The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Imagine the town of Salem, Massachusetts,and how it screams witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the town’s reverend’s daughter, Betty, becomes “ill”. She had became this way because of what had happened in the forest. Everybody freaks out and Reverend Parris wants nothing to do with the thought of witchcraft in his very home. He sends for the town doctor, but the doctor finds no illness that ails Betty. Parris’s next thought is to ask for Reverend Hale’s help, because of the work Hale is known for, which is finding witches. John Proctor, Reverend Hale, and Abigail Williams are examples of how humans are not perfect. John Proctor, is a farmer that is in his middle thirties, husband of Elizabeth Proctor, he says he does not like

A man of modesty, a man that is poor, a control freak, is a widower, and has no interest in kids. In the beginning of act one Parris is trying to get Betty to wake up because she is lying inert on the bed as if she were in a coma of some sort. He has asked the town’s doctor, Doctor Griggs, for help. Doctor Griggs sends Susanna Walcott to tell Reverend Parris. “He bid me come and tell you, reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books.” (Miller 9). Which means that Betty isn’t in any coma that is medically treatable. Parris responded by saying, “Then he must search on. ‘No-no. There be no unnatural cause here. Tell him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mr. Hale will surely confirm that. Let him look to medicine and put out all thought of unnatural causes here. There be none.’” (Miller 9). Reverend Parris wants nothing to do with the fact that there could have been witchcraft under his roof. It would tarnish and destroy his name as minister and reverend. He only cares about his name, he proves it by saying, “But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must known it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.” (Miller 10). This proves that all Parris cares about is how people perceive him if his name is good or not. He begins to question Abigail Williams about what she and the kids were doing in the

At the beginning of Act one she portrays herself as if she was a goody two shoes, who is innocent and can do no harm. But a little later in Act one she turns and completely changes her personality which shows that she is two-faced and is evil and fake. When questioned by her uncle, Reverend Samuel Parris, what she did in the forest with Betty and Tituba and all the other girls that he knew about, she lies over and over again saying, “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it.” (Miller 10). This is where everything goes bad. Reverend Parris gets suspicious that she is lying and continues to question her which eventually leads to the truth leaking out very slowly, bit by bit. She truly turns two face when she says, “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. 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 20). At this point she has gone off the rails, and everything falls apart after that. Ironically Abigail says, “I didn’t see no Devil! Betty, wake up. Betty! Betty!” (Miller 45). The irony in this is that literally at the end of act