Witchcraft: Child’s Play or Reality? In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible’, witchcraft is the main conflict of the play. Set in a Puritan Massachusetts Colony in the year 1692, most anything that cannot be solved by the church or a doctor is unnatural. The first thing that comes to mind is witchcraft, which the punishment for is hanging unless you confess. So what this entails is: you either tell the truth and deny that you have anything to do with witchcraft and be hung or tell a lie, which is a sin, and go to jail for an extended period of time. Those accused of witchcraft are put in front of those who have accused them and the judges and do not get to plead a case. But this was not a big problem before a group of girls started to tell …show more content…
Why was she doing that? And I heard a screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She were swaying like a dumb beast over that fire!” (Miller 463). Parris claims that Tituba was speaking spells while Abigail retaliates with “She always sings her Barbados songs, and we dance.” (Miller 463). Abigail pleads with Parris “Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it- and I’ll be whipped if I must be. But they’re speakin’ of witchcraft. Betty’s not witched.” (Miller 462). Abigail feels it would be better to confess to dancing and be whipped than be accused of witchcraft. After this, Mary Warren, who is John Proctors maid, very breathlessly tells Abigail “Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two years ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’, and the other things!” (Miller 467). But, after Mary Warren states “I never done none of it, Abby. I only looked!” (Miller 468), Betty Parris starts to stir and Abigail goes to her bedside. Once Abigail is there, Betty shouts “I want my mama!” (Miller 468) then, after Abigail talks to her about her dead mother, she says “You brank blood, Abby! You didn’t …show more content…
He does not respect what the accused are saying and only believes the accuser. Once the group of girls starts accusing people in the village, Judge Hathorne does not question them and immediately starts with the trials. The first trials begin with Martha Corey, Judge Hawthorne says to the court and Martha, “Now, Martha Corey, there is abundant evidence in our hands to show that you have given yourself to the reading of fortunes. Do you deny it?” (Miller 505). Of course Martha quickly replies with “I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.” and Hawthorne states “How do you know, then, that you are not a witch?” (Miller 505). In those lines, Hawthorne quickly turns the questions back to Martha as if he knows that he does not have the evidence to support these claims. This is what adds to the hysteria. The court is convicting people of a crime without the proper evidence and they are basing the verdict solely on the statements of others. And of course the court will not question the people's claims nor will the people question the doings of the court. So people see that the court is not looking very much into and use it to their advantage. Some might say that all Judge Hawthorne was doing was his job and that since the town was very religious, that people's word would be enough evidence because they would not lie because that is a sin. Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” about witchcraft
The Roles of Females The Crucible is based on a community who believes in God and, believes a teenager should not cause any harm and follow directions. In The Crucible the teenagers had a huge role in the Salem Witch trails. Teenagers can be the blame when it comes to all the stuff that happened in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The main girl to blame in the trail is Abigail. She told all the girls to lie, and if they didn’t she would stab them.
In Rosanlyn Schanzers, The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, a lot of people were being hung and killed for being ¨witches¨. There were 74 people who said they were witches. They also arrested 50 people at once before. They have even tortured someone with big rocks on their chest until they died just because he wouldn't talk. The trials were not very fair because they didn't have any proof of them being witches, The defendants did not get to show that they actually weren't witches, and the judges were not fair.
Ebola Virus Epidemic connection with the Crucible Throughout the play of the Crucible, the women of Salem, Massachusetts, of all ages were being falsely accused of witchcraft, which was considered a sin by the Bible. These women would be hung or drowned by the other townspeople. Since the society that the women had lived in were Puritan who believed in an utopian society controlled by God, the townspeople saw the women as satan trying to control them. The use of false accusations had broken down the society to the core, uncovering adultery, greed and false protocols. For instance, two of the main characters had an affair with each other, which was an act of adultery.
In The Crucible, a lot of characters were not judged fairly. Most of them were jailed or killed and it provided little proof of witchcraft. One character for example was Rebecca Nurse. Rebecca was first brought to trial when her name was brought up into court and so she was brought in to determine if she was capable of witchcraft or not. During the trial, Mary Warren pretended that Rebecca has summoned her soul to choke her.
In his book, “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (1702),” clergyman John Hale comes forth to confront the recent events going on at the time. Initially, Hale alludes to the questionable actions and activities of the townspeople being accused of witchcrafts, and being imprisoned as punishment. In addition, he discloses how everyone suspicious will be accused, not even young children are safe from the hands of this fate. Hale’s purpose of publishing this book was to describe the incident of the Witch Trials, and to reveal his experience of the trials, since his own wife was accused. By employing a didactic tone, Hale relays the actions of the past that targeted the Puritans and those wrongly accused of witchcrafts, so this occurrence
Proctor knows that Abigail has accused his wife to try and get her killed so that Abigail can be with Proctor. The text states, “She thinks to dance on my wife's grave!” Abigail is deceiving the court by telling them that Goody Proctor is a witch and the court believes her since Abigail is believed to be a victim of witchcraft. As the play continues to Mary Warren is trying to tell the court that Abigail has been lying. To avoid getting in trouble Abigail uses her influence and lies that Mary sent spirits to attack her.
In Salem, one can get out of witchcraft accusations if they say that they know someone else who is a witch. Betty states a couple of names
During court, Mary said she heard “the other girls screaming” and that Danforth “seemed to believe them” so she followed suit (Miller 107). Abigail and her friends saw the court believing their act, so they continued with their theatrics. This same display of emotion from Proctor also works at convincing Danforth Abigail’s words are not to be trusted, and her accusations against his wife have no
Similar to that, the townspeople of Salem had no say to the court’s judgement in fear of being accused next. “Excellency is it enough he confess himself. Let him sign it!” (Miller 141). Hale begs Hawthorne in charity for Proctor’s
In 1692 hundreds of people were sitting in jail for being witches, but none of them were really witches. An author named Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible based of the true events of the Salem witch trials. In the play some girls get in trouble for dancing in the woods. They claim the witches were making them do these bad things. The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches.
Abigail and a group of girls went to court and blame 200 people. Abigail went to court, and told them that Elizabeth Proctor was practicing witchcraft, and got her arrested. When John Proctor went to court, the girls pretended that he was the devil. Giles tries to explain to the court how Abigail is pure evil, and trying to get revenge: “Aye, how she is solemn and goes to hang people!” (3.1.875).
(I.465-472). Seeing Abigail cry, it suggests that Abigail’s affair with John Proctor has influenced her behavior in jealousy and lust as she strives for nothing more than her love for John Proctor. By only being heartbroken, Abigail is not to be fully blamed for the hysteria within the town as her actions are only based on desperate attempts to win John Proctor over, and no intentional harm whatsoever. However, on the other hand, Abigail cannot be excused with outside forces making her the way she is due to the fact that she has clearly had a choice in most of her decisions and actions throughout the witchcraft crisis. When Mary Warren, another girl involved in the forest incident, enters the court, she explains to Danforth, the judge, that the girls are lying and are only pretending to see spirits.
“’She makes me drink blood”’ says Abigail (Miller 160). The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. The play takes place during the Salem Witch Trials, where many people were accused of witchcraft. The accused were either jailed or hanged. In the play many characters are blind to the truth and are changing the path of life.
Betty is sick and the only explanation they come up with is witchcraft. This is the only thing they can think of since they are so isolated from the rest of the country. Religion is the most important part of daily life for people in 1692. Most of the people
See I did not know that I was with the devil until I was convicted for witchcraft. Everyone saw me as a witch, even reverend Parris a holy man. How could I prove him wrong in front of everyone and be seen as I was in the wrong? I was not in the wrong, I was merely doing my job. Abigail.