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The Role Of Fear In Act 1 Mercy Lewis

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Fear. We all just relate to it as being another common emotion that is regularly familiar in everyday life which isn’t much of a problem. But fear has a larger impact on our decisions and actions than we all think. It is powerful in transforming the way people react and act towards certain situations and can be more serious. Fear arises with the threat of physical, emotional, or psychological harm. In recent times, we have come to recognize that the rate of bullying across Australia has escalated through the roof, with more children targeted and abused. Just last month a 13- year-old teenage girl was tortured, bashed, and stabbed in an hours-long ordeal, with videos posted to social media by three girls. The three girls acted out of fear and …show more content…

Many people throughout the play have threatened to physically hurt Mary, and this results in her lying continuously to protect herself from death. In Act 1 Mercy Lewis threatens Mary with physical violence saying 'I'll beat you, Mary Warren? I'll whip you if you dare leave this house again!" The use of aggression in the emotive language…. It is the start of the threats towards Mary which prompted the vulnerability of this character, starting to explicitly follow everyone’s sayings and act against her morals in order to protect herself from the powerful people. Throughout the play, as Mary was continuously threatened and targeted throughout the court allegations, as many people decided to turn the blame onto her knowing she would be an easy target. She was therefore forced into agreeing with the allocations of participating in witchcraft or else she would be killed. In Act Three several characters threaten Mary with violence if she does not lie in court to protect their own dignity. When Abigail says, "…Think you be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? ". This threat is not specifically targeted towards Mary but aggression and anger are constant traits of Abigail and is easily aggravated when fighting against her. This intimidated Mary and made her especially more likely to lie in court when protesting the witch trials. Abigail’s mention of "the power of Hell" and her warning to "beware of it" imply a potential for danger and harm. This allows the audience to understand that the fear of the unknown and unpresidential can result in people acting against their morals of standing up for themselves and protecting their

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