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And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or let 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 175). This quote from Abigail Williams shows her desperate plea to not get into trouble. Abigail wants the court to know nothing of her drinking blood, so she threatens all the other girls who know what really happened to keep them from exposing the
Arthur miller shows that betrayal destroys relationships and communities in most occasions in his play The Crucible. It seems that most people in this small town of Salem committed to betraying others. Others may say that the play was not based on or even about betrayal because there was a lot about faith and other topics. Whether they knew it or not, they all betrayed someone. Mary betrayed John when she called him the devils man.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.
Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense. In the book the Crucible there are many hypocrites some dishonest some just following any one to be guilty, but one of the many character is Judge Danforth he mocks Marry when he ask "How were you instructed in your life? Do you not know that God damns all liars?"(3-84), since Danforth is in power for being the judge he thinks that everyone else is ignorant and not being equal as him.
Power is when the fate of events and/or individuals are in the control of one person or group. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible reflects the many different sides of power, the power over self, the power over others, and the power over all. Miller’s play takes place in one of America’s most frightening times, the Salem Witch Trials, where a Puritan community went on a mad witch hunt through their town. Many innocent people were accused, and once accused, they could either deny and hang or confess to witchcraft and accuse others. One of Miller’s most powerful individuals is his antagonist Abigail.
After being wronged, it is human nature to want to get even. No matter how many times someone tells someone else to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, it never sticks. Human nature is, was, and always will be to make sure that whoever made the pain receives the same. This was shown in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible.
The crime and the cover-up, we see it all over T.V. shows and movies nowadays. Likewise, in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, people, out of fear, shame, or pride will perpetuate and defend their mistakes. In The Crucible, many of the young girls in their puritan society begin to accuse other members of the town of witchcraft. The town nearly loses its sanity as more and more people begin to lie and cover their tracks. This theme is illustrated through the surreptitiousness of the judges, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams.
In doing this we can see that Abigail is very selfish and will do whatever to get what she wants. What she did caused a spiral of other accusations. I feel like Abigail didn’t really mean for it to get way out of hand like it did. Once she started lying though it was hard to stop because the power gave her an adrenaline rush. Of course, it is unclear if something like this did happen in the real Salem Witch trials, but it is very possible.
Terry Goodkind once said, “Once you place the crown of a liar on your head, you can take it off, but it leaves a stain for all time” This old adage rings true for many characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Many of them lied, cheated, omitted, and manipulated their way through the court and their own neighbors for the good of their own personal agenda; and the effects of those dishonest actions affected them for the rest of their lives. My whole life I have heard it said that little white lies do not matter. But they do, they matter a lot. They build on top of each other, snowballing into much bigger lies with much larger consequences.
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.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller characters lie, and those lies will either make or break them in the end. It is clear that throughout the play many of the characters lied, John Proctor being one of the bigger ones. Proctor lied to his wife, Elizabeth, and their children, as well as the townspeople. His lying then caused the atmosphere
“I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you’ (Act 1) Exposing how far she will go and how manipulative she is with the girls knowing Abigail would not hesitate to falsely accuse them too and is now controlling them. So now she is getting caught up in these lies it’s too late to go back, she's longing John Proctor and wants to look as innocent as possible but in reality she's the real witch of the
People in the village had power by influencing others to lie in order not to receive the consequences of witchcraft. Abigail shows power in the play by influencing the girls and what to say and do. She threatened all the girls she will hurt them if they open their mouth and say the truth. Abigail threatens, “Let either one of you breathe a word, or the edge of the other thing and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will being a pointy reckoning that will shutter you.”(Act 1). Abigail tells them she will shutter them with something that will hurt them in a dark night.
Through the Salem witch trials, twenty-four innocent people lost their lives due to betrayal. They were hung because they were accused and found to be guilty of witchcraft. In reality, everyone that was accused and had died were innocent, but used as targets by others to save their own lives. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, out of fear, Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, Mercy Lewis, and Reverend Hale betrayed their morals to save themselves. As a result of betrayal, lives were taken, relationships were ruined, and trusts were broken.
And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” (Miller 12). This quote shows how Abigail has changed and what she’d do if she was confronted with such a situation. She made the decision quickly and opted to only save herself. Over the course of the book it gets represented pretty well that she is capable of doing everything to hold up her reputation.
