Women In The Crucible

In the play, The Crucible, many people of the town Salem are put to death or are imprisoned after being accused of witchcraft. The accused were generally random people in the town who never actually did anything supernatural. Women in The Crucible are seen stepping out of their boundaries and societal roles. Many of these women are antagonized because they are doing what seemed to bring chaos to the order, and portrayed that when you give a woman power, bad will come from it. The accusers, who were all women, were also not the standard woman; they were either widowed, in one case a slave, single, or could not bare children or had many stillbornes.
In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is the woman who first begins the accusations of witchcraft. …show more content…
She is a servant of the Proctor family, unmarried and seen as naive, and soon begins to get involved in the court when the trials begin. She was part of the accusers, the group of women who began the hysteria. When Mary was given the opportunity to right the wrongs of the accusers, she failed, and gave up, accusing Proctor of being a witch. “Mary Warren, screaming at him: No, I love God; I go your way no more. I love God, I bless God… Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more!” (52). Shown as weak, Mary gives in to the power she knows the girls have, and brings even more chaos to the town. She has accused John of witchcraft, and now the town would be in even larger hysteria, and the only chance to end the trials was ultimately over. Although chaos was already being ravaged throughout Salem and many people have already been convicted, this was the best chance the townspeople had to end the hysteria, and Mary gave into the power. Mary Warren knew that Proctor was not a witch, but she still chose power over the life of him, and therefore proving that women should not step out of their societal …show more content…
“I want to open myself! They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though in a pearly light. I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (24-25) Abigail is being extremely deceitful and puts the lives of many more women in danger by falsely accusing them of witchcraft. The stage directions clearly imply that she is being taken seriously, because she is “enraptured in a pearly light”, which has a religious connotation to it. Abigail had this outburst because the attention was not on her for a moment. Tituba, a slave, was being accused of witchcraft, and after admitting, she accused the same people Abigail accused. “Tituba: … And I look-and there was Goody Good. Parris: Sarah Good! Tituba: Aye, sir, and Goody Osburn.” (24). Tituba intentionally lies to save her own skin, proving that when women are forced into critical thinking, they go overboard, abuse the power, and bring others down with