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Examples Of Mary Warren In The Crucible

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Mary the Shadow There’s always that one person in a friend group that hides in the shadows, bottling up any thoughts or opinions they may have about a subject. They have knowledge that could change the views of the people around them, yet they decide to stay mute. Whether they hide their view out of embarrassment or fear is another story. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Mary Warren is a prime example of this kind of person. She seems to be an unfortunate soul that was coerced into standing before the presence of the Devil, but she holds the truth about the witch trials. Mary Warren, maid of John and Elizabeth Proctor, is a bystander whose fear clouded her judgement, and her lack of change throughout the play helped cause many innocents to be executed and engulfed Salem in a dark age. In the beginning of the play, we find out that Mary Warren, …show more content…

Mary hid in John’s shadow for most of the scene until John finally encouraged her to speak. Mary explained to Judge Danforth, Reverend Hale, Hathorne, and Parris that her and the girls had been faking everything. Judge Hathorne ordered Mary to faint like she had in the court when “spirits” had been flying around. If she could faint, it would prove that she had been lying about the witchcraft. Hathorne voices that “there are no spirits attacking you… let you turn yourself cold now, let you pretend you are attacked now, let you faint” (Miller 1203). Mary simply could not faint, and at this point the other girls had been summoned. As the questioning began, Abigail and her proxies started to scream, insisting Mary had sent her soul out to torment them. They begin to mimic everything Mary says and does to get under her skin and frame her for being a witch, upsetting the girl greatly. Despite her knowledge of the truth, Mary is involuntarily drawn back into the lies, backing down from the fight out of fear and placing the blame on John

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389 Words | 2 Pages

In act three of the crucible, Mary Warren accused John Proctor of witchcraft. The reason being, either way, she would be going to jail but if she found some way to soften the blow a little she could be let of a little easier. The way she picked in the heat of the moment was blaming John Proctor of witchcraft. She was being blamed by the girls that she was a witch and had absolutely no way to defend herself because the judges already are on Abigail's side. She then dropped the bomb and said that John was a witch and made her do it all.

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427 Words | 2 Pages

But Mary admits “I have no sense of it now”, which leads to her credibility diminishing (Miller 3.750). The power Proctor placed in her hands granted her the opportunity to defeat Abigail, but Mary doesn’t effectively use it to faint and instead weakens under the court's questioning. Abigail detects Mary’s power abating and claims “A wind, a cold wind, has come.” , Mercy continues by asking “Mary, do you send this shadow on me?” (Miller

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513 Words | 3 Pages

Abby’s group of teenage girls is speculated of practicing witchcraft. Mary’s character is consistently timid, naive and easily influenced making her an easy target for groupthink which impacts her decision to reunite with the group after she was so close to obtaining her own voice.

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453 Words | 2 Pages

Abigail encouraged a group of girls to pretend to be sick, Including Mary Warren, Elizabeth’s servant. Abigail stated that she saw a ghost of Elizabeth, basically that Elizabeth had done witchcraft on her. Elizabeth was given a poppet by Mary, and that poppet had a needle in the stomach under the dress. Abigail stabbed herself in order to make believe that Elizabeth was bewitching her. When they went to search the proctor’s house they found the poppet and they took Elizabeth.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

Mary is part of the courts and seems to use this to manipulate her employer, Mr. Proctor. Her first act of defiance was when she told him that he could not order her to bed, give her whippings, or stop her from going to court proceedings (Miller, pg. 59). It is not certain if she knew the intent of Abigail to use the poppet to condemn Elizabeth Proctor. However, when she asked by Mr. Proctor to tell the truth about the poppet, she adamantly says that she cannot because she fears the girls will turn on her. When she does have a change of heart and is put in front of the courts, she shows her weak side and you can see her confidence wane.

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1417 Words | 6 Pages

In The Crucible, the acting of the girls was the principal source of propaganda to continue the trials. Abigail, the young girl who commenced all of the accusations, acted in such a hysteric way that she caused people to believe her. A faultless example of this was when another young girl, Mary, attempted to inform the court that all of the girls were just acting bewitched and that none of them were actually affected by witchcraft. In response to this, Abigail made a Colossal scene in the courthouse; claiming that Mary sent her spirit out in the form of a bird to attack her. “Abigail (to the ceiling, in a genuine conversation with the “bird,” as though trying to talk it out of attacking her).

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1198 Words | 5 Pages

During court, Mary said she heard “the other girls screaming” and that Danforth “seemed to believe them” so she followed suit (Miller 107). Abigail and her friends saw the court believing their act, so they continued with their theatrics. This same display of emotion from Proctor also works at convincing Danforth Abigail’s words are not to be trusted, and her accusations against his wife have no

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619 Words | 3 Pages

In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", John Proctor is our passive protagonist as he tries to save his wife and others that were accused of witchcraft. Unfortunately, his attempt was in vain and his evidence had backfired. His knowledge did not stop the witch trials because of his self-respect, and the children's high reputations, and Abigail's tactful nature. John Proctor valued his self-respect because it made him confident and helped him stand up for what he believed in. John proctor's name was synonymous with honor and integrity and was most respected in Salem.

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1948 Words | 8 Pages

She turns the court against Mary Warren by telling the court that she sees spirits and claims that Mary summoned the

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554 Words | 3 Pages

She blatantly admits to pretending about seeing spirits, along with all the other girls, but Abigail turns on Mary and accuses her of sending her spirit out which leads the judge to be even more suspicious. The situation escalates until Mary turns on John and screams that he’d come to her to make her sign the Devil's black book. That was the final straw for Hale, as he saw John as one of the only sane people left in town, and he denounced the church before

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756 Words | 4 Pages

One of the most powerful human emotions is desire. Everyone is constantly trying to fulfill their own desires. A desire or passion may be so strong it can conflict with morality. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, is driven to go against her moral duty and pursue John Proctor. She will stop at nothing to see her plan through.

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1046 Words | 5 Pages

Mary desperately wants to tell the truth because she believes their punishment will be less severe if they are truthful. Because of this Abigail threatened her and the other girls, saying they will not tell the truth, so the girls decide to use the two afflicted girls to their advantage and claim witchcraft. Their claim of witchcraft leads to an entire mess of people being falsely accused. John Proctor knows that the girls are lying but doesn't do anything about it until his wife is arrested. Whereupon he forces Mary Warren to tell him the truth and say that she will tell the truth to the court to save all of the innocent people.

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845 Words | 4 Pages

(Miller 18). Mary was afraid of Abigail Williams and didn’t tell the truth fearing that Abigail would hurt her. While, she developed as a character and made better choices for herself. Acts 3 and 4 she attempted to help John try to accuse Abigail Williams of lying about witchcraft in the court. “I-I promise you, Mr.Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not’.

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561 Words | 3 Pages

The play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller demonstrates the implications of a society in complete chaos over an irrational fear of witchcraft in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Fear plays an immense role in the way people make their decisions, such as when the characters of Danforth and Mary Warren resort to hypocrisy when no other options remain. Danforth and Mary Warren both embody hypocrisy, as seen when Mary says she cannot lie anymore and then lies when she becomes scared for her life, and Danforth when saying lying will send a person to Hell, but then forcing people to choose between lying and death. Mary Warren exemplifies hypocrisy extraordinarily well in the scene when she and Proctor travel to the courthouse so she can confess that the girls have pretended everything and they never actually saw spirits.

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751 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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