In Arthur Miller's book, “The Crucible” a group of girls accuse innocent Salem citizens of conducting witchcraft. This creates hysteria in the village and leads to mostly everyone being falsely accused. Abigail Williams begins the false accusations, she does this in order to be with her desired lover John Proctor. Abigail and John Proctor had an affair, John Proctor's wife dismisses Abigail from being their servant for that reason. As a method to have John Proctor, Abigail falsely accuses John Proctor's wife, Elizabeth Proctor, and many other citizens of committing the crime of the witchcraft. Witchcraft was viewed as a crime in their community since their whole community was completely Protestant. In the end, John Proctor was jailed and
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For example, John Proctor said “You are the high court, your word is good enough! Tell them I confessed myself; say Proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman; say what you will, but my name cannot -”(Crucible 143). near the end of the play when Danforth wanted John Proctor to sign the confession John Proctor was very hesitant due to the fact that everyone would see that he was involved with witchcraft. John Proctor had the choice to live on but he decided that his name was more important and ended up not signing the confession which led to his death. This shows how important someone's name was back in the 1600s and how relevant honor and pride was at this time. Another example is when Elizabeth did not want to admit that her husband (John Proctor) had to commit lechery “Danforth...To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?... Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher! Elizabeth, faintly: No, sir.”(Crucible 113) Here Elizabeth wanted to protect John Proctor even though John Proctor was a lecher. Elizabeth knew how important John Proctor’s name was to himself and his family so she lied. This also shows how relevant honor and pride was during this time because Elizabeth has had rather lie than tell the truth and come clean. This relates to Miller’s situation during the red scare because he was labeled as a communist but he …show more content…
Abigail was an allegory for McCarthy because Abigail was the leader of the group of girls and was the main one to accuse the villagers as witches. As in Mccarthy, he accused Americans to be communists without proper evidence. In act 3 Abigail pretends to see a yellow bird, “Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it is God’s work I do.”(Crucible 115) she pretends to see Mary as in the form of a yellow bird on the ceiling. With that, she accuses Mary of Witchcraft without real information besides her own words and gets Mary onto the bad side of the court. Danforth is also an allegory for McCarthy because he falsely accused many people. For instance, Judge Danforth does the same when he would accuse people of conducting witchcraft, and sent those who denied conducting witchcraft to hang. Danforth has a conversation with John Proctor, “Have you ever seen the Devil?¨(Crucible 90) Judge Danforth falsely accuses John Proctor of seeing the devil without any solid evidence of him being associated with the devil, he directly ask him if he has seen the devil, without having any type of evidence that could suggest such an accusation. Danforth and Abigail are both an allegory for McCarthy because they both accused many people without true information and based the accusations off a whim or their own liking,
For example, John Proctor said “You are the high court, your word is good enough! Tell them I confessed myself; say Proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman; say what you will, but my name cannot -”(Crucible 143). near the end of the play when Danforth wanted John Proctor to sign the confession John Proctor was very hesitant due to the fact that everyone would see that he was involved with witchcraft. John Proctor had the choice to live on but he decided that his name was more important and ended up not signing the confession which led to his death. This shows how important someone's name was back in the 1600s and how relevant honor and pride was at this time. Another example is when Elizabeth did not want to admit that her husband (John Proctor) had to commit lechery “Danforth...To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?... Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher! Elizabeth, faintly: No, sir.”(Crucible 113) Here Elizabeth wanted to protect John Proctor even though John Proctor was a lecher. Elizabeth knew how important John Proctor’s name was to himself and his family so she lied. This also shows how relevant honor and pride was during this time because Elizabeth has had rather lie than tell the truth and come clean. This relates to Miller’s situation during the red scare because he was labeled as a communist but he …show more content…
Abigail was an allegory for McCarthy because Abigail was the leader of the group of girls and was the main one to accuse the villagers as witches. As in Mccarthy, he accused Americans to be communists without proper evidence. In act 3 Abigail pretends to see a yellow bird, “Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it is God’s work I do.”(Crucible 115) she pretends to see Mary as in the form of a yellow bird on the ceiling. With that, she accuses Mary of Witchcraft without real information besides her own words and gets Mary onto the bad side of the court. Danforth is also an allegory for McCarthy because he falsely accused many people. For instance, Judge Danforth does the same when he would accuse people of conducting witchcraft, and sent those who denied conducting witchcraft to hang. Danforth has a conversation with John Proctor, “Have you ever seen the Devil?¨(Crucible 90) Judge Danforth falsely accuses John Proctor of seeing the devil without any solid evidence of him being associated with the devil, he directly ask him if he has seen the devil, without having any type of evidence that could suggest such an accusation. Danforth and Abigail are both an allegory for McCarthy because they both accused many people without true information and based the accusations off a whim or their own liking,