Santiago Henao Ms. Medvetz ELA 10, Section 14 2 February 2023 Misogyny causes the Scapegoating Arthur Miller’s story focuses on showing the reader the social hysteria and fear which was present during the Salem witch trials. Characters in the Crucible were really scared about people among them being witches, but they were most scared of being blamed as a witch themselves. The story shows how the girls who were seen dancing in the forest were then blamed for being witches and from there the blame spread everywhere. Despite the story including many male characters who were tried for being witches, most of the people blamed were women due to the popular belief in Puritan society that women were more evil and were worth less than men. This Puritan …show more content…
Scapegoating was most prevalent in the book during the Salem witch trials with women being the ones who mostly blamed each other, but this was only due to the fact that more women were accused of being witches than men. “She sends spirits on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer!” (Act II, Pg. 44) In this quote, Abigail scapegoats Tituba and accuses her of sending spirits and cursing her to make her laugh while she prays in church. This scapegoating shows how Abigail didn’t take accountability for her actions and she instead had to put the blame on someone else to save her own life. Despite Abigail doing this to save herself from being hanged, she ended up causing Tituba, an innocent person, to be sentenced and put to death."She comes to me every night to go and drink blood" (Act II, Pg. 44) This quote comes right after Abigail had said that Tituba cursed her with spirits while she was in church. In this quote, Abigail tries to argue that not only did Tituba send spirits to Abigail, but she also made her and the girls drink blood every night and conjured spirits. With Abigail’s multiple instances of scapegoating people like Tituba, she led many innocent people to their deaths, all just to save her own self. Although a lot of the scapegoating occurs between the girls, most specifically coming from Abigail, this scapegoating does come as a result of everyone blaming primarily the women and girls for being witches which leaves them no other choice than to blame each other since it’s the only way they can save