The Fate of Salem In the Hands of A Few
The society of Salem in the 17th century was a state of deterioration. Some citizens of Salem were forced to lie about a crime they didn’t commit, or be killed because another citizen didn’t like them. What made this worse was the types of people who made these decisions on whether they were innocent or not. People who were regarded as having little influence under normal circumstances were making decision on people's’ lives. Everyone in Salem was paranoid about the devil, or that they might be the next person to be blamed of a fake crime. In The Crucible, the Salem witch trials fuel the imbalance of power among Salem’s citizens and allow citizens who previous had no influence in the community to
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Before the trials, Abigail was just considered as the niece of Reverend Parris. She is with Betty and Tituba in Betty’s bedroom and pretends that the rumoured witchcraft is affecting her. She utilizes this lie to blame people of why Betty is not feeling well and to use witchcraft as a way to eliminate John Proctor's wife, and she becomes known as one of the key witnesses in the trials. She first blames Tituba of forcing her to work for the devil in this quote, “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…”(44). Tituba blamed someone else of bewitching Betty, and said it wasn’t herself. From that point on, Abigail was able to singlehandedly blame someone and claim they are bewitching her, which leads to their arrest and soon death. Abigail is supporting and using the trials to kill other characters she doesn’t like, to eliminate Elizabeth in an attempt to be with John Proctor, and to prevent people from blaming her for Betty’s illness. She is able to kill off people, and she is only 16. An example of the blaming the girls do is discussed by John Proctor here:”What work you do! It’s strange work for a Christian girl to hang old women.”(62) This imbalance of power is well displayed in the respect given towards …show more content…
Cheever and others began as common people, but the trials allowed Cheever and others to become government officials in the trials and play an important role in arresting or detaining those accused. An ordinary person would not be randomly promoted to play a key role in the government, but the desperation of the trials leads to Cheever getting power, as the reader learns here: ”I do, Proctor, aye. I am clerk of the court now, y’know.”(76) His power is key, because when John tears up the warrant for his wife, the reader learns that the warrant if from the deputy governor himself, who gave Cheever the power to arrest John's wife: “You’ve ripped the Deputy Governor’s warrant, man!”(81). These arrests are something that Cheever could not do as a tailor. Interestingly enough, Cheever is not significantly driven by greed or desire, but rather by duty to the state and his position. He always does what he is commanded to and is trying to support the law, not trying to have personal gain. He is reluctant to take power because he doesn’t want to have such a big effect, but does it for the state anyway. Cheever’s sense of duty allows him to be a pawn in other characters’
Abigail was telling her Christian uncle ,Parris, that his slave Titiuba was calling on the devil. This created hysteria because this was not allowed in the Chritian world and it created fear in the eyes of Salem because they are afraid that the Devil will drag them down to Hell. Many in Salem made speculations that Tituba would come after them due to her talking to the dead, the devil, as well as her conjuring spell. Due to all of the events she did it caused hysteria within
An what I mean by that is she seizes any opportunity she has to divert blame from herself and Betty (her sister) by accusing others. Such as when she’s being accused of dancing in the forest she goes out of her way and blames Tituba of making them do the bad things they did (Act 1). Then once Abigail has the town all sympathetic for her she makes herself seen as an “afflicted child”, she then seizes the chance to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and get her out of the picture. (Act 2). Now, the reason that this makes her so despicable is because she accuses John Proctors wife of witchcraft just to get her out of the way so she can have Mr. Proctor all to herself, but what’s even worse is she already slept with him before, so now that she can’t ruin their marriage by having sleeping/having an affair with Mr. Proctor she’s just going to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and have her killed.
Abigail says that Tituba gave them blood to drink to make Tituba confess. In this last section, I think Abigail told on Tituba to use her as a cover up so she wouldn’t be getting into right then. Last, Stealing from her uncle and skipping town to run away from the charge and guilt. ”
In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, the reader watches as a small Massachusetts village tears itself apart during the Salem Witch Trials. Friends and neighbors accuse each of in fear that they are consorting with the Devil. It is no surprise then, that alliances begin to form in Salem. Some people use the trials as an opportunity to exact their revenge or for their own personal gain.
Abigail told everyone that Tituba was doing witchcraft, which she then falsely confesses to simply because she knows she cannot win and be hanged if she denies it. Tituba states, “No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir” (42).
Abigail seems like an innocent girl to everybody however it is later found out that she is one of the people who puts herself before others and makes things worse to get herself out of trouble. In act one Reverend Hale was questioning Tituba, a slave from Barbados. Tituba was explaining what the dancing and the disturbance in the woods and Abigail says she “wasn’t conjuring spirits”(Miller ??)
In The Crucible, the normal social and moral order is completely inverted. Salem was a secluded village in Massachusetts that was a strict, theocratic, hierarchical, patriarchal society where power and morality were two incredibly important aspects within the community. The men of Salem held all of the political power in the community and their rule was strengthened not only by the law but also by the hypothetical approval of God. However, the Salem witch trials empowered several individuals in The Crucible who were formerly marginalized and powerless and similarly inverted the normal moral order in Salem by forcing the characters in the play to make a decision between adhering to or abandoning their fundamental morals in order to survive or
The Crucible has many characters to blame when it comes to questioning why everything happened the way they did. It’s hard to describe a reasoning for all of this or exactly who to blame because there is so many different opinions and reasons to why everything is happening. A quote I think that does a fairly good job at this is, “There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!”(Miller, Pg.148). The character I think that you can point to first and blame the most when asking why everything in Salem happened is Abigail Williams. There are three major reasons to why Abigail is to blame and the first is because she slept with John Proctor.
Abigail and the other girls started to act out in the court accusing Proctor of sending his spirit out on them which is what they claimed caused Mary Warren to faint as she could not do it outside of the courtroom.they also pretended to see a yellow bird that Abigail yelled to " be gone with you"(Miller, The Crucible pg ) these acts further discredited john proctor's case as it convinced the jury the Children were innocent and that John Proctor was lying. Although all the girls played a part in the accusations, the trials would not have been set in motion without Abigail William's unbeatable tactics of manipulation. At first, Abigail manipulates Tituba into doing the sinful work of witchcraft for her and tuned on Tituba, accusing her of forcing her to do witchcraft. Abigail also was obsessed with Proctor and had an affair with him until he ended it which sparked jealousy in Abigail and motivated her to act out and accuse Elizabeth Proctor of
Throughout The Crucible, numerous people use subtexts to dissemble their true intentions. In Act One, the characters are often found arguing with one another over the accusations of bewitching Betty within the forest. The teenage girls, especially Abigail Adams (cousin to Betty Parris), are scolded, berated and questioned for a significant amount of time. Reverend Hale interrogates the accused Abby, asking a multitude of questions with the intention for her to succumb and admit to have practiced witchcraft within the forest. Fearing for her own safety, Abigail makes a calumny about the Barbadian slave, Tituba, claiming she was the culprit performing witchcraft on the teenagers: “She made me do it!
Abigail seeks revenge on Elizabeth throughout the play because, she is in love with John, and wants to be with him. Abigail helped begin the Witch Trials by originally wanting revenge on Elizabeth, and then she assists in the conviction of many innocent people. Without Abigail wanting revenge on Elizabeth, many people would not have been falsely accused for witchcraft.
Society as a whole seeks to satisfy themselves. This may be at the expense of their peers or individuals they are associated with. Arthur Miller brilliantly displays this dark side of humanity’s side in his play The Crucible. This play is based on the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. During the Salem witch trials over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed.
Although Abigail Williams does not physically appear in Act 2, her presence is felt throughout The Crucible. She affects and hurts the lives of her family. She is the main source of trouble. If she wants something, she'll get it. At the beginning, there is a lot of closeness between her and the proctor family.
Abigail fuels this situation even more with her manipulative personality. She is a very selfish girl and she is willing to do whatever she can to protect herself. Abigail “smashes her across the face: Shut it! Now shut it!” Abigail smacks Betty when she starts remembering what happened and that Abigail drank blood to kill John Proctor’s wife.
Abigail The Victim In the Crucible many are to blame for the events that occurred, but one of the one’s who seems to take blame the most is Abigail Williams. She holds most of the responsibility because she was to blame for the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods. When Parris located the girls in the woods, Abigail tries to hide her behavior because she fears that it will uncover her affair with Proctor if she confesses that she attempted to cast a spell on his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail also lies to avoid being punished for witchcraft.