People in the town of Salem are all furious and upset with the current witch trial that are taking place. The prosecution that the court has provided is that Abigail, Mary, Danforth, and Hale all provided factual information and truthful evidence to those that have been accused of witchcraft. They are trying to prove that those accused are practicing and using witchcraft, and that the accusers are trustworthy, reliable people who have no reason to be doubted. The main problem with the previous trial were caused by Abigail, Mary, Danforth, and Hale.
Abigail Williams is an unreliable and untrustworthy person. She represents a liar, which makes her very unpredictable. It all starts when Abigail manipulates Mary Warren and the girls. Abby threatens,
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His clear and present biases and lack of consistency are reason enough to demand a retrial for every person accused of witchcraft in Salem. In one specific instance, Danforth sides with Putnam for no apparent reason. During the trial, Giles states that Putnam made his daughter falsely accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft. Putnam refutes this accusation with a simple “it is a lie”(96), which Danforth then accepts as the truth. Danforth will not even consider Giles when he says “This man is killing his neighbors for land!”(96) Putnam never has to defend himself against this accusation, because Danforth was refusing to believe that Putnam would ever lie. Another way Danforth altered the outcomes of the trials was his refusal to accept the petition presented by Francis Nurse on behalf of some of the accused. Instead of rationally listening to the protests of the townspeople, he immediately agrees they need to be brought in for questioning. He states that those brought in for questioning “have nothing to fear”(87) if they are good christians, when we know, this is not true. Danforth was putting the reputation of himself and the court before true justice. If Danforth were to actually consider the petition, it would put the reputation of the court in jeopardy because 91 people were questioning the rulings. A final way Danforth affected the trials was his refusal to let John Proctor have access to a lawyer during his trial. He states that Proctor does not need a lawyer, because according to Danforth, “the pure in heart need no lawyer”(86), when we know for a fact that the innocent in salem have hanged for no reason. This idea that the court can never be wrong resulted in