Imagine living in Puritan New England, near the end of the seventeenth century, specifically a small village by the name of Salem. While life in Salem is usually peaceful, in the year 1692, a series of events, summarize to be the Salem Witch Trials, would become famous for the death and destruction they caused. The playwright, Arthur Miller, investigates motive and blame connected these trials in his play The Crucible. Miller uses dialogue and plot to show that it was mainly hysteria caused by self-preservation that is to blame for the event in the play.
One of the most prominent examples of this is the girls who accused others of witchcraft in the court, specifically Abigail. These girls used witchcraft as a means to escape the guilt of being found dancing in the woods. In particular, Abigail lied repeatedly, both protect herself and place blame on others, like Elizabeth, John Proctor's wife. She also friends the other girls to do the same when she say, “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” (Miller 19). Because Abigail refuses to tell the truth and does not allow others to do so either, the trials occur. If Abigail hadn't been so desperate to save herself and use people's fear to her
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Abigail and the other accusers blamed others in order to escape criticisms. Judge Danforth, to keep his power and pride, refused to recognize that those accused might not be guilty. Lastly, those who dishonestly confessed to being a witch did so to stay alive. These actions drove the town to panic, and made people scramble to place guilt on someone else as well. Clearly, Salem in the late 1600s was a dangerous place to be, with accusations of witchcraft being thrown around with desperation and