Tituba's Manipulation In The Crucible

“My name, he want my name. ‘I’ll murder you,’ he says, ‘if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court,’ he says!” (Miller). In the courtroom Mary was going to testify, saying that the other girls were just pretending to be seeing spirits but she was too terrified of what Abigail might do to her is

After learning Rebecca Nurse has been put in jail, Reverend Hale pleads to Francis, “I have seen too many frightful proofs in court- the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points” (75)! Salem has become a dangerous place full of corruption and dishonesty. Many people used the power of false accusations for personal gain and for their own self protection. After much time passes, no one in Salem, not even the honorable judge, has begun to realize there is no Devil wandering in town. This shows the lasting effect that hysteria can create.

Tituba is Reverend Parris’s slave from Barbados. Abigail accuses her in order to avoid her punishment; Tituba becomes the scapegoat. This is due to Tituba being different from everyone else. Abigail understands that Tituba is an easy target and takes advantage of the racism in the town; the town’s people will believe Abigail over Tituba solely based on the color of her skin.

I told you not to leave this house. MARY WARREN: Do not harm me. I am unwell. I spent all day in court.

“I’ll tell you what is said here, sir. Andover has thrown the court, they say, and will have no part of witchcraft. There be a faction here feeding on that news, and I tell you true, sir, I fear there will be a riot” (79). Everyone in Salem is getting irked and bewildered with the witch trials. There is uncertainty within the court and the townspeople that riots will occur within Salem.

She turns the court against Mary Warren by telling the court that she sees spirits and claims that Mary summoned the

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.

“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by

Yet, close to the end of the scene, Mary returns to lying to the court. She confesses that the slanderous accusations by the girls “were pretense” but after pressure from the court and girls, she becomes “utterly confounded,… [becomes] overwhelmed,”(3.3) and points to Procor, calling him “the Devil’s man!”(3.3) She becomes afraid and frightened by the feigning girls and the looming notion of the court’s punishment. She presumes that the court will not forgive her for her previous lies in the court and the sentence of death. If she had believed that the court would have forgave her actions, then her confident confession could have ended the devastating witch hunt.

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

After continuous pressuring Mary Warren replies with ‘I cannot, they’ll turn on me— “showing us the mob has driven fear into people and how Marry is afraid to tell the truth in the case everyone will turn on her and blame her. Mary’s feeble attempt to recompense backfires, so when Abigail uses the poppet to blame it on Elizabeth, making Mary feel even worse thus she agrees to go with proctor to testify against Abigail in court. Later after agreeing to go to court to support Proctor Mary is asked who is at fault and in fear replies pointing to proctor “You’re the devil’s man!” (act three, page 119). This demonstrates how the fear of the mob and the overwhelming pressure from the Abigail makes her turn from the truth.

He describes Mary screaming, “ as though infected,” while the girls cower, “as though” they had been cursed. (118) These similes paint a detailed picture of the scene, intensifying the craziness and depicting the mass hysteria in the courtroom. Mary, due to Miller’s directing, embodies the sense of fear driving the panic of the scene. She sustains the wildness of all previous allegations through her exclamation that John Proctor is, “the Devil’s man.

Abigail and her friends are sitting right behind Mary, listening to every word. Mary visibly shaken, stutters throughout her testimony to Danforth. She admits that she falsely fainted during previous witch trials saying “it were only a sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole word cried spirits, spirits, and I - I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not” (Miller 107). Mary only imitated Abigail and her friends so that she could feel like she belonged for once, but now she is confessing to the court that the fainting was all an act.

The girls of the Salem witch trials lie to the society as to not get in trouble. Abigail leads them all in their lies by telling Mercy, “...listen now;if they be questioning us, tell them we danced- I told him as much already... He knows Tituba conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of the grave...” (Miller 174).

Tituba, Reverend Parris's African American slave from Barbados, plays a major role in The Crucible, being one of the primary catalysts of the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba was the first person accused of witchery during the Salem Witch Trials by Abigail Williams, and the first person to, consequently, admit to witchcraft. Tituba, growing up in Barbados, never saw dancing and singing as a wild and satanic, as dancing was tied to her African roots. As she is transitioned to America, however, she had to conform to the Puritan lifestyle, in which one could not sing or dance. One night, at the girls of Salem, Massachusetts's requests, she decided to perform a ritual that would allow them a boyfriends, however, it quickly escalated into the event that would spill blood, reveal deep secrets of the time, and destroy the trust within the community in Salem.