Motivation Of Act 1 In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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In Act 1, we are introduced to some of the main characters in “The Crucible”, by Arthur Miller. In this process of learning the characters and their personalities, and another important piece which is their motivations. Reverend Parris, a minister in a town located near Salem, Massachusetts, though he is supposed to be a “man of God,” he consistently acts as if people are aiming to hurt him. He is shown to have paranoia and an ego larger than life. He doesn’t care about his daughter, Betty, who is lying in bed having come down with some strange illness that seems to be undiagnosable and incurable. He starts off in the Act, kneeling down beside Betty’s bed, praying, the reader starts off thinking he is a good man, but soon realize the only reason he was praying was to make sure his reputation stays in tact. He fears people will see him as a bad man and he will be ran out of town. He blames his niece, Abigail, for what is happening to Betty. By blaming her, he shows that all he is doing is pointing fingers; Parris won’t even go out and pray with the people fearing that the talk of witchcraft would intertwine with his niece and daughter’s names. This shows the reader that Rev. Parris’s motivation is the slandering of his own name, he cares more …show more content…

She no longer wants her in John’s life as she is madly in love with John and feels like he feels the same about her as well. Abigail convinces Mary Warren and Mercy not to say anything or she will kill them, knowing how to kill someone from watching her parents be killed by Indians. Abigail does not want to get caught about what she did in the woods, so she blames Tituba for it claiming that she made