Crucible, Mary Warren is portrayed as a very dynamic character since she begins as being very wimpy, then she gains confidence and becomes brave, and then she goes right back to being timid and controlled by Abigail.

“ There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” - Elie Wiesel. This quote communes the struggles of the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts who were unjustly condemned of witchcraft during 1692 . They were vulnerable while they were convicted but a few people managed to speak out against this injustice -John Proctor, Martha Corey, Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse - eventually giving up their lives for this cause. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, tells of a forbidden affair between married man John Proctor and his servant Abigail Williams. Their liaison is eventually discovered by John’s wife, Elizabeth, leading John to call off the affair. In an endeavor to get vengeance, Abigail and other local girls attempt to place a curse on Elizabeth in an occult rite in the forest one night. When their ritual was discovered, allegations of witchcraft spread around town. When Elizabeth is convicted of being a witch, it ultimately leads John to cease the paranoia and hysteria plaguing Salem. Abigail Williams applied scare tactics in order to manipulate fear in the citizens of Salem.

The witch trials were a very interesting part of the early 1600’s. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller was written for the time period 1620. He wrote this play for the purpose of displaying communism and showing the red scare that was happening to his community in the 1950s. He wanted to show the similarities of the two time periods. He wanted to show that what happened in the salem trials was happening with the communist trials. He took historical accounts from Salem Massachusetts and created characters on what he read. Two characters he wrote about were sweet Mary and a manipulative girl named Abby. Although Mary Warren and Abby in this play, seem different, Mary is a meek and quiet girl while Abigail Williams is an aggressive girl who likes to get her way,they both play a part in why the salem witch trials happened in The Crucible.

Herd Mentality in The Crucible Human beings tend to follow a few particular leaders and find comfort in not having to do all of the decision making themselves in difficult situations. This concept describes herd mentality to a T. Herd mentality is to blame in Arthur Miller’s account of the Salem Witch Trials be causing people to lose their individuality in order to caution people from conforming to society. If the people of Salem had allowed their moral compasses to guide them instead of succumbing to their fear of the powerful, many innocent lives would have been saved. It only took a few powerful people to lead dozens to their graves in The Crucible. One of the main characters, Abigail Williams, had the ability to melt many young vulnerable girls in her hands.

The play, “The Crucible,” includes a setting in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600’s. The people of Salem considered faith and religion to influence every aspect of their life, causing suspicion and intolerance any time someone didn’t follow their religion. The faults and consequences of living in Salem, a Puritan town, were that any misfortune or illness could easily be associated with the act of witchery. What began the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, was in the home of Reverend Parris, who had a slave from the Caribbean who practiced black magic in the woods. These new and foreign practices were seen as dangerous, causing her to become a threat to the town and its own religion. Her name was Tituba, and she was the first woman to be accused of witchcraft. According to the play, Abigail Williams, a self-centered young woman, declared, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (Miller 43). This quote is referring to how Abigail is fearful of being accused of witchcraft, so she claims that Tituba, the foreign, black slave, forced her into doing it. Abigail lies constantly throughout the play, blaming and accusing others of doing things that they never have, so she goes against Puritan cultures, but pretends to worship it. She would do anything to not be punished or hanged, and to get back her first love, John Proctor. To contrast, the Deputy governor of Massachusetts, Judge Danforth arrives in Salem to preside over the witch trials, by sentencing accused people

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.

Everyone knows that one person that they just can’t trust. For the characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, that one character is Mary Warren. Mary Warren is a servant to John and Elizabeth Proctor and one of the girls that are believed to be “witched”. The people pleasing character Mary Warren, in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is constantly switching sides in fear of being persecuted and alone. Mary Warren is first introduced in The Crucible as a lonely and scared girl that wants to please the other girls.

Many crucial events lead to the Salem Witch trials. The trials ended in a gruesome manner, and conflicts were at the root of the cause. The Salem Witch trials were the result of illogical-mass hysteria, and were induced by grudge holding people who used the trials to harm their foes.

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

In Miller’s drama, The Crucible, Mary Warren is most to blame for the witch hysteria taking place in Salem. Many may argue that Abigail Williams is the cause for this madness. They claim that her cruel and heartless personality leads people to believe that she is responsible for this hysteria. Although this idea appears to be true, Mary Warren's lack of confidence is what truly commences this frenzy in Salem. While Mary is first introduced as a caring and kindhearted person, the reader quickly learns that she is very weak willed and irresolute. This exact quality of hers eventually results in the fueling of the hysteria. The fear of Abigail and death both lye upon Mary’s shoulders when in the courtroom. Her inability to faint and give the