In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible (1953), he shows the corruptness of the courts and their influence on the decisions of Abigail Williams. Abby was just a girl, she loved to pretend. She and the other girls of Salem loved it, they danced in the woods and pretended to be witches. That is until they were found by Reverend Parris, after which two girls pretended to be bewitched because they were afraid of the consequences. This is the beginning of the chaos that would consume Salem, ending in almost 20 innocents hung.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.
Sissela Bok, a Harvard University ethicist says, ‘’Lying is so easy compared to other ways of gaining power.’’ In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams drives the play. She is responsible for most of the deaths in Salem. Abigail is a beautiful, 17 year old orphan, also niece of Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams is a very selfish and manipulative person; she teaches us that lying is only harmful for one’s self.
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.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws: lust, vengeance, and jealously that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunts in Salem. Abigail Williams started the entire suspicion of there being active member of witchcraft throughout Salem, Massachusetts. She did this for her own benefits and used trickery to get what she wanted. Abigail was corrupt and only cared for her own desires. There are many reasons that these flaws are crucial to the outcome of the play.
In the small town of Salem, religion was a strict priority, and strange illnesses like these were often thought to be the devil’s work. Miller demonstrated the paradox in The Crucible from the beginning of the play by allowing Abigail Williams and the other girls to unjustly accuse whomever they wanted of witchcraft. The play presented us how too much power is dangerous, for the temptation was always there to abuse it. Under the justification of a theocratic government, the people in authority in Salem abused their almost absolute power, destroying many innocent people in the process. What theocracy illustrates is how the law is not always based on truth, and that if it is not we should stand up to it.
Arthur Miller’s portrayal of a town in the midst of a downfall “The Crucible”, tells the story of how mob mentality and hysteria can significantly influence not only individuals but the whole town. This mob mentality leads to unthoughtful acts and false accusations. Two characters who demonstrate how mob mentality can lead to the demise of Salem are Abigail and Mary Warren. As Abigail begins to be accused she is pressured to deter from the truth. While Mary Warren gets pressured by Proctor to reveal the truth about Abigail, but the overwhelming pressure from the mob makes her turn from the truth.
The Crucible’s justice system has been severely warped by the societies theology, and Arthur Miller systematically reminds the reader of this fact by creating sympathy for the innocent victims with rhetorical devices such as emotional appeal and . The injustice within The Crucible would be one resulting from the society’s theocratic government. They had no separation between church and state; consequently, their judgement was constantly clouded by their necessity to act on behalf of God and their fear of Hell. The biggest tool they used to decide who was involved in witchcraft was Abigail and the girls, as they claimed to be ‘purged’ previously from their ‘interactions with the Devil’. Thus, they were the only people Reverend John Hale believed would tell the truth.
A final example of Abigail abusing her power is in act III when she says,"Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it‘s God‘s work I do…" This quote shows how Abby abuses her power of persuasion to shift the accusation of her lying about being a victim of witchcraft to completely flip the script and have her accuser be under target of doing witchcraft and in the act of witchcraft. This quote is very effectively used by Miller because he also engages the audience with the verbal irony in Abby saying she's doing god's work but in reality it would be considered the devil's work. This use of power is self centered and irresponsible by Abby because she is throwing another person under the bus so she can keep up the lie that makes up her life now endangering possibly many more in the future so she won't have to face consequences for her actions.
Power in Salem flourished in 1962 at the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. Power is the ability or right to control people, things, or outcomes. The way to have power is to capture it. In the Arthur Miller play, The Crucible, one person abused their power; while the other person was elevated in their social structure in order to save or end innocent people’s lives with her power within her knowledge. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Tituba express their power through the means of threats and actions, good or bad.
When people think of the play, “The Crucible”, they usually picture the witch trials and women being hanged, but Arthur Miller depicts the witch trials in a completely new light. He shows through a story that the witch trials were much more than just people calling others witches. There was deceit, pain, greed, and more. Through the play, we follow the character, Abigail, observe her actions and their consequences. We witness the lives of people she impacts, what happens to them, and how many times she lies to get her way.
Abigail does several things that make her a manipulative person. She starts accusing people of witchcraft so she doesn’t look like a bad person. Abigail wants to control and wants to be feared. She gives the impression of being an innocent girl. In reality, she threatens people and becomes ruthless.
One of the main elements that eventually build up to the main plot in the play is power. Many of the characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible have a strong desire for power. The Salem witch trials empowered several characters in the play who were previously marginalized in Salem society. It gave them the chance to misuse it leading to horrible suffering and even deaths of some innocent people in the town. Some of these characters are Abigail Williams, Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris.
When the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, shock waves were sent out to the world as everyone watched in horror of the destruction. The United States had developed a weapon that could give us control over the rest of the world. Other nations scrambled to catch up; specifically the Soviet Union. Eight years later, the ideological conflict between Communism and Capitalism solidified as the Soviets developed their atomic bomb. The sole principle preserving mankind from obliteration was the principle of the M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine.
Power is something almost everybody strives for at least once in their life. In Salem, the men who own the most land or people who have a great reputation for being very religious are the people with the utmost power. Slaves and women, especially unmarried ones, are the people with the lowest status. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the power dynamic dramatically shifts. Tituba, Betty’s family’s slave, brings a group of Puritans girls, including Betty, into the woods.
