Theme Of Jealousy In The Crucible

Jealousy is an ugly emotion, which provokes many human actions of destruction. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the main theme portrayed by the characters was a hate fueled by jealousy. But not everyone in The Crucible was acting out of jealousy, some genuinely thought witchcraft was real and feared it, after all witchcraft is written in the Bible. The good Puritan people of Salem, Massachusetts filled with jealousy, greed, and fear took the idea of witchcraft and used it for their own personal gain. Abigail Williams used witchcraft in her plan to replace Elizabeth Proctor and as a scapegoat, while Reverend Samuel Parris used witchcraft to protect his namesake, and Reverend John Hale used witchcraft to further build up his witch

Seven months before the play began, Abigail Williams worked for the Proctor household until John Proctor and Abigail Williams began to engage in an affair. John’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, soon found out and fired Abigail on the spot, but the situation did not end without any consequences. Abigail had developed angry feelings against Elizabeth and fell hopelessly in love with John Proctor. Abigail holds a hope in her heart that John loves her and John will leave Elizabeth for her, despite John Proctors’ constant rejections to Abigail. So when an opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth comes up in the form of power to accuse people of witchcraft, Abigail jumps at the chance. John sees Abigail’s intentions and portrays this when he says “she thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave,” in a confession to Judge Danforth about his relationship with Abigail (Miller, 110). Not only did Abigail want John Proctor all to herself, but also she was concerned about people finding out what she actually was doing in the woods with Tituba and the other girls. It is revealed early on in the play that Abigail cares about her reputation, for example, when she was concerned that Elizabeth was “blackening [her] name in the village” (Miller, 23). If people found out Abigail were trying to put a hex on Elizabeth Proctor in the woods, then sooner or later the truth about John and

Reverend Parris had no intention of admitting witchcraft was performed in Salem until Reverend Hale arrived . When the doctor in Salem said that no natural cause was behind Betty’s illness, Reverend Parris said “There be no unnatural cause here. Tell him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mr. Hale will surely confirm that,” which shows an ironic view of how hopeful Parris was that witchcraft was not in Salem (Miller,9). But when Reverend Hale arrive, he put the suggestion in quick-witted Abigail’s mind that witchcraft could be used as a scapegoat to get out of trouble. Hale prompted Abigail with questions such as “what sort of dancing were you doing with her in the forest?” and “Did you call the Devil last night?” (Miller,42). Without Hale’s prompting and incessant questions about witchcraft Abigail may have never cried witchcraft, which gives good reason to assume Reverend Hale is responsible for the events in