Rebecca Nurse: A symbol of Purity in Curruption The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a dramatized and partially fictionalized tale of the Salem witch trials which took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay’s. in the early 1690. The trials led to the execution of twenty people, mostly young women, and the imprisonment of others. Rebecca Nurse, who was both a real victim of the Salem Witch Trails, and is a character in this historical play, was a righteous, esteemed, and brave woman who falls victim to her community’s corruption, hysteria, and fear. Rebecca is righteous. She is devout has Christian beliefs, is a saintly character, and has a strict moral?. Rebecca responds to the arrival of witchcraft in Salem by advising people to, “go to God for the cause of it. There is prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits, I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves and...(8). Suggesting that the people should turn to God and find the evil within themselves, instead of provoking evil, she promotes religious growth. Rebecca is undoubtably a devout woman. Not only is Rebecca observant, but she is godly and unrealistically free from any flaws or faults. As Procter observes, “I am no saint. Let Rebecca go like a saint, for me it is fraud!”(57) Rebecca symbolizes majesty in a town of corruption. Even at her downfall, people do …show more content…
Rebecca remains silent for three months and remains loyal to her ideals. She is unafraid of what is to come, therefore she priorities her morals and fights for what she believes in. Rebecca's a last words are a promise to all who have remained truthful, like herself. Telling the good doers to, “Let you fear nothing. There is another judgment waits us all” (61). She reminds those who remained truthful to remember the promise of a better life in
Mary Beth Norton (2002) explains that new accusations of witchcraft would spread beyond Salem’s outcasts and onto more respected members of society. Typically witchcraft was viewed as a working- class crime, but soon two upstanding Salem church members, Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse, were accused. Rebecca Nurse was one of six women tried during the Court of Oyer and Terminer’s second sitting, from June 28th to July 2nd. Her trial proved to be particularly shocking. Nurse was convicted despite a petition of support from thirty-nine friends and neighbors, and active family efforts to discredit her accusers.
The Hysteria in The Crucible and Terrorism Hysteria can bring people to do the unthinkable; for example, taking someone's life. The hysteria in societies throughout history has resulted in endless problems and many deaths of innocent people. Though during extremely different times, the hysteria in the play The Crucible and the hysteria that has resulted from acts of terror by the group al Qaeda can be closely related to one another. The time periods in which the events happened resulted in some differences between the two, but the result is the same, mass hysteria. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the al Qaeda terrorist attacks have many similarities and differences.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller has a main character who goes by the name reverend Parris. His motivation in supporting the witch trials change variously throughout the trial. He just so happened to be the one that had caught Abigail Williams and Betty dancing in the woods early in the morning. When he had first caught them in the act he immediately thought of witchcraft because of the same occurrence in a nearby town. He wanted to keep what happen low so he would not lose his placement in the town.
Blamed for the Salem Witch Trials The Crucible,written by Arthur Miller, is about the witch trials that began in Salem, Massachusetts and involved several horrors no one would want to experience. People were accused, hanged or even crushed to death while being questioned. Miller describes the horror perfectly and he insinuates that Abigail Williams was the girl to begin the Salem Witch Trials.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller focused on a very dark time in our nation’s history: The Salem Witch Trials. In the midst of this frenzy, many people were accused and killed. In the the play, three very well respected people, Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor, were all executed; however, their deaths were necessary.
The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. It goes on to accuse multiple people of being a witch. Many people were hung and even put in jail at these times. In the Crucible it takes place in Salem, Massachusetts 1692. As the young girls went through the woods with Tituba (a Barbadian slave) dancing and skipping around.
Through their reactions to the witch trials, characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible portray two major themes of self-preservation and mass hysteria. The play is set in Puritan Society in the late 1600’s in Salem, where most people are devout Christians and hold a strong belief of both God and the Devil. Through Abigail’s and Tituba’s actions of self-protection at the expense of others, Miller reveals the dangers of mass hysteria and its motivation towards self-preservation and false accusations. Abigail essentially begins the hysteria in Salem when she verifies the false suspicions of witchcraft, she then tells Reverend Hale that Tituba made her drink blood in order to draw the attention away from herself. Abigail points her finger at
In The crucible, by Arthur Miller characters can be categorised into the following groups; lacking integrity at all times (not even attempting to do the right thing), struggling with integrity (have good intentions but struggle to keep doing the right thing when under pressure) and showing integrity at all times (even when threatened with death). Three characters that fall under these respective categories are Abigail Williams, John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse. It is evident that Abigail has relinquised integrity for personal interests because throughout the play she lies and tries to take advantage of the situation. She enjoys the power that she has as the main "Accuser". She is the one that started t and took advantage he hysteria; even though she knew that the witchcraft allegations were false (technically, she was actually the one that commited witchcraft under Puritan law because she, along with several other girls drank blood in an attempt to conjure Ruth,s
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.
The Destruction of Abigail Williams Humans and government has always played a complex and contrast. A person’s emotions affect their actions when it comes to any situation and the internal battle of whether or not a person should lie in court to protect their feelings is brutal. It is never clear if a person is telling the truth or only looking to protect their feelings. This sort of problem arises in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts where the witch trials begin to broil after Abigail Williams and her friends are caught dancing in the woods and suspected of using witchcraft. In the midst of the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, Abigail cannot find satisfaction with Salem because the people are hypocritical and she cannot
Have you ever been accused of something you did not do? Well that is what a group of people in Salem in 1692 experienced, however their outcomes were much worse—they ended up being hung. The Salem Witch Trials is a dark time in American history, where many innocent people were accused of witchcraft and the accusations were only based off of spectral evidence. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an allegory for the Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible revolves around a group of girls, which include Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, who accused several people of witchcraft.
This magnanimous, sensible woman refuses to follow the hysteria even to save her own life. Nurse,s charity becomes apparent in Act one when reverand John Hale comments on her reputation outside Salem. Nurse's magnanimous personality is emphasised even more in act 3 when Hale says "If Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothings left to stop the whole green world from burning". This quote marks the point in the play where Hale realizes that innocent people are being accused of witchcraft. Rebecca Nurs refuses to abandon her moral code, even when facing death.
When Abigail is accused of witchcraft, she confesses and in order to take blame off of herself, she accuses many others as well. This sparks hysteria and conflict in the society that ends up costing people their lives. Many characters play a part in the outcomes in the story, however, some do so with more impact. Women in The Crucible are able to take power in their society as they find ways to influence and manipulate those in authority.
Rebecca was a 71-year-old woman, the wife of Francis Nurse who was a wealthy farmer and landlord in the Salem village, and had many children and grandchildren (Hill 87). She was very pious and everyone in the Salem village thought of her as an “exemplary piety” in the Puritan community (Linder). Rebecca had a very strong faith in God and told her friends on her sickbed that she recognized more God’s presence in her sickness than any other time in her life (Hill 88). Rebecca was a very respectable woman and supported by most of Salem villagers who believed in her innocence. After she was arrested and prosecuted because of the false accusations made by the “afflicted” women and girls’ against her, thirty-nine notable members of the community came forward, signed and submitted a petition to assure her innocence and piety (Hill 100).
Rebecca is accused for murdering the seven children of Ann Putnam who have died long before any questioning arose. Following this accusation, which is one of many that are false, Rebecca would go through the court process of either admitting to her actions as a witch or