Who Was Responsible For The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible

Decent Essays
The Crucible Essay In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the town Salem turns chaotic after teenage girls start to act strange. The Crucible is based off the Salem witch trials which occurred in1692. In Salem the girls started to accuse other people, mainly women, of witchcraft merely based on their looks or what people thought about them. In The Crucible, the girls are accusing other people to put the blame on someone else because of what the girls did in the forest. There are three responsible for the Salem witch trials in The Crucible. They are Abigail Williams, Reverend John Hale, and Mary Warren. Abigail Williams is the main cause of the Salem witch trials.in The Crucible. First, Abigail has an affair with John Proctor. She wants Elizabeth

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible by Arthur Miller Is much more than just a dramatization of a Witch Hunt but instead is an example of human weakness, hypocrisy and vindictiveness. Throughout the Witch Trials people in Salem were able to seek revenge on their enemies, human weakness, and show the outright hypocrisy of the witch trials as a whole. Throughout The Crucible you see examples of these three elements through Abigail, Mrs.Putnam, Parris, and many other characters. Quotes and examples from the text will show how The Crucible was a clear illustration of these elements through the storyline, conflicts between characters and the play itself. The Crucible as a whole is a pure example of hypocrisy through some of the main characters.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible- who’s the blame The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was a play that dealt with many false trials in Salem, Massachusetts that condemned many innocent beings to death, leading the country to its first severe trial. These trails are performed to drive Satan out of Salem so that Satan could not corrupt more of God’s children . Arthur Miller created this play to show how similar it was to the Red Scare. During the 1950’s the government tried to drive out communist in our country, just like in the play where the higher government tried to rule out the Salem witches. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was John Proctor’s flaw, lust and pride that led him to be most responsible for the tragedies that happened…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Imagine living in a place where people are at each other throats, and in most cases physical aggressions occurs. In addition, the people being aggressed were not some dangerous, and malicious criminals, most of them were next door neighbors, or a baker, or even your teacher, they were a members of society who probably played an important role in the community, yet they were still being accused of the misfortune of others, instead of identifying and assessing the real issue, and solving. This place I so generously refer to is located in none other than in Salem, Massachusetts, but more specifically the historical event that took place there, the Salem witch trials. Any normal human being would probably choose a less violent, per say, place to…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Villains In The Crucible

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Trust worthy villain The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play heavily based on the hysteria of the Salem witch hunt trials that occurred in Salem Massachusetts approximately in the 1690’s. In the real life Salem witch trials a group of girls Abigail Williams being one of them began to practice magic with their slave Tituba. They suffered physical ailments and due to a lack of technology and no obvious cause for the girls to be sick the doctor diagnosed this to be the result of witch craft as many did (blame) witch craft for the inexplicable. Finger pointing begins and after Abigail and Betty Paris among other girls who had originally participated in the practice of witch craft finish accusing a number of people and cause others in the community…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Salem witch trials 200 people were accused of witchcraft and twenty people were actually executed for it. The play that is the basis of the essay is set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 during these Salem witch trials. One of the main characters that this play is centered around, John Proctor, a farmer in his middle thirties. As a morally ambiguous character in The Crucible, John Proctor had both honorable and disgraceful actions that contributed to the work as a whole. John Proctor has dealings in the play that could characterize him as an immoral man.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows how a simple game can turn violent in the small puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. The inhabitants of Salem are confused and very terrified as they see their longtime friends and trusty neighbors turn their backs on each other. Salem, a once peaceful town, has now been placed in what many of the people of Salem are sure are the hands of the devil. The Crucible tells the story of how accusations of witchcraft came to be during the real world event of the Salem Witch Trials on which the play is based off of. Scientists, along with historians, have tried to find the real motives behind the accusations but the world may never really know the complete truth of how and why the people of Salem…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    There has always been expectations within society for individuals to follow strict gender roles. Women are expected to acted in feminine ways, while men are expected to be masculine. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible explores the idea of what happens when gender roles are not strictly adhered to. This play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in the year of 1692. During this time, young girls had expectations and limits to what they could do within society and had limited power because of this.…

    • 1560 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine being killed for a crime you did not commit. Unjust people out of fear, shame, or pride will perpetuate and defend their mistakes. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller takes place during the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams, a very naughty teen, is caught with her friends dancing naked in the woods during the nighttime. These acts are considered signs of witchcraft.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is about a small group of girls who accuses most of the adults in village on the account of witchcraft. The witch trials took place in a small town called Salem, Massachusetts, in the year of 1692. In the book you can choose a number of people who are responsible for the witchcraft trails that took placed, but the character that stands out the most is John Proctor. Arthur Miller demonstrates to the world that because of John’s characters flaws of Stubbornness, Guilt and Pride he can be considered the reason for the witch trails in Salem to still take place. These flaws contribute to Proctor because with these fatal flaws he can be responsible of innocent people being killed even himself as the tragic hero.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible is a book written by Arthur Miller this story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. Throughout this story we learn about the witch trials, the witch trials were a time in history where anyone could accuse whoever they wanted of witchcraft. If they were found guilty they were executed by hangings in front of the whole town. People had many motivations for crying witchcraft, some wanted land others wanted vengeance, vengeance will be the biggest player in The Crucible. Abigail Williams was a beautiful young girl who lived in Salem with her uncle, Reverend Parris.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials were a bloody time in colonial America during the 1600’s, depicted in Arthur Miller 's play, The Crucible. The events of the trials in the play are dramatically depicted, although the plot gives an accurate prediction of what would happen during a time of mass hysteria. Many characters have contributed to the mass hysteria, but some are more to blame than others. The character Mary Warren is more to blame than the character Abigail Williams because Mary is easily manipulated, has switched sides during the trials, and was not forthright with evidence.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We see that she accuses, much like the accusers in the story, the lowest common denominator: a poor, elderly, beggar who has no home and no husband. This again, shows the message Arthur Miller would like us to see, that lies come from the evil and Lies and deceit is the main theme of the story, we have many examples Arthur Miller has kindly given us. The main liars that have contributed greatly to the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials are Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Mary Warren whom have made significant lies that either hurt themselves or hurt others in order to protect themselves or others. This theme is consistent with hints along the story and as Noorbakhsh Hooti wrote “It could be argued that Proctor’s tragedy comes into being due to his very first choice of adultery with Abigail. All subsequent events in Proctor’s life can be traced back to this original choice, which gradually leads him to his tragic fate.”…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Deceitful Actions of a Young Girl In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a seventeen-year-old girl named Abigail Williams leads a group of girls to wrongfully accuse innocent people and have them killed just because they disliked them. These trials were later known as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Abigail Williams was deceitful and dishonest with her false accusations. She accuses Elizabeth Proctor out of lust and greed to take her place as partner of John Proctor.…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Allegory In The Crucible

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Crucible Essay The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the red scare in the McCarthyism era because on The Crucible people get accused of witchcraft as the same as people whom were accused of communism. People in The Crucible did all they could to reject the false accusation of witchcraft what was dealt upon them, but everytime they denied the false fact, they would be tortured until they come clean, same went for communism when they denied of being a communist they would be imprisoned. What makes The Crucible an allegory to McCarthyism is the accusations that were made, the torture to the accused, and the consequences for if you were accused. First topic is Accusations. Back in Salem, people were accused of witchcraft, during the Red scare, people were accused of communism.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials: a gory period of time from 1692 to 1693. Women were condemned, then hanged, and then gone. All that is left from this period of distress and catastrophe are some court documents and a play. This production fictionalized the period of time while also adding in key elements from the historical story. The theatrical work was called The Crucible and was written by Arthur Miller.…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays