Giles Corey is wrongfully accused and tortured to death, despite having innocent and reasonable motives, filled with both resentment and curiosity. Giles is an old man, old enough to maintain a hateful relationship between the Putnams and him, which started a long time ago with Thomas Putnam’s grandfather and Giles fighting over land. He says to Proctor with Putnam in the room, “...he nearly willed away my north pasture but he knew I’d break his fingers before he’d set his name to it” (32). This long-lasting resentment Giles clutches inside his heart builds the fire needed for him to accuse Thomas later, by saying to Judge Danforth: “If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property---that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece.
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Clearly, Giles has never given up his opinion of the Putnam’s and their greed for land, believing strongly of Thomas’s sneaky intentions, and doing what he can to stop the accused’s unjust actions. However, because Giles can not openly confess the name of the man who lent him this information, he is arrested and put in jail, where his wife, Martha Corey also resides. Martha is put in jail for perhaps, the biggest misunderstanding in the play. Giles explains in Act I how “...[He’d] admire to know what books she reads and why she hides them” (41). Giles is purely curious about why his wife “be so taken with books” (Miller 86) and “thought to find the cause of it” (Miller 86). Nonetheless, in Act III, Giles weeps to the Judge Danforth of Martha’s being taken away for witchcraft accusations. Every good intention of Giles, either out of justice or inquisitiveness, leads to a miserable ending in the court of
Clearly, Giles has never given up his opinion of the Putnam’s and their greed for land, believing strongly of Thomas’s sneaky intentions, and doing what he can to stop the accused’s unjust actions. However, because Giles can not openly confess the name of the man who lent him this information, he is arrested and put in jail, where his wife, Martha Corey also resides. Martha is put in jail for perhaps, the biggest misunderstanding in the play. Giles explains in Act I how “...[He’d] admire to know what books she reads and why she hides them” (41). Giles is purely curious about why his wife “be so taken with books” (Miller 86) and “thought to find the cause of it” (Miller 86). Nonetheless, in Act III, Giles weeps to the Judge Danforth of Martha’s being taken away for witchcraft accusations. Every good intention of Giles, either out of justice or inquisitiveness, leads to a miserable ending in the court of