The Crucible Critical Essay

According to Robert Martin’s critical essay on The Crucible, Arthur Miller found in records that between June and September of 1692, nineteen men and women were hanged for witchcraft, and fifty five confessed that they were witches. In history and in the play, Reverend Parris begins to think that his daughter, Betty, is ill because she and Abigail Williams have been influenced by witches. Parris fears the fact that this might ruin his reputation if his enemies were to find out that there was word of witchcraft under his roof. While Parris tries to discover the truth, Abigail, tells him the historical truth when she says “it were sport”. The initiators of this chaotic event in history are in fact young girls such as Abigail who began to play …show more content…
Martin establishes that family hostilities played a large role in much of the testimonies given against those who were accused of witchcraft. Of the ten girls who were involved only three were “below the age of maturity.” Betty Parris was nine years old, Abigail was eleven, and Ann Putnam was twelve years old. Hale, in life and in the play, had encountered witchcraft previously and was called to Salem to determine if the devil was responsible for the illness of the children. Although Hale was at first as committed in his pursuit of witches as everyone else, as in the crucible and historical records, he began to be tormented by doubts in judicial proceedings. He was uncertain of the reliability of the witnesses and their testimony when his own wife was also accused of being a witch. At first the witches who were brought to trial and convicted were old and strange women like Sarah Good, while others such as Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor weren't. Although the real John Proctor fought against his arrest as much as anyone could under the circumstances, he like in the play, was firm in refusing to confess to witchcraft because he didn't believe it existed and didn’t want to rotten his