Power in Salem flourished in 1962 at the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. Power is the ability or right to control people, things, or outcomes. The way to have power is to capture it. In the Arthur Miller play, The Crucible, one person abused their power; while the other person was elevated in their social structure in order to save or end innocent people’s lives with her power within her knowledge. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Tituba express their power through the means of threats and actions, good or bad. The power that Abigail Williams has on the town of Salem, may be fatal. Abigail’s attempt to “defend” herself, comes across as a threat to many of the townspeople. By the third act in the play, Abigail has gotten powerful enough that she can threaten the Deputy Governor of the entire province without negative consequences.“Abigail, in an open threat: Let you beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of …show more content…
Tituba is a woman from Barbados who practices what the Puritans view as, “black magic.” Of course, she mainly implements this because the conniving Abigail Williams who manipulates her into summoning it. But when Reverend Hale finds out all that Tituba knows, he relies on her to speak the truth. “Hale, with rising exaltation: You are God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chosen to help us cleanse our village. So speak utterly, Tituba, turn your back on him and face God- face God, Tituba, and God will protect you” (Miller 44, Act 1). Tituba, the lowest of the low, has her status temporarily elevated because of the witch trials. Normally, she is the one told what to do and told to obey; now, however, she has the power of life and death over others. With the “good” power and the “bad” power being displayed in the town of Salem, times got very puzzling for the court and
Despite their deeply religious values, the members of the Puritan Society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are equally as sinful as the rest of the world. The Puritans, known for turning to God when given any matter at hand, lay blame on the Devil, regardless of their contradictory values. By blaming on him for their wrongdoings, the Devil earns power through the Puritans restoring to involve him whenever any one thing goes wrong. Power is defined by one’s reputation, status, wealth, gender, and age; although the natural deciding factor of one’s power in the Puritan society is land, the Devil himself holds ultimate power. Despite the fact that he does not appear as a human figure, he controls the thoughts and actions of the Puritan society, serving as the ultimate threat.
Tituba’s humiliation and abuse at the hands of the four ministers including Samuel Parris illustrates that the witch scare served a political end for the patriarch also. The witch trials are intended to control and force people back into religious submission. Parris words “May something good at least come out of the hell you have unleashed” (90) clearly conveys a double meaning. He insists Tituba to confess that she is a witch as well as name her accomplices. Upon Tituba’s refusal they physically abuse her.
Mrs. Putnam accuses Tituba of using witchcraft to kill her children. The importance of Tituba being accused by Mrs. Putnam shows that the people of Salem are twisting the fear of the unknown in order to bring vengence to others. People, like Mrs. Putnam, will always try to shift their problems on others so that they might get false justice for their own actions. Moreover, it is clear that the people are too afraid of being accused of witchcraft to stop this from happening thus affirming that the fear of unknown overpowers people senses making them very unreasonable. To wrap up, the people of Salem are to afraid of being accused of something they know nothing about which, affirms that the fear of the unknown skewers justice, and
“The Crucible” is a fiction story that took place in a small town called Salem in the state of Massachusetts in 1692 during the spring time. The plot of this story is about a group of girls who went into the forest led by a black slave named Tituba. They were all dancing in the forest until Reverend Parris caught them dancing in the forest and even saw one of the girl naked. Parris’s daughter Betty who was there in the forest falls into a coma-like state when Reverend Parris caught them. Reverend Parris only noticed his daughter was sick the next day and accused Abigail William, who is Reverend Parris’s niece, of witchery and caused his daughter to go into a coma-like state.
This shows Hale feeding Tituba the flames to a fire, giving her the power to accuse any person from the village. Little did he know that this would lead to Abigail and many others accusing innocent people of toying with the Devil. Reverend Hale ultimately proves himself culpable for the hysteria that struck the Salem because of these false accusations. Not only was Hale responsible for incorrect claims, but his narrow point of view widely affected the witch
Power in our society nowadays is very misgiven and abused. When people have power they tend to use it for their own benefit and to manipulate people into believing them. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692 in order to show his audience how easy it was to be accused and hung for witchcraft. In the Crucible a group of young girls were caught dancing in the woods and in order to not receive a punishment they lied saying they got witched. The girls blamed many people of the town of being witches and caused conflict all over the village.
Abigail is extremely concerned with her well-being and reputation. In Act One, Reverend Parris confronts Abigail about dancing in the forest, and, instead of confessing, she begins denouncing others. This illustrates how she is willing to allow others to be harmed because of her extreme fear. One example of this is when Abigail states, “Not I sir—Tituba and Ruth” (Miller 15). The character of the residents of Salem is not exceptional.
To begin, it is a popular belief that Tituba, a slave in the story, was justified in her confession to witchcraft in order to save her own life. After the girls of Salem peg Tituba as the culprit for corrupting their souls and torturing them, she is interrogated and accused by characters such as the esteemed Reverend Hale and town’s Reverend, Mr. Parris. Finally, Parris exclaims, “ You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!” (1.941-942). Tituba instantly confesses, and saves herself from a terrible death.
In the play, the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Salem, Massachusetts was a place of constant hysteria in the 1600s because of what would come to be commonly known as the Salem Witch Trials. This was a full-blown witch hunt for people found to display signs of witchcraft. Abigail Williams was the main person to blame for this pursuit of witches in Salem because, first off, she was the one who caused hysteria about witchcraft just to cover up the fact that
Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.
God will bless you for your help”. (47) Betty has convinced Reverend Hale and the others that she is the victim and has done nothing wrong. This innocence is used as guilt for Tituba to make up names, even though Reverend Hale, who came into Salem with such an abundance of power, now is completely lead astray with the fake witchcraft present in the town due to Betty’s control of the situation at hand. Betty, throughout the first act, displayed her manipulative and dominant nature by taking power from certain powerful figures in the
The Crucible, published in 1953 by Arthur Miller is a very popular book written about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. While most people use the book to study the Witch Trials, with closer examination it is easy to conclude that it is a direct allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era of 1950s America. An allegory is an extended metaphor in which the characters or objects in the story represent an outside meaning. The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era drastically by its plot, characters, and the flow and outcome of the court trials. To begin with, The Crucible is an allegory because the plot of the book closely resembles the events that occurred during the Red Scare.
During the Salem Witch Trials the power is shown by the government standing up for the one’s that blame
Power and influence in society have a huge impact on the way things happen and affects perception. A prime example is the power that presidents and prime ministers have. Given this power they can effectively influence and persuade others. Power and influence is often associated with gender, conflict and roles and relationships. The importance of the power and influence can be thoroughly examined using texts that demonstrate ideas presented as truths.
As Abigail pitted her guilt on Tituba, as Tituba did lead the gathering, Tituba, with no support and truly isolated, gives the people what they want: a witch. She claims to have seen the Devil, desperately trying to turn away, however his grasp was too strong. She claims she had seen others with him, calling out others. It could be said the Salem Witch Trials were of her fault, however, the blame could also be placed on Abigail, as she is the one who initiated the lies regarding the Devil. Due to her heavy contribution to the accusation of witchcraft, it cannot be said, despite how little she appears, she played a minor and insignificant role throughout the play, as every action can be connected to her admitting her