Another reason their relationship is dangerous is that if John Procter were to prosecute against Abigail Williams saying that she is in fact a witch, Abigail Williams could very easily tell the entire town that she and Procter have been having an affair to get revenge on him. It wouldn’t really affect her too much, but on the contrary, it would ruin his reputation in the town and his relationship with his wife. Later in Act I, Abigail is being “interrogated” by Reverend Hale and she claims “I never sold myself! I’m a good girl! I’m a proper girl!” (Miller 40) in this statement, Abigail is defending herself that she never sold herself to the devil.
What points does the playwright make about the Christian division of the world into good and evil? There is no middle in Salem, you are either a good Christian or you working for the Devil, if you show a sign of non-Christianity than your all for the bad and will be hung for it. What assumptions do the adults in the community, (apart from Rebecca Nurse), make concerning the children? All the adults make very sudden assumptions that the children have been touched by the devil and are actually being possessed by some form of evil. Comment on the ending of Act 1.
Towards the end of Act II he starts to have some suspicion on what is going on because now Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft. During the middle and end of Act III when John Proctor is testifying and Abigail is doing her hallucination. Hale begins to join John, Giles, and Francis against the court. He sees the truth on why the trials are happening and he tries to help them out. “I beg you, stop now before another is condemned!
And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed, she testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in’” (Miller 71). Spoken by Ezekiel Cheever, a clerk of the court, this dialogue shows that Abigail purposely stabs herself to make it seem as if it were the evil act of Elizabeth’s spirit. When the townsmen search the Proctors’ home, they discover the poppet with a needle poked in it (Abigail’s doing). Elizabeth is arrested, and Abigail is satisfied – for the time being. John Proctor, on the other hand, is outraged because he clearly knows the real motive behind Abigail’s deceitful
When Proctor had to go to the court to get his wife out of being accused of upholding witchcraft he eventually confess to his sins he committed. Talking to Danforth, Proctors says “I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweet. But it is a whore’s vengeance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands” (page 49 act three) confessing to the crime he did. He realizes what he did was wrong which was why he tried to hide it for so long. But the only way for
When told that his daughter, Betty, was ill because of "unnatural causes," Paris quickly interjected, "No, no. There be no unnatural causes here." The Reverend denied this all even with seeing the girls dancing in the woods. With Reverend being in denial, he was unable to consider all causes of the problem. He was so quick to blow off the idea that witchcraft caused her sickness because he was too worried his reputation would get shot with that possibility.
Abigail realizes that by giving the names of people she saw with the devil she can control Salem because she has a good name and people will listen to her. June Schlueter and James K. Flanagan claim “.A shrewd opportunist, she turns her own violation of Salem law into an occasion for naming those for whom she has little liking and, in so doing, transforms herself into a local heroine.” (116) John Proctor knows that Abigail is controlling Salem with her accusations and recognizes that the only way to stop her is to sully her good name. When Abigail accuses John’s wife of witchcraft, he becomes enraged and claims “It is a whore!” (Miller 220). By accusing Abigail of being a whore, John is trying to ruin her name and stop her from making any more accusations, but by admitting to “have known her, sir.” is also ruining his own good
When Hales questions her about witch crafting, she responds saying, “‘He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly men, Mr. Parris mean man and no gentle man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and cut your throat!’” (848). Since Hale orders her to speak the truth about the devil, Tituba voices out all her hostilities towards her master, and blames that it is suggestions from the devil. At the same time, she can accuse “‘white people’” (848) with the devil. Hale claims that Tituba is “‘selected’” and is “‘chosen to cleanse our village’” (848).
They also believe that every man is evil and is only judge by God on where he decides whether or not you go to heaven or hell. So dealing with the devil would automatically make you evil as we see in “The Crucible” on where if something seems out of the ordinary in their time such as a person who might not be attending church would look suspicious to the people and would quickly judge for working with the devil since going to church is mandatory to all the people in Salem we see this kind of work in the first act on where the minister of Salem Parris have caught his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty Parris with their friends there too dancing around a pot with one of his slaves Tituba where they were trying to call the spirits when Parris came and Betty had fainted and Parris has blamed that this was the work of witchcraft. Arthur Miller has seen this also with McCarthyism where we would take actions right there and automatically think that communism was too blamed for
The task Abigail has to complete is to continue to pretend to see the devil. John’s crucible is to prove that he’s not a man of the devil, and Hale’s crucible is to defend his beliefs and defend those who are accused. All three of these characters face a test of their morals and find a way to overcome their issues. Abigail Williams faces the task of keeping up her act of pretending to see the devil. She begins accusing people of witchcraft to cover up her own lies and the accusations lead to 19 deaths by hanging.