Ann Bennett American Literature Luke Jordan March 1st, 2023 The Blame Game Add 5 quotes “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller 1953 was created with the intent of showing the people of the US that the communist accusations were similar to the witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600s. These accusations were because of the Red scare, where in the 1950s people were scared that communism had come into the United States after World War I. The people started to make accusations towards one another that they were communists. They did this for their gains. Which is quite similar to the Salem witch trials. Where the people of Salem blamed each other for being a witch, also for their gains, or to get out of trouble like Abigail in the crucible. …show more content…
But they were caught and eventually accused of witchcraft. In the text, it said “And what shall I say then? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathens in the forest?”(Parris 567) Abigail, not wanting to have her secrets known, started accusing others of witchcraft so she could get out of trouble. One of these secrets was that she had an affair with John Proctor, who is married. This affair led to Abigail wanting more of the proctor. In Act I Abigail said “ It’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it was you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!” (Abigail 578) In this Abigail was referring to Elizabeth, and how she got rid of Abigail. But the proctor wanted to be rid of Abigail as well to be true to his wife. His rejection led to Abigail wanting to get rid of Elizabeth, Proctor's wife. When Abigail was caught dancing, it created an opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth. She blamed Elizabeth for trying to harm her. This blaming started to create more and more hysteria about witches being in Salem. Had Abigail confessed to being in the woods and had not blamed everyone else for being witches for her gain, It would have been the first step in stopping the hysteria in …show more content…
Many people could have stopped them. But the second character who had the best chance at stopping them was Thomas Putnam. He used the witch hunts for his gain. Putnam made the trials by quickly assuming anyone who had done anything wrong was a witch. He blamed as many people as he could because he was holding a grudge against the community. Putnam felt wronged by them because he was not accepted as a candidate for the ministry. He felt as though he was superior to the people around him. He was a vindictive person even before the witch trials. Putnam resented Salem and wanted everyone around him to suffer for not accepting him. He did this by accusing anyone he could of witchcraft. Had Putnam not accused anyone nor had he been holding grudges against the community, there would have been less