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How To Maintain Power In The Crucible

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Spreading Fear to Maintain Power
Arthur Miller's The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts; a town that is soon to be plagued with dark times. When accusations are made that girls of the town are performing witchcraft, everyone is thrown into mass hysteria. With total chaos, some of the members see this as an opportunity to seize control of the situation. These individuals establish and maintain this power through spreading terror and fear over the majority. This is done by threatening other characters, using their unjust credibility and abusing authoritative positions.
In The Crucible, threatening other characters is a perfect example of how an individual is able to maintain power through spreading fear. During the first act, Abigail …show more content…

Reverend John Hale is horribly guilty of this trait in the first act. showing up after the accusations to appease the people. Finally able to use his studies of witchcraft, and armed with his heavy “authoritative” books, he professes “Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises. Here are all your familiar spirits—your incubi and succubi; your witches that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and of the day. Have no fear now—we shall find him out and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!”(39). Hale is forcefully making these innocent people put every drop of faith into his words, solely through his experience, to gain power over them through that trustworthiness. Establishing power through unjust credibility also applies to Reverend Parris, the man who is more concerned with his profession than his ill daughter. During the trial in the third act, Proctor has evidence that Mary Warren never saw any spirits. therefore proving everyone wrong. Parris dismays this, and informs Danforth to: “Beware this man, Your Excellency, this man is mischief.”(88). Parris could have potentially thrown out any hope for justice to be served for this case, because ,as a Reverend, his word is revered and respected. These men are able to

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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.

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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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