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Abigail William's False Accusations In The Crucible

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Often times there’s a point in a person’s life where one wonders if they’re crossing the red line when it comes to reaching their goals. When the lines a drawn and crossed, people suffer, much like the 20 sad souls who were executed in the Salem witch trials, or the 205 falsely accused state department officials. False accusations that ended and ruined people’s lives have been going on for ages like the examples before. Either for self-preservation or to cheat their way up, these things have always been embedded in human nature. Just like in Arthur Miller’s, The crucible, Abigail William’s false accusations propelled the community into its own demise, which also happened when McCarthy doomed 205 members of the state department with his accusations. Fueled by fear, McCarthy’s false accusations affected Arthur Miller and had him blacklisted along with several artists like his friend Elia Kazan. Miller obtained plot ideas for the book from the Salem Witch trials and the era of Mccarthyism. Miller used Mccarthyism when Abigail and her friends were able to name people guilty just with their sole distorted statement. In the Crucible the character Abigail Williams a …show more content…

It was derived from the fear and hatred they had deep inside them. Mccarthy used this plot to get rid of his opponents and secure him a prime spot for a next term as a senator. McCarthy’s trials were no different to The Salem witch trials by raising suspitions he was able to destroy lives with a written list. Although people tried to contradict his allegations the majority’s fear of communists clouded the court’s judgement. They had no remorse for the aftermath of their doings. 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

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Abigail was the one that started all of this because she was accused of witchery but instead of accepting the fact, she ends up accusing other people of witchcraft. She blackmailed the girls to not say a word or they will die. She wanted all of them to pretend to be summoned by the demon so they can accuse other people of witchery. In the book on page 19, “Let either of you breathe a word, or edge of a word. About the other things, and i will come to you in the black of some terrible nights and i will bring a pointy reckoning that will shatter you”.

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote the play because he was inspired by McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the hunt for communists that was taken too far. In The Crucible he presented a universal message. He was comparing how communists did exist and witches did not, but yet they were both taken as serious.

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In The Crucible, the fear of witchcraft precedes the Salem witch trials; however, the accusers capitalize on this fear by alleging that neighbors committed acts of witchcraft in order to obtain their own wishes. An example of their manipulation of the public fears stems from Abigail's intentions behind accusing Elizabeth Proctor. In an attempt to remove Elizabeth from the scenario so she could live with John, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft with tampered evidence, demonstrating her misuse of the court system and the public’s fear. Thus, Murrow’s description of McCarthy’s actions relate to that of Miller’s The Crucible on a fundamental

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Society as a whole seeks to satisfy themselves. This may be at the expense of their peers or individuals they are associated with. Arthur Miller brilliantly displays this dark side of humanity’s side in his play The Crucible. This play is based on the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. During the Salem witch trials over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed.

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Some people think that Abigail is not guilty of witchcraft but i do think she is guilty of witchcraft because she lies alot to a bunch of people. Usually some think that you are innocent until proven guilty but you can tell that she is but all the lies she tells. There is no doubt that Abigail is guilty because she lied about seeing the witches because she did not want to get in trouble by Mr. John Proctor. She danced with the witches in the woods and she was the lier of the whole entire town

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The McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials accurately represent the saying, "Desperate times call for desperate measures. " In the 1950s, the McCarthy hearings tainted lives by falsely accusing those in the film industry of being associated with Communism. In the 17th century, the Salem witch trials charged innocent villagers of practicing witchcraft. Victims from the McCarthy hearings were isolated and ruined, while victims from the Salem trials were hanged and shunned.

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However, during the time of McCarthyism, people suddenly believed if a person went against the government thoughts, they were a communist. Similarly, this is like a time in The Crucible when a mass amount of women were arrested for witchcraft. After Mary Warren comes home from watching the witchcraft trials, John Proctors asks if it is true if only fourteen women arrested. Instead Mary Warren replies, “No, sir. There be thirty-nine now” (Miller, Act II).

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In The Crucible, there could be many suspects to blame for the innocent deaths that happened in Salem. Proctor could be blamed for the innocent deaths because he lied about his affair with Abigail. Speaking of Abigail... in my opinion Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the innocent deaths because of the lies she told, the accusations she made, and the affair she had with John Proctor. Abigail Williams told many, many lies in The Crucible. The reason the witch trials began in the first place was because of the lie she told about being in the woods.

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The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.

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Miller’s purpose of The Crucible was to represent and mirror the social injustice under McCarthyism as people falsely accused each other because their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another. Although, around 1950-1954 the “innocent until proven guilty” clause existed, most trials and accusations were led by “guilty until proven innocent.” Despite Miller’s efforts to criticise people’s actions as

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I do not agree with Ryder's assessment of Abigail. Initially, I think Abigail is selfish and is doing everything for herself so that she can have John Proctor. Abigail says, specifically, "oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be -." The quote supports what I think because Abigail wants John. Another one is, she started blaming other people to keep from getting whipped.

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In a small village called Salem, witchcraft and sorcery exist, however everyone is pointing fingers but not a single soul knows who is actually to blame for this nonsense. During this time period of hysteria, there are multiple scenes that are very questionable due to one person and one person only. Abigail is the one most responsible for the hysteria and witchcraft in Salem. She threatens the group of girls that accompanied her in the woods while they all danced. She has also lied about many things on multiple occasions in which causes an extreme amount of suspicion.

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In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws: lust, vengeance, and jealously that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunts in Salem. Abigail Williams started the entire suspicion of there being active member of witchcraft throughout Salem, Massachusetts. She did this for her own benefits and used trickery to get what she wanted. Abigail was corrupt and only cared for her own desires. There are many reasons that these flaws are crucial to the outcome of the play.

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Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.

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In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.

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