“The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.” Rita Mae Brown, famed American writer, speaks of the internal questions that occur regarding conformity. Mary Warren, a character in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is the epitome of the quote as her instincts and her brain are feuding within her. In the center of the Witch Trials in The Crucible is a group of girls headed by Abigail Williams. Even though Mary Warren is one of the oldest girls of the group, she is also one of the weakest. We see this from whence she enters, “…Mary Warren, breathless. She is seventeen, a subservient, naïve, lonely girl,” (Miller 17). Mary, Abigail, and some of the other girls were caught dancing in the woods the night before the trials. In puritan culture, dancing was an atrocious crime. Mary knew this and she is distraught. Mary and Abigail’s relationship is contingent on the fact that Mary helps Abigail with her plans. Mary argues with herself many times, such as in the trials and she tells the truth to help John Proctor. However, she still switches sides and conforms back to Abigail’s ways. Even though she feels guilty, Mary still goes to great lengths to save herself from being punished, regardless of the consequences to others in the play. …show more content…
Mary’s battle between conforming to avoid punishment and the truth contributes to the theme of hysteria. It allows the reader to fully comprehend the deception involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, as well as how hysteria amassed. The townspeople’s paranoia allows people to believe that their neighbors, even though they’ve considered each other understanding people, are committing heinous crimes. Abigail and her scheme to acquire Proctor relies on Mary compliance, even though internally Mary knows it is wrong to falsely accuse their neighbors. She knows lying is against the puritan religious