Witch Trial Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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In the Crucible, grudges and personal problems play a key role in creating the witch trial hysteria. The very first event in the play was spurred on by a grudge. Abigail, wanting to be with John, slips out into the woods with her friends and drinks a charm to kill his wife. After being nearly caught, she accuses Tituba of doing witchcraft to save herself. Tituba then accuses two other women to save herself as well. At that moment Abby realizes “Hey, it’s really easy to get people in trouble over this.”, and with her friends she frames several other women. This starts the witch trials, which Abby and other townsfolk exploit to damage people they’ve got any hard feelings with. Particularly, Abby uses the witch trials to accuse John's Wife, Elizabeth,