Ann Bennett American Literature Luke Jordan March 1st, 2023 The Blame Game Add 5 quotes “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller 1953 was created with the intent of showing the people of the US that the communist accusations were similar to the witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600s. These accusations were because of the Red scare, where in the 1950s people were scared that communism had come into the United States after World War I. The people started to make accusations towards one another that they were communists. They did this for their gains. Which is quite similar to the Salem witch trials. Where the people of Salem blamed each other for being a witch, also for their gains, or to get out of trouble like Abigail in the crucible. …show more content…
But they were caught and eventually accused of witchcraft. In the text, it said “And what shall I say then? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathens in the forest?”(Parris 567) Abigail, not wanting to have her secrets known, started accusing others of witchcraft so she could get out of trouble. One of these secrets was that she had an affair with John Proctor, who is married. This affair led to Abigail wanting more of the proctor. In Act I Abigail said “ It’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it was you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!” (Abigail 578) In this Abigail was referring to Elizabeth, and how she got rid of Abigail. But the proctor wanted to be rid of Abigail as well to be true to his wife. His rejection led to Abigail wanting to get rid of Elizabeth, Proctor's wife. When Abigail was caught dancing, it created an opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth. She blamed Elizabeth for trying to harm her. This blaming started to create more and more hysteria about witches being in Salem. Had Abigail confessed to being in the woods and had not blamed everyone else for being witches for her gain, It would have been the first step in stopping the hysteria in …show more content…
Many people could have stopped them. But the second character who had the best chance at stopping them was Thomas Putnam. He used the witch hunts for his gain. Putnam made the trials by quickly assuming anyone who had done anything wrong was a witch. He blamed as many people as he could because he was holding a grudge against the community. Putnam felt wronged by them because he was not accepted as a candidate for the ministry. He felt as though he was superior to the people around him. He was a vindictive person even before the witch trials. Putnam resented Salem and wanted everyone around him to suffer for not accepting him. He did this by accusing anyone he could of witchcraft. Had Putnam not accused anyone nor had he been holding grudges against the community, there would have been less
But it didn’t really matter what they said or did, their fate was sealed. One can conclude that the witch accusations were caused by revenge, boredom, and a pandemic-like spreading of symptoms. First of all, revenge is one of the top reasons for the witch trials. For example, the Nurses and Putnams, two very rich families, had gotten in a malicious legal battle
John Proctor had an affair with Abigail when she used to work for him as a servant. In act two John
In Act 3, John Proctor admits to the court his affair with Abigail Williams to save his wife’s life. He explains Abigail’s plan to kill Elizabeth Proctor and dance with him on her grave. (Miller 873). When Proctor calls Abigail a whore, he gives the court an opportunity to end the trials. Additionally,
When people don’t want to get in trouble for something they normally blame it on someone else. Now most of the time it doesn't end out that bad, or they find out the person was not telling the truth, but that is not the same for the people of Salem. The main cause of the Salem Witch Trials is Abigail Williams, in Arthur Miller’s Crucible, because of her calling people witches, 20 people got killed there was a lot of fear and no trust for anyone. It’s the fear and people not trusting others that made the witch trials bad, and she seemed to create this hysteria because she feared getting in trouble, she wanted to get revenge, and because once she started she couldn’t stop without getting very punished.
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 during Senator Joseph McCarthy 's congressional investigations to root out suspected Communists in the State Department, the entertainment industry, and the US Army. Miller himself had been blacklisted after being accused of supporting communism. The Crucible mirrored by Miller of how McCarthy accused people for communism, just like the people in Salem, both McCarthy and The Crucible accused for revenge towards their enemy 's. One theme of The Crucible is that fear motivates people to do unspeakable actions. The girls in in Salem had fear towards the punishment that would happen if they were caught lying about conjuring spirits. Some of the girls faked to be in a spell out of fear of their
In Act One of the play, Abigail says to Proctor “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!”(Page 470). Then, Abigail mentions “Abigail (with a bitter anger). Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-”, referring to Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife and the playwright writes “Proctor (angered-at himself as well). You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!”(Page 471). Proctor responds the way he did because the reader knows that Abigail is telling the truth referring to the affair, and he is denying everything she says to keep his reputation and not let the secret get out.
By spreading lies about Elizabeth Proctor and betraying other girls, Abigail is proven to be disloyal and has a tendency to betray
In the background of the Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller's timeless masterpiece "The Crucible" explores the themes of hysteria, power, and truth. The play, which is a metaphor for the McCarthy era of the 1950s and is set in the puritanical culture of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, was written by Arthur Miller. " The Crucible" investigates how fear may proliferate like wildfire and result in devastating conduct, especially toward helpless people. Miller makes a statement in his writing on the perils of groupthink and the necessity of maintaining personal integrity in the face of peer pressure. The characters are captivated by their fear of the devil and the presence of evil throughout the entire play.
Endless amounts of girls and women have been judged for this same reason. They have left schools and jobs; they have isolated themselves becoming depressed, and for some it has gotten to the point of suicide. If Abigail had not blamed witchcraft for the mysterious actions that went on in the woods, then her reputation and life would have been destroyed from rumors, accusations, and
but in reality she was caught attempting to cast a spell on Elizabeth. The reason for her trying to cast a spell is because Abigail falls in love with John Proctor but he is married to Elizabeth but that doesn’t bother Abigail.
Critique of a Author's Craft: Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” “The Crucible”, a play written by Aurther miller, has many layers of meaning and the play is set in the Salem witch trials of 1692, but was written in the early 1950s as a Red Scare and the “witch hunt” atmosphere of the time. Miller wrote the play for the anti communist hearings and the play was also intended to be about the dangers of government overreach, mass hysteria and suppression of individual rights. It was intended to raise awareness about these issues. The point in the play is to show how easily a community can be whipped into fear and paranoia, leading to mistreatment of innocent people. He also shows how individuals are willing to sacrifice others for their own gain, and how fear and false accusations can be used to manipulate those in power.
This affair was never fully proven, but Proctor did say, “Abby, I may think of you from time to time but I will cut off my hand before I’ll reach for you again” (Miller 1140). Abigail was madly in love with Proctor and wanted Elizabeth out of the picture so she could have Proctor all to her self. Abigail was very jealous of Elizabeth. She thought that if Elizabeth would die, she would get Proctor all to her self. She accused Elizabeth of being a “cold, sniveling woman”(Miller 1140).
She is accused of witchcraft, and naturally Abigail tries to take the blame off of herself. But she goes a bit too far. Abigail starts accusing everyone, but one person she is particularly interested in is Elizabeth Proctor. Since Abigail and John Proctor
(Act 1, p.20) said by Abigail Williams. These are the true motives behind Abigail’s actions, even as she tries to get the girls to agree with her so as to protect herself from accusing with witchcraft. She threatened the girls with
They were jealous and always suspected that the other people were trying to take things that were not theirs. The witch hunt could only escalate as it did because the people of Salem did not trust each other in the beginning and it just kept on getting worse because they made false accusations. If we talk about an unstable community, we of course have to talk about its people. No one is innocent, many of them are not trustworthy.