The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Salem Witch Trials has developed its own reputation. Some people think that it was a good representation of older history and how it has helped our justice system develop. Others think that along with it being a good history lesson, the trials were also gave early settlers the embarrassing title of ignorance and selfishness. The play The Crucible shows us that the court was ruled by two things, The Bible and the value of people giving “their word”. Anyone could walk up to someone of authority and accuse anyone of doing something atrocious whether it be true or not. If the “evidence” supported the accusations, then the accused person was required to come to court and await their trial. On the other hand if someone was accused of adultery,

With that being said, she is known for being a homewrecker and an immature excuse for a girl. There is conformation with these opinions, Abby had had an affair with a married man, John Proctor, and was trying to get him to choose her over his own wife. John confesses his sins to his wife and together they fire Abby as their servant and send her on her way. Abby, as furious as she was, goes into the woods with some other girls of the village and tries to get her uncle’s servant, Tituba, to cast a spell on Elizabeth that would potentially “kill her” (Miller, 1258- 1261). Before anything could be done, the girls were caught and they fled back to their houses. To avoid being recognized for her childish mistakes, Abby starts blaming Tituba for their meeting in the woods and , along with all of the girls, Tituba starts saying that she has come back to Jesus and had seen other women dancing with the devil. Some of the women being Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey, and all of which were innocent. The women had been accused only for their previous relations that did not benefit the other individual. Case in point, Abigail’s lust towards John is the only reason that the trials even

The only form of evidence necessary to convict someone, was the word of another person that had been afflicted. They did not need to bring forth any composite confirmation, even though they should have been required to do so. The judge in the play, Mr. Danforth, frequently sided with the people that claimed to be victims of bewitchment. For example, on a day of trial, Mary Warren had come forth and claimed that her and the other girls were only pretending to be afflicted. In violent recoil, Abigail began to see Mary in the form of a bird that wished to do her harm, and she began to act petrified by trying to hide amongst the other girls. “ Mary Warren, do you witch her? I say to you, do you send your spirit out?” asks Danforth ( Miller, 1333). In his adolescence, Danforth comes to believe that Mary was enthralling Abby by casting her spirit out as a deadly bird. Even today’s general citizen would think that Danforth’s actions were beyond ludicrous, to imagine what a person of higher authority’s take on the situation would be quite