Salem Witch Trials in Arthur Miller's Crucible

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Recommended: Brief synopsis of a play called The Crucible by Arthur Miller

In Arthur Miller’s Crucible, eight girls from Salem face a dilemma. The eight girls were in trouble because their uncle, Parris, who was a minister, saw them dancing in the forests unaware of who was keeping an eye on them. Uncle Parris believes that the girls’ dancing is the cause of one of the youngest girls, Betty, sickness. Betty was believed to be in a coma right after the girls’ dancing in the forests. When the girls were questioned about why they were dancing in the forests, selfishly, they blamed anyone they thought of and hated and accused them of making them drink cow blood (Act 1; Page 19) and sending their spirits at them(The Mary Warren incident from Act 3; Page 114 – 115). The Salem Witch Trials was caused by people selfishly blaming others for their own conflicts.

An example of this selfishness is when one of the girls, Abigail, influenced the girls to pretend to be bewitched. Abigail said: “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some horrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…” (Act 1; Page 20). Abigail said this when her uncle started getting very suspicious about her and the girls’ dancing in the forests. Since the girls knew this would become real if they didn’t listen, they covered all of Abigail’s mistakes and pretended to bewitched. Also, in addition to what happened, the girls lied in court about Mary Warren (Act 3; Page 114 – 115). This was a form of lying because they lied by “fake” acting about Mary Warren controlling their spirits by copying everything that Mary said. This ...

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...itch Trials was caused by people’s selfish actions and manipulation of others. Abigail and Thomas both lied and manipulated others to lie for their own selfish reasons. If the girls had not lied, nineteen innocent men and women that were convicted of witchcraft and wizardry would not have been hanged on Gallow’s Hill and guiltless Giles Corey would not have been pressed to death if it wasn’t for the girls who convicted his wife who was convicted. Also if Abigail hadn’t lied and confessed earlier, then she wouldn’t have had to rob Uncle Parris. Mary Warren was selfish too because if she hadn’t confessed without blaming John Proctor for being the Devil’s Man, John Proctor wouldn’t have gotten hanged without a specific reason. If influence hadn’t taken place in the Salem Witch Trials, the story told today would have been totally different.

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