John Proctor And Mary Warren In The Crucible

A crucible means a severe test or trial, clearly something many of the characters face in The Crucible. John Proctor and Mary Warren are two characters who primarily struggle with being good Puritans, as many obstacles stand in their way and prevent them from achieving the true love of God. To start off, John Proctor faces challenges ranging from facing Abigail to gaining his wife’s trust to saving the lives of the innocent, but his overall greatest test is to remain a faithful Christian in accordance with the Puritan faith. The reader first learns of John’s crimes in Act One during his conversation with Abigail. As Abby shows a lasting lust for John, he makes it clear “that’s done with” and Abby needs to “put it out of [her] mind” because

The reader can tell from the start of the play that Mary Warren means to bring no harm to anyone. This young girl seems to have simply gotten caught up in the wrong crowd of girls without the proper influence to guide her to do the right thing. When she hears rumors of witchcraft going around town, she recognizes that “witchery’s a hangin’ error” and immediately alerts Abby of the news about the town gossip (18). Fearful of being caught doing witchcraft, Mary wishes to simply confess but the older girls in the group refuse to let Mary bring them down with her and even threaten her into submission. Mary’s fear of the other girls ultimately prevents her from doing the right thing throughout the play. After Mr. Cheever brings a warrant for Elizabeth to the Proctor household, it is suspected that Goody Proctor stuck a needle in a poppet to murder Abigail Williams. The truth is that the poppet which held the needle was the poppet Mary later admits to have “made it in the court [and gave] it to Goody Proctor” that night (71). It has become clear at this point that Mary is one who struggles to tell a lie, but the reader also learns that Mary continues to conspire with Abby, to do her dirty work and help her frame Mrs. Proctor for Abby’s attempted murder. Unfortunately, at the end of Act Three, Mary Warren loses the last bit of good she possessed as she turns on John Proctor in order to save her