Kathryn Mason Ms.Wrenn 11-2 8 October 2014 Which Witch is Which Who is really at fault for the witch craft trials in Salem, Massachusetts in Arthur Millers play, The Crucible? The problem in this play starts off when Reverend Parris finds a group of girls dancing in the woods and tells on them. Due to Puritanism, when two of these girls become ill with no diagnosis, Puritans point to witch craft. When the leader of the group, Abigail Williams, gets asked about why they were dancing, she immediately points the finger on Tituba, who points the finger on others and a lot of people become at fault for the witch craft within the town. Judge Danforth takes on the trials of witch craft and determines if one is guilty or innocent. People start to blame others which they had past troubles with, just to get …show more content…
He sentences a lot of innocent people to be hung in the trials. One of his quotes says "I have seen people choked before my eyes by spirits; I have seen them stuck by pins and slashed by daggers. I have until this moment not the slightest reason to suspect that the children may be deceiving me"(256). Judge Danforth is a person who trusts too much, which is a negative trait for him. He trusts everything that is coming out of Abigail Williams mouth and puts the blame on all these innocent, guilty people. In the courtroom, judge Danforth says "I will tell you this-you are either lying now, or you were lying in the court, and in either case you have committed perjury and you will go to jail for it. You cannot lightly say you lied, Mary. Do you know that?"(278). This shows that Judge Danforth has come to realization that people are lying about the accusations and innocent people are at fault, due to his mistakes at the trials. Danforth probably feels embarrassed from everyone because he believed what all the girls were saying and now can't change the