Betty lies unconscious and appears very ill. She has fainted from fear after her father found out what she did last night. Reverend Parris, Betty’s father, had discovered Betty, his niece Abigail, and his black slave, Tituba, dancing in the woods. The girls were observed to be talking to the dead and performing satanic rituals. The local physician was unable to determine the cause of Bettys illness, this caused rumours of witchcraft and unnatural cause to take root in the village of Salem. Nurse Rebecca warns Parris that if witchcraft is truly identified as the cause of Betty’s illness, it will set a dangerous precedent and cause riots and even more problems in Salem. All the girls are quiet and unwilling to talk about what took place on that
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She is the character that drives the play to its doom. She knows that she is destined for an ill faith and that makes her willing to step on others to save her self. Her desperate act for self-preservation soon becomes her avenue for power. Abigail lacks a conscious to keep herself in check and uses her new found authority to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation within Salem.
The major conflict in the play is truth versus lies. The entire play rests on this idea of lying and deceit and is based on the struggle for truth. The girls find themselves in trouble and lie about it, causing innocent people, who were telling the truth, to be punished. The characters who lie are safe, the ones who tell the truth are sentenced to death. At the end of the play, we see John proctor faced with this choice. He can lie and save his life, or stick to the truth which will cause his death.
If you are accused of witchcraft, you are sentenced to hang. This shows how the fear of prosecution is the predominant theme in the play and how it triggers the self-preservation acts committed by the girls who are first accused of witchcraft. It shows how much of a role hysteria can play in tearing apart a community. It makes people belies that their neighbours, who they have known for a long time, are committing absurd crimes. The theme is very bleak and dark from the start of the
She is the character that drives the play to its doom. She knows that she is destined for an ill faith and that makes her willing to step on others to save her self. Her desperate act for self-preservation soon becomes her avenue for power. Abigail lacks a conscious to keep herself in check and uses her new found authority to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation within Salem.
The major conflict in the play is truth versus lies. The entire play rests on this idea of lying and deceit and is based on the struggle for truth. The girls find themselves in trouble and lie about it, causing innocent people, who were telling the truth, to be punished. The characters who lie are safe, the ones who tell the truth are sentenced to death. At the end of the play, we see John proctor faced with this choice. He can lie and save his life, or stick to the truth which will cause his death.
If you are accused of witchcraft, you are sentenced to hang. This shows how the fear of prosecution is the predominant theme in the play and how it triggers the self-preservation acts committed by the girls who are first accused of witchcraft. It shows how much of a role hysteria can play in tearing apart a community. It makes people belies that their neighbours, who they have known for a long time, are committing absurd crimes. The theme is very bleak and dark from the start of the