Who’s to blame in the Salem witch trials? Deep inside a town in Massachusetts, innocent people were accused of the devil’s work. Twenty-five people dead, an entire village on the brink of insanity, and a gathering of young girls possessed by demons defined the year 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. What began as a childish game metamorphosed itself into mass hysteria. A combination of irresponsibility and village politics led to the demise of innocence.
Abigial really ignites the fire by blaming Tituba for "bewitching her". As soon as Tituba confesses to witchcraft, to save her herself, and tells Mr. Hale and Rev. Parris that she saw Goody Good and Goody Osburn with the devil, all the girls start naming off names of women all around Salem that they supposedly saw with the Devil. Mary Warren is to blame for many innocent deaths as well. Mary was the housewife for John and Elizabeth Proctor.
Many of these characters go through life changing events that change them forever. Even the neighbors suddenly turn on each other and accuse people they’ve known for years of practicing witchcraft and devil-worship. The town of Salem falls into mass hysteria, “an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear.” Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible” is about the Salem witch trials in 1860. These were classic examples of mass hysteria, resulting in the hanging of a great many respectable men and woman of charges of “trafficking” with the devil. They were convicted by people at least as themselves, largely on the evidence of four young girls who had been caught dancing in the moonlight and laid their dissolute behavior to the influence of Satan.
The lack of power that women have in Salem sets the stage for hysteria. The female characters long for a voice in the community, and attempt to gain one by using their court powers to blame those around them and lying to gain attention from the community. Due to the very little power women have in Salem, the women find the need to blame others in order to be heard. While Abigail is being accused of performing witchcraft, she tries to blame Tituba. Abigail states, “Sometimes I wake and find myself standing in the open doorway and not a sitch on my body!
When the trials began, many accused others of witchcraft and this lead to them accusing even more. The new news of the entire witchcraft epidemic in Salem left many disturbed and trying to eliminate the bad of the town. The novel allows the reader to reflect on the life of the Salem people and understand the happenings. One example is the reflection of the lives of teenage girls in the puritan society, sent by God to marry and have a family, lacking the happiness of teen hood. Thus, explaining a
She had people fooled to believe that she had god in her and she could see the evil in people and could tell if they were in witchcraft. One person after another she had them hung. People so clueless of her intentions saw her as a saint for getting rid of the “evil” in the town. In the end of the play Abigail’s reputation was soon found out about, she knew people would come back and accuse her of murder so she ran away with her uncle’s money and Mercy Lewis. In contrast with Abigail Williams Elizabeth Proctor was not your ideal woman.
“And I look - and there was Goody Good... Aye sir, and Goody Osburn” (p. 49). At first, the social outcasts were accused, then respected characters such as Elizabeth Procter and Rebecca Nurse are accused as a result of the town's mass hysteria. And so this mass hysteria is created, only by young girls, but it has spiraled into a black hole consuming everyone in the town of Salem, regardless of their social
‘Abigail Williams is the most important character in The Crucible, whether she is on stage, or not.’ Discuss this statement, with reference to language, structure and dramatic devices. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller, and is about the persecution of persons falsely accused of being witches in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, based on a true story. Many people died in villages after a series of lies and unjust practices, which is the core foundation of the play, the illusory untruth and the dishonesty of sly females to their male counterparts, and in some extent to other females; trying avoid the unmerited punishment of execution. Abigail Williams, after having had an affair with a married man named John Proctor,
In the book, The Crucible, a young group of girls are accusing people around the town as being bonded with the devil. We know that the girls are lying, but the other residents of the town do not. The town is so blinded by mass hysteria that they cannot see that the girls are liars. Then there are others that are using the girls to their own agenda. Throughout the story we see John’s character, and the way other people see him.
When Betty and Mary Warren start to get scared and want to tell the adults about their doing, Abigail threatens them: “Now look you… I will come to you in the black of some terrible night… bring a reckoning that will shudder you… I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 20). This quote tells us that Abigail is showing who is in charge. She has no power at first, but then becomes empowered over the group of girls and maintains that power over them through fear and threats. Abigail, who was once powerless, now has the power to take control of her peers by threatening them to do her