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How Does Miller Present Evil In The Crucible

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The Crucible is a 1953 play written by Arthur Miller. The story retells the truth of the Salem witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It all started when the group of girls was caught out dancing in the woods during the witching hour. The two youngest girls seemed to be showing signs of bewitchment. As a consequence Salem started charging the youngest of being a witch and coming in contact with Satan. However they were just pretending due to the fear of that night. All of this spur commenced the Salem witch trials and innocent people were being condemned by other innocent people. These innocent people were not so innocent because they saved their lives by taking somebody else's. Miller's playwright depicts a main occuring …show more content…

She basically embodies the theme. At such a young age she expresses such a manipulative and vengeful character. Abigail was the girl that started the entire situation. She gathered the group of girls to go into the woods and perform a ritual where the girls could wish something and Tituba would accomplish it through animal sacrifice and ritual. When it came to Abigail’s turn of wishing, she wished to have John Proctor and kill Elizabeth Proctor, wife of John. While Abigail worked for the Proctors, Elizabeth fell ill after giving birth. During this time she committed a malicious sin and had an affair with with John. After Elizabeth realized John was slipping away from her, she fired Abigail and she wouldn’t be able to find work. This left Abigail angry, greedy and vengeful. She wanted Elizabeth to die because she fired her. The main theme occurs very commonly throughout the play. The Crucible depicts vengeance vividly through the characters; Thomas Putnam, Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams. Thomas a greedy old man wanted more wealth at the price of anything. Ann wanted someone to blame for her dead babies. And the most evil, Abigail, wanted John for herself and revenge for getting fired. These are the prime examples that Miller uses to show the theme of

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60 Words | 1 Pages

Abigail seeks revenge on Elizabeth throughout the play because, she is in love with John, and wants to be with him. Abigail helped begin the Witch Trials by originally wanting revenge on Elizabeth, and then she assists in the conviction of many innocent people. Without Abigail wanting revenge on Elizabeth, many people would not have been falsely accused for witchcraft.

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753 Words | 4 Pages

¶“A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is . . . She thinks to dance with me on my wife 's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat.

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773 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible is a 1953 play written by Arthur Miller. It is amplified and somewhat novelized story of the Salem witch trials. Miller wrote the play as a parable to the McCarthyism persecution of communist sympathisers. In this play, a group of Puritan girls are found dancing and conjuring with the devil in the forest. Soon the whole village of Salem knows about the dancing and starts accusing people of witchcraft.

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756 Words | 4 Pages

In 1692 hundreds of people were sitting in jail for being witches, but none of them were really witches. An author named Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible based of the true events of the Salem witch trials. In the play some girls get in trouble for dancing in the woods. They claim the witches were making them do these bad things. The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches.

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811 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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but in reality she was caught attempting to cast a spell on Elizabeth. The reason for her trying to cast a spell is because Abigail falls in love with John Proctor but he is married to Elizabeth but that doesn’t bother Abigail.

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756 Words | 4 Pages

Abigail believed that Proctor actually loved her and she waited every night for him. She was brainwashed to think he would leave his wife for her. The witchcraft accusation came from the beginning of the story when Abigail and the girls were dancing naked in the woods and chanting. She made false accusations that people in the village were worshipping the devil to cover what she had done. Many lives were taken but Abigail had no empathy for anyone who was hanged.

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538 Words | 3 Pages

She wants to kill his wife so she can marry John Proctor. Abigail is trying to be on both sides in the situation so that she can save herself. When she is accused of being a witch she rats out other people to try and make it less of a problem for

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715 Words | 3 Pages

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is about real life events that has been changed a bit by the author. The play is set back in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, were the Salem Witchcraft Trials were going on. The Witchcraft Trials were trials that mostly girls, but some men got accused of seeing the devil and doing work for him. If you were accused of being a witch you were to admit to seeing the devil, accuse other people, or you would get hung. Some people wouldn 't admit to being a witch just to save their life because of their faith in Jesus.

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Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.

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One common question about The Crucible is how Abigail Williams is the most evil force in the play. It is shocking when a girl talks back to authority out of disagreement, but few go as far as Abigail Williams. While she may only be 11 years old, her manipulative and vengeful personality allows her fool her Uncle and later turns a whole town against each other. She is really a master of manipulation and trickery, and she gets herself into affairs without punishment and has threaten all who oppose here. Abigail really is the devil in human form.

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818 Words | 4 Pages

Abigail 's heartless attitude is shown in act two when she frames and accuses Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft. She desired and longed for this revenge on poor Proctors innocent wife, aiming for her through out the play. Later on in Act Three she seems to lose her last attachment of society by destroying John Proctor, who she claims to love with all her heart. When John attempts and threatens to expose Abigail’s wrong doings, she skillfully manages to turn the whole problem around on him, sending him off

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799 Words | 4 Pages

Abigail seeks vengeance after her affair with John Proctor. She is still madly obsessed with him. After John rejected her, she makes up lies in court in desperate attempt to get Goody Proctor hanged. She thinks if she gets rid of Goody Proctor she will be able to have John all to herself. One quote that supports this is “I do sir.

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599 Words | 3 Pages

Abigail wanted to get her vengeance on Elizabeth Proctor for firing her as a maid. John Proctor screamed in rage at Judge Danforth, “She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave!... But it is a whore’s vengeance, and you must see it…”(3.863-8). Abigail wanted to kill or blame Elizabeth for witchcraft to get her vengeance. She may have wanted vengeance, but that did not happen as much as scapegoating like when Abigail scapegoated Tituba.

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707 Words | 3 Pages

Miller addresses a similar hysteria throughout his play. In The Crucible, there are many characters that feed into or contribute to the rapid spread of witch hysteria in the small village of Salem. The two characters that could have ended the mass hysteria are Abigail Williams and Deputy Governor Danforth. Throughout the play Abigail proves to be a fundamental character in the preservation of the hysteria.

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