Have you ever been accused of something you didn't do but you could not prove your innocence so you ended up confessing anyway? During the Salem witch Trials more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were hanged. The Crucible is a play written about these trials and everything that happened. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the claim by John Proctor, “There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang” is correctly shown in the book, and the Salem Witch Trials because in both, many people confessed to things that they didn’t do so they would get out of trouble (Hale 69). In the Salem Witch Trials, the claim that people will swear to anything before they’ll hang is supported because during the trials many people …show more content…
In Act III Mary Warren is forced by John Proctor to go to the court and admit she was lying. She turns on him and tells the court he is “The Devil’s man!” (Miller 110). When Mary first went to the court to tell everyone that her and the girls were lying she realizes that either way she will get in a lot of trouble because she lied. Not only would she be in trouble with the law but Abigail and the other girls were very mad at her. She realizes that she can lie and say that Proctor was working with the devil. She confesses that she was forced by Proctor to do things for the Devil and she got out of trouble. This shows how people will lie and confess to things they didn’t do to protect themselves. In the end of the first act, Abigail gets in trouble for doing witchcraft in the woods. She is already facing rumors from Goody Proctor that she was soiled and working with the devil. When she sees Tituba confess and get out of trouble she exclaims “I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book” (Miller 45). After Abigail confesses to working for the devil she then goes on to accuse many other people in the town. Tituba, Abigail, and all the other girls make these false confessions and accusations to save themselves and completely get out of trouble. It works for them as none of them get any punishment. To summarize, throughout this book, many people confess to doing something that they did not do to get out of
A.Holmes 27 January 2023 CCR ENGLISH III Block 2 The theme of the Crucible is false accusations. It talks about how Abigail Williams accused John and Innocent people. The girls of Salem also went along with Abigail’s lies. They were scared of her
In the Crucible during the wicked witch trials out of panic and fear of making confessions some of the people started accusing others. For example when one of the main characters Abigail gets pressured into saying all of these names of people who she saw did witchcraft. (Abigail: I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil;I saw him;I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand.
This is one example of Mary Warren’s cowardly nature. She contradicts herself throughout the play with a lack of structural values that the audience, or even other characters, can rely on her for. Her weak nature becomes a source of frustration on several occasions, such as at the end of Act II, when after a long struggle between herself and everyone else in the court, Mary turns completely against John Proctor and proclaims that he is, “...the Devil‘s man!” This is a much different claim than the one she made when first arriving in the court, and when speaking to John himself. This shows why Mary Warren is a character most notable for her weakness and
The Crucible by: Arthur Miller is a play about the Salem witch trials that happened years ago. The Salem witch trials consisted of lots of deceiving and accusations. Because lying can lead to more lies or sometimes get you out of trouble, does not mean you should continue telling the lies. You should tell the truth even if you get in more trouble.
In Arthur Miller’s the Crucible, the lies told by the characters are human acts of self-preservation, sometimes told at the risk of other, and sometimes told to try and assist others, which begs the question, is it ever exceptional to lie? Miller’s play begins in Act I by presenting all characters whom instigate the Salem Witch Trails. The main protagonist and the character that can be mostly accredited for the lies and accusations which cause the uproar would be Abigail. Abigail’s character is static because her actions always appear malicious and she shows great will for self-preservation.
Imagine living in a world where every little thing a person does could be depicted as witchcraft. Well this is the way the townspeople in Salem lived in the 1690’s. In Arthur Miller’s classic novel the Crucible it illustrates the trial and hanging of the “witches” in Salem, Massachusetts. In the crucible there are many accounts of lying, accusations, and bias, unfortunately these are still affairs we see today. How is it that the characters in the crucible had the ability to blur the line between lying and the truth that clouded peoples vision so very much.
People lie for many reasons. Sometimes it’s to themselves, sometimes it’s to others. No matter who they are lying to, it always affects others around you. In the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller, lying is a very common theme. Many characters lie, which include John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and many others.
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.
Since the beginning of time people have gone through trials in court to either be proven innocent or guilty. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller a massive number of people were being convicted in Salem, Massachusetts because of the witch trials. The law of the land states that everyone is above suspicion until they are demonstrated to be guilty by legitimate evidence; in the play the Crucible if a person was accused of an unlawful act they were summons for being a witch and working for the devil without proper confirmation. Citizens in Salem were imposed to establish their innocent or be put to death, which caused conflicting issues in the village.
Abigail had stated that she would do awful deeds to them at night that’ll make them regret ever crossing her if they were ever to breathe a word about what happened that night in the woods. This then results to the witchcraft hysteria because had her friends said something only people who did actually do witchcraft that night would be dealt with. Lastly, while the act comes to an end Tituba ended “confessing” to her sins. For this reason, Abigail decided to announce to the court that she too
A “Good Drama” is a play in which the audience can relate personally. A good drama should have meaning to the audience of different types of generations. Arthur Miller’s, “The Crucible” successfully relates to the audience and left us with messages that is still known to today. The Crucible is considered to be a good drama because Arthur Miller created this scripture that addressed the idea of conformity in the American culture, but it also showed the amount of power that individuals can hold because they define the means by which we all live. People make devisions on issues like what is considered to be right and what is considered to be wrong.
This shows that Abigail is lying to the court about what happened and continuously shifting the blame to Tituba when she wasn't involved in the woods at all. As time goes on, people continuously and repeatedly point the blame at others, leading to the Witch Trials. Additionally, during this questioning, she puts even more blame on Tituba by saying that "She comes to make me drink blood" (Miller 44). Because of these lies, other people pressured for Tituba to be hanged, and more fingers were pointed because of Abigail and her lying, and her pretending to be holy is the only thing backing up her claims. This is stated by John Proctor when stating that a "holy" person can lie.
As seen in The Crucible, the selfishness, paranoia, and guilt of Salem citizens leads to the hangings of many- most likely innocent- human beings. In many cases, the fear of losing their lives drove confessions out of the accused. For instance, Judge Danforth says to Mary Warren, “You will confess yourself or you will hang!” and Mary, after more screaming and accusations from the other girls, breaks down and claims Proctor is “the Devil’s man! ... I’ll
”(Miller 100). At that point in time Mary Warren and John Proctor both tried to prove Abigail Williams and the other girls of faking it until, act 4 when she backstabbed John Proctor and made her own claim that John Proctor was satan. ”You’re the devil’s man.” (Miller 110). Mary knows what Abigail was always a threat and being on her side was an advantage, John Proctor was foolish for thinking Mary would keep her word and tell on the girls.
This starts a spree of lying and blaming which causes multiple innocent people to be hanged for being accused of witchcraft. One lie started a moment in history people today call crazy, unacceptable, and unrepeatable. “The Crucible” is a play that explains, through a crazy but remarkable story, why lying is a sin. In the present, lying could occur more frequently that truth is told.