Before Drummond leaves the courtroom, Rachel expresses to him her concerns about the trial. Cates relates the hardships he has endured since his arrest. Drummond, who empathizes with Cates’s struggle and isolation, offers Cates the opportunity to change his plea on one condition: that Cates truly believes he has done wrong. Cates decides to persevere for his cause. Rachel, however, informs them that Brady has asked her to testify against Cates.
This scene serves as a catalyst for the remaining action of the play. Parris informs Abigail that he saw girls dancing, Tituba conjuring spells over the fire, and a naked girl running through the woods. This "unseen" scene symbolizes the suppression of desire, which is paramount in Salem. Desire, of course, has many different interpretations for both the characters within the play, and for the audience. For Abigail, desire refers to her sexual longing for Proctor.
Miller leaves the audience with a negative impression of the affect that these with power can have over others as he conveys the suffering that can result from such situations. Abigail lies to conceal her affair, and to prevent charges of witchcraft. Lowering her eyes to Parris, Abigail innocently pleads “we never conjured spirits”. Abigail shifts the focus away from herself, finding an avenue of power and takes full advantage of it. Ruthlessly accusing others of witchcraft she changes her story as a desperate act of self-preservation, “I danced with the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand.
Reverend Parris found some girls, including Abigail, dancing in the woods. They were doing the acts of witchcraft. Parris caught Abigail and accused her of witchcraft. Abigail denied it and she then accused Tituba, the ‘leader’ of the girls out in the woods (p 1108-1111). Arthur Miller shows how being put on the spot can scare people and make them accuse others.
At times, when he says to the governess, “Give that little witch a beating,” (21), he is advocating for a stranger to abuse his child. Despite the governess effort to protect and influence her into becoming a normal child, Irma, instead choose to find solace in witchcraft; a result of the constant berating from her father. “He wants me to be a witch, then I will be a witch,” she declares to the governess and
Evil manifests throughout the play by many Puritans. Reverend Parris is deceitful and lies to everyone, including the court. He finds out that his seventeen year old niece, Abigail Williams, dances in the woods and keeps it a secret. By this, he protects his reputation and blames Tituba, an African American
The play opens in a scene of chaos; Betty Parris, daughter of Reverend Parris, has slipped into what is now known as a coma. When Betty does not awaken, the townspeople immediately turn to witchcraft as the reason for what is happening. Jealousy causes many of the people to accuse others of witchcraft. Debates over property lines occur; neighbors are at each others’ throats. Centering now upon John Proctor, and his wife, Elizabeth, the story takes a turn.
In the course of the play, one of the major characters John Proctor, goes through changes and faces multiple challenges. John Proctor is one of the local farmers, and is well known in the town. One of his hidden sins is that he committed adultery with a young girl named Abigail Williams; who was the leader of the group of girls that were pretending to be at the hands of witchcraft. John Proctor knew that he could expose Abigail as being a fraud but he was hesitant to do so because it would reveal his secret to the town. In addition, he and his wife, Elizabeth, are going through a rough time in their marriage where there’s an obvious sense of distance between them.
Abigail Williams is a seventeen year old, strikingly beautiful orphan girl and the niece of Mr. Parris. Abigail’s problems/concerns is that she accuses others of witchcraft and wants Elizabeth Proctor the wife of John Proctor, a local farmer, dead so she can take her place in everything Elizabeth does including being John Proctor’s wife. This obsession to take Elizabeth as his wife developed after them sleeping together. For example there was a statement made by John Proctor stated, “she wishes my wife dead and me and her dance on my wife’s grave.” When Abigail first entered the story I thought she
Finally, we see this concept taken to the extreme with the weird sisters. The witches make Macbeth believe something that is false, and lead him on for most of the play. Potentially, if the witches had not given Macbeth this sense of confidence than he may have never killed, Duncan, Banquo or Macduff’s family. This concept of appearance vs. reality not only caused Macbeth to rise up and become king, it also caused his inevitable downfall. Throughout the play Macbeth uses his acting abilities and deceptive qualities to make people believe something, which in reality is false.