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The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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“The edge of the wilderness was close by. The American continent stretched endlessly West, and it was full of mystery for them. It stood dark and threatening, over their shoulders night and day, for out in Indian tribes marauded from time to time, and Reverend Parris had parishioners who had lost relatives to these heathen” (Miller,5). In the beginning of the book, Reverend Paris one night found his niece and all her friends dancing (which is forbidden in this time period) in the woods, which is known to be the Devil’s playground. So right off the bat, it is looking very bad for the girls of Salem. Even after all of that, one of the girls was naked running through the forest, and that is very bad for a Puritan (Miller 3-8). Fear and suspicion …show more content…

Now Abigail acts like she was a worker of the devil and wants to “come back to god”. Betty hearing this, wakes up screaming and they think everything is fine now. Hale asked who Abby say with the devil and she says Tituba. They go to Tituba’s shack and drag her out and start whipping her, and her not wanting to be whipped to death fake admits to doing it. (Miller 8-48) Tituba and all the girls have now admitted to seeing the devil and are naming off a bunch of names of people who they have “seen with the devil.” So now everyone is scared and freaking out which is really the start of the mass hysteria. It turns into everyone accusing others of being a witch. Whether it be because they don’t like them or just because they want their land. Either way they start accusing everyone, and the girls were seen as “proof.” So, if they didn’t like the person, when they were brought into court they would start screaming, falling or even “fainting.” (Miller …show more content…

Abby knew what was going on, but the other girls thought that it was real because of the mass hysteria. Mary Warren (John Proctors’ Slave) would eventually go to the court because John made her because they took his wife to jail, and she would tell them it was all fake and explain kind of how the hysteria was tricking them. Which the court would believe at first but then wold turn on John and Giles and arrest John and Giles would be stoned to death. (Miller 123-145) Giles iconic last words were as he was getting stoned, and he said, “more weight.” Giles was a legend, and he was a real person and that was actually what happened. Johns' wife would try to convince him to false confess and save his wife, and so would Hale and ironically Paris. At first he does but then they want him to sign a piece of paper to try to convince everyone else to confess. They also want him to ruin Goody Nurse’s name and he refuses to, instead he admits to lying and gets killed. (Miller 123-145)
As they’re about to be hung, they all say their 10 commandments (which witches cannot do). They got killed anyways, which set people off and made them release it wasn’t true. That is the overview of “The Crucible” and how mass hysteria got lots of people killed or in jail. (Miller

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In The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, he writes about a story of witches in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is about a group of young girls who control the village with the fake pretense of having seen the devil and who he has worked with John Proctor and Reverend Parris are two characters within the play who both have similar experiences to each other. The story teaches us that different actions lead to different circumstances. Reverend Parris is the uncle of abigail, one of the girls in the wood who chanted.

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When John confesses the affair Abigail still refuses to admit the truth, "Mr. Danforth, he is lying!" (102). Abigail's ability to manipulate and deceitfulness make her the leader of the group of girls who accused the witches. The accusations start after Tituba confesses and Abigail in an attempt at concealing the truth even more begins to accuse more people, "I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!"(45).

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In this play, Arthur Miller uses a lot of different universal themes, and the one I am going to use today is, false accusations lead to many innocent deaths in the small town of Salem. Many deaths happened due to false accusations and because of this; the town of Salem went insane. Everyone was being accused of Witchcraft and the town slowly started to disintegrate. One of the most controversial deaths in this play was John Proctor, mainly because he was well known and had an extremely well reputation.

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”(McCarthyism 217) The court in the Crucible also had tremendous power, their power was life or death. If you were accused and found to be a witch according to the court you were hang. “Hang them over the town!”(Miller

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These girls used witchcraft as a means to escape the guilt of being found dancing in the woods. In particular, Abigail lied repeatedly, both protect herself and place blame on others, like Elizabeth, John Proctor's wife. She also friends the other girls to do the same when she say, “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 19). Because Abigail refuses to tell the truth and does not allow others to do so either, the trials occur. If Abigail hadn't been so desperate to save herself and use people's fear to her

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A small group of teenage puritans broke several rules and lied a seemingly innocent lie. That lie turns into a series of hearings where the defendant has two terrible choices. They can either lie and confess to witchcraft that they didn't commit, or hang. That one lie leads to 19 deaths. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, many characters made crucial decisions that led to the disaster

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(I.465-472). Seeing Abigail cry, it suggests that Abigail’s affair with John Proctor has influenced her behavior in jealousy and lust as she strives for nothing more than her love for John Proctor. By only being heartbroken, Abigail is not to be fully blamed for the hysteria within the town as her actions are only based on desperate attempts to win John Proctor over, and no intentional harm whatsoever. However, on the other hand, Abigail cannot be excused with outside forces making her the way she is due to the fact that she has clearly had a choice in most of her decisions and actions throughout the witchcraft crisis. When Mary Warren, another girl involved in the forest incident, enters the court, she explains to Danforth, the judge, that the girls are lying and are only pretending to see spirits.

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Abigail then got mad slapped Betty and told the girls if they told the truth she would kill them. Mary Warren wanted to tell the truth so they wouldn’t get in much trouble, but Abigail wouldn’t let her do that. Mary Warren:”Abby, we’ve got to tell”, Abby: “Oh, we’ll be whipped!”Abigail is just scared & doesn’t want anyone to know she drank chicken blood to kill Elizabeth Proctor. She only drank the charm because wants to be with John Proctor, since they had affair when Abigail worked for them.

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Two other people that had to do with Proctor 's Death are  Deputy Governor Danforth and Thomas Putnam. This is both of there faults in the way that Danforth does not question the girls and just goes with whatever they say. For example when they are in court and abigail says “I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; i have seen my blood runnin’ out! I have been near to murdered everyday because i done my duty pointing out the devil 's people-and this is my reward? To be  mistreated, denied, questioned like A-” then Danforth says “Child, I do not Mistrust you-” this shows that Danforth believes everything they say rather than all of the adults.

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