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During the Salem Witch Trials a lot of people were accused of using witchcraft. As a result many people died for other people’s lies, rumors, and selfishness. There is one person that really caused and is most to blame for all the chaos, her name is Abigail. Abigail is to blame for all that has happened in the Witch Trials, the reason for that is because of all the accusing and lying she has done. In addition, it all leads up to her for instance, she used a doll to accuse people of witchcraft.
Don’t believe everything you hear The people in the town were so quick to believe everything that came out of the girls mouths The town’s people started to point fingers at neighbors and even friends just in confusion from the lies The girls were putting on such a convincing act that they had almost everyone fooled The people that were accused had to admit to working with the devil even though they weren’t, in order to save themselves from death.
The Crucible was written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, the play delivers many messages and carries many themes throughout. Nearly every character in the play is put to the test to display an act of courage, weakness, or truth. Some characters lack these traits and never learn to have courage or display honesty. However, most characters are very courageous and demonstrate these acts throughout the whole play. Overall the theme of the The Crucible boils down to being about honesty, weakness, and courage.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.
During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible.
Like Abigail utterly told liars about how Elizabeth spirit had stabbed her at the dinner table but actually Abigail framed Goody Proctor with the doll Mary Warren had made as evidence to stable herself. Also Abigail accused Mary Warren for working with the devil in the setting of act three in the courtroom. The girls in courtroom acted as if Mary spirit was attacking them ,to scare her back to their side. Giles Corey also accused Thomas Putnam for being gluttonous for more land and therefore accusing his neighbors for it.
The Salem witch trials were a time period when any individual could be accused of witchcraft for numerous reasons. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller focuses on the deviation of the trials and how the town’s most religious and honest members of the community are tried with witchcraft. John Proctor, the town’s most honest man, is accused of being a witch and must decide if he should confess or not. Proctor’s confession will stop the town from rebelling and uphold the reputations of Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris. Hale also wishes for Proctor’s confession so he does not have to feel responsible if Proctor were to be hanged for his witchcraft accusations.
Dorothy McCoy once popularly said “Manipulation is a contagious disease. Much more dangerous than the flu because it can endure for a lifetime”. This quote embodies the fact that all it takes is 1 lie, 1 exaggeration, or 1 myth to ruin a person’s life-or-many lives in the case of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this play, one lie turned into a complete disaster with people being accused of witchcraft left and right leaving no one spared. Some of the accused chose to “confess” to their sorcery in order to save their lives while others upheld their integrity and died in the process.
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.
The Crucible “I never lie because I don’t fear anyone. You only lie when you’re afraid,” said John Gotti. Lying is just one of the things Abigail Williams has done to save herself throughout Arthur Millers play The Crucible. The Crucible takes place during the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials in 1662 where many innocent Puritans were being falsely accused of witchcraft and killed. It was a time when those who told the truth died and those who lie.
These lies are the basis for issues in our society today like gossip magazines, and social media. UsWeekly is one of the largest gossip magazines in the US and has some of the same ethics as Abigail. They don't care who they hurt or what damage is caused from the news spread, just that the views and subscriptions are up. This causes people to believe what they see and not to actual fact check what they are seeing. This carried from the crucible because nobody wanted to check and see if these people were actually in the presence of the devil they just assumed because that is the first thing they heard.
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.
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).
Imagine living a life full of lies, lying every day and eventually the lies that are being told become so realistic they end up turning into the reality. In the play “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller, the entire town of Salem, Massachusetts revolves around one lie after another. The lies initially begin after the reverend at Salem’s church, Reverend Parris, catches his daughter, niece, and several other young girls dancing in the forest. After Reverend Parris confronts his niece, Abigail, she refuses to tell him that they were doing any sort of witchcraft in the forest. Abigail, of course, was not telling the truth and eventually she could not hide that any longer.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller has many lessons to learn from. One of The major lesson I thought that is important is honesty. The accusations throughout the story were built on lies from those trying to protect their own name, and putting the town into confusion. Nobody in Salem, Massachusetts felt like they could trust anymore, after all of the false allegations made. If Three characters in the story would have been honest from the beginning, the town would not have been in such confusion.
