Mike McCracken American Literature Who is to blame? In The Crucible, the character Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials. Abigail is a mean and vengeful person who always wants her way, no matter who she hurts. Throughout the play her accusations and lies cause many people pain and suffering, but she seemed to never care for any of them except John Proctor, whom she had an affair with seven months prior to the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth had employed Abigail, until Elizabeth found out the affair and threw Abigail out.
The trials start, in which the girls act as though they have a direct connection to God, led by the now powerful Abigail. Townsfolk soon have suspicions of Miss Williams affair with John, Abigail finds this power she has and takes advantage of it. One accusation against even the most well-respected villagers accused of devil worship was prosecuted. Abigail is convinced that after her affair with John Proctor, that he is in love with her, her jealousy of his wife and desire for him gets out of hand, she is labelled a “whore” and a “harlot”. John Proctor – John is an honest, blunt-spoken, good man with a temper.
Hysteria in Salem In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, the superstition of witches existed in a society of strong Christian beliefs. Anybody who acted out of the ordinary was accused of being a witch and the accused would actually be forgiven if they blamed their accusations on another individual. In this play, a group of young girls is accused of being witches. These girls then blame other people in order to get out of trouble and even pretend to be "bewitched" in front of the court during a trial. This leads into the deaths of the innocent people who are accused and automatically found guilty.
When Sula returns to the Bottom after ten years she is “accompanied by a plague of robins”. The townspeople blame this, and several other incidents, on Sula and call her a witch. The other incidents she was blamed for was a child falling down the stairs and a man choking on a bone, both of which she is had nothing to do with. The town is in fear of Sula, but “in spite their fear, they reacted to… what they called evil days… Such evil must be avoided… and precautions must… be taken to protect themselves from it”. This shows that the town is quick to judge Sula out of ignorance and labels her as wicked and sinful.
Through the fact that Minnie Foster murders her husband, and the other two women in the story exonerate her by withholding critical evidence from the men, it is evident that the true power in this play lies in the women's hands. The character of Minnie Foster epitomizes the suppressed woman in her marriage to John Wright. Through the use of symbols scattered throughout her unkempt kitchen, we can see how she was not allowed to be herself her marriage, and how she eventually felt so suffocated that she was forced into a corner- in which she saw killing her husband as the only way out. One such symbol, is the dead bird found by Mrs. Peters. Before her marriage, Minnie “was kind of like a bird herself-- real sweet and pretty”, and a lovely choir singer (Glaspell 660).
Emily assumed that he would wed her but caught wind that he had said he was “not a marrying man”. Emily could not let go of the only other man she had ever had in her life. Due to her insanity, she killed Homer Barron one night with arsenic. The reason she killed him was because she wanted him to be with her for the rest of her life. After the disappearance of Homer Barron, Emily secluded into her home.
Therefore it is hard to understand how all this love and joy could turn to hatred and murderous feelings. Mary Maloney is pregnant when her husband Patrick tells her that he is going to leave her for another woman and naturally this disappoints her. She believes that Patrick is destroying her love for him, therefore she no longer cares about him and decides to kill him. This is her motive for killing her husband. It is clear to the reader that Mary Maloney was provoked by her husband when he said... “I’ve already told you don’t make supper for me.
Comparison of the film Penelope and book The Giver (Penelope) The movie Penelope was all about a young girl named Penelope who was searching for a man who can break the spell casted to her great grandfather but was generated on her. Her grandfather had impregnated a woman who was a servant in their mansion and was forced not to marry her because their life status doesn’t match in any way. As revenge to the Wilhern family, the mother of the woman impregnated by her grandfather casted a spell on their family that the next girl born in their family line would have the aspect of a pig and so when Penelope was born, she was sent far from their mansion and was hidden by her parents. The only way to break the spell was to find a one of her own and learns to truly love her, which was interpreted by her parents to mean a man of noble birth. To break the spell, her mom had taught her everything a lady should be in order to find a noble man who would fall in love with her.
Sykes was very ungrateful and didn’t appreciate his wife, he tried to get her out of the way so he can be with his mistress Bertha. The saying “Karma is a bitch,” relates to the story because, Sykes tried poisoning his wife with a rattlesnake, but instead he was bitten and died from the poison. The story unfolds when Sykes got home and verbally abused his wife, but she stood up and faced him without any fear in her eyes, that was the breaking point for Delia, despite all her hard work he didn’t appreciate her, so she decided to stand up for herself and no longer endure her husband’s abuse. Sykes character unfolds when the narrator painted a picture of what he really is and his thoughts against his wife, he was wicked and cruel against his wife but was sweet and caring towards his mistress Bertha. He would go all out just to get Delia out of his way of being happy with his mistress.
The people of the town were pressured, accused, and tested simple tests but the girls would scream with such pain whenever the accused spoke. The victims, the girls, and the judges all were consumed in the anarchy and lost all sanity. Were people convicted of not only being witches in Salem but across the country suspicion arose and people convicted women of being witches for the simplest causes. Two girls took a joke way too far and caused disorder across the country. Not all "witches" were from Salem, MA.