The greedy actions of Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam contributed to the mass hysteria in Salem. During the trials in Salem, different people found this as an opportunity to gain wealth in some fashion. One such person was Thomas Putnam. In a deposition to the court, Giles Corey says, “My proof is there! (Pointing to the paper.) If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property--that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land!” (214). Just as Corey put it, Thomas Putnam gains wealth when others are accused of witchcraft. The more people that are accused and hung for witchcraft, the more land he could gain. Putnam knew he was the only one who had enough …show more content…
Reverend Parris says this to Danforth about what Abby did, “Excellency, I think they be aboard a ship. (Danforth stands agape.) My daughter tells me how she heard them speaking of ships last week, and tonight I discover my--my strongbox is broke into. (He presses his fingers against his eyes to keep back tears.)”(231). This proves that Abigail Williams knew that things were going downhill in Salem for her, so she decided to skip town with her uncle’s money. It also shows how she doesn’t care how her decisions affect other people. Abigail’s actions lead to people in the village questioning if there was any truth to the trials and accusations. This directly leads to the courts being discredited for the wild accusations that occurred. The evidence demonstrates that Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams found something to gain from all the …show more content…
One example of this happened in the very beginning of the play after Betty Parris supposedly “fell ill”. Mrs. Putnam had this to say after the event, “How high did she fly, how high?” (172). This quote relates to Betty Parris who seemed to have been afflicted by the Devil after the girls were caught dancing in the woods. She was ill on her bed and suddenly asked for her dead mother and tried to fly out the window. This evidence proves that Betty Parris got caught up in the idea that she was touched by the devil. After this, more people starting believing in the mass hysteria that witches and evil spirits were among them. Abigail Williams is yet again the subject of adding to the insanity of Salem. While Mary Warren was giving her deposition to the court about the fallacy of the cause of the trials, Abigail Williams chimes in to save herself, “Why--? (She gulps.) Why do you come, yellow bird?” (224). Abigail Williams claims that she sees Mary Warren in the shape of a yellow bird to distract the court and put the bad spotlight back on Mary Warren. This proves she was trying to save herself and make Mary Warren pay for what she was about to do. Then Mary Warren felt obligated to comply with Abigail Williams and now accuse Proctor of working with the Devil. The trials could’ve been stopped after Mary Warren’s testimony saying that the girls were
The first reason Abigail is to blame for the deaths of the innocent Puritans is her lustful personal ambition to be John Proctor’s wife. John and Abigail previously had an affair, which basically began the hysteria. An exasperated John attempted to tell Abigail the affair is a thing of the past, by saying, “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.” Abigail, however, relentlessly strives to keep their “romance” alive. Because of this intense jealousy of John’s wife, there is an enormous amount of tension between Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail even goes as far as to consume a potion with the intent to murder Elizabeth, which Betty confronts her about by saying, “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” Abigail is so envious of Elizabeth, she does the unthinkable by accusing her of witchcraft. She claims that Goody Proctor’s spirit came to her and stabbed her with a needle. She felt that if she could dispose of Elizabeth Proctor, she could take her rightful position as John’s wife.
For example, as a result of the lie Sarah is put in the position by the court that she may either confess to the crime and save herself or not confess and get hung. The act also affects the town of Salem because the girls notice how much influence they have over the court and begin to accuse of witchcraft anyone they do not like. Although Mary Warren does contribute to the hanging of many people, but when Proctor begs to her to go to the court with him and confess to save Elizabeth, she gets a chance to redeem herself. She tells the court that the whole witchery situation was just the girls pretending. Mary says, “I cannot charge murder on Abigail” and adds, “[s]he’ll kill me for sayin’ that!”
For example, Ann Putnam wants healthy children and envies Rebecca Nurse for all the healthy children she bore. She accuses Nurse of killing most of her offspring using witchcraft. In fact, the official warrant for Rebecca Nurse’s arrest is issued “[f]or the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam 's babies”(67). Ann Putnam does not care if one of Salem’s most devout families is torn apart so long as its members suffer for their happiness. In addition, Thomas Putnam’s desire for more land causes him to make his daughter accuse an innocent man of witchcraft since “[t]he day [she] cried out on Jacobs, [Putnam] said she’d given him a fair gift of land”(89). His greed for land surpasses his care for the other residents of the town. Both Ann and Thomas Putnam are willing to destroy other families for their own benefit, and they succeed because the townspeople’s fear of witchcraft clouds their common sense that the accusers may have ulterior
Those who were very religious resented those who were wealthy. Many accusers accused individuals who have wronged them in the past, after being accused, trials would be unfair and unjust. The accuser never had any punishment for wrongly accusing a person of witch craft. At times, even rumors were enough to have someone hung. “Old feuds (disputes within congregation, property disputes) between the accusers and the accused spurring charges of witchcraft” (The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692) Douglas Linder stated on his list of causes of the Salem witch hunts; arguments between the accusers and the accused had been one of the factors caused the epidemic. Some accusers during these times had the intention of taking large establishments of property for themselves after the so called “witches” were hung. Many of the accused had lived near the prosperous Salem Town while the accusers were the poor farmers on the outskirts of Salem Village. Jealousy would have been enough reason to blame someone of witchcraft in 1692, whether or not they were a
Throughout history, there have been many times where we have been unable to escape the inevitable. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller displays a major historical event of the 17th century, the Salem Witch Trials. In the story, the antagonist, Abigail Williams, has an affair with John Proctor. When Proctor will not leave his wife, Elizabeth, for the girl, Abigail gathers her friends in the woods to wish death upon Elizabeth. Abigail’s uncle, Reverend Parris, finds them in the woods and instead of owning up to what they were doing, the girls claim they were under the influence of witchcraft. From there, they begin accusing people in the town of being witches. The witch trials in The Crucible were inevitable because Abigail was unwilling to ruin her reputation, she displayed unfavorable character traits, and she had personal rivalries with other characters in the town.
...ithout concrete evidence. Also, Abigail allows innocent people to be alleged and sometimes even hanged without a chance to defend themselves. Her main reason was to prove the hypocrisy within the town. “Let you beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it!” Abigail is hinting that no one especially Danforth, who is loaded with power and authority is able to escape the devil. She sees the trials as a game. Abigail wishes to punish Salem for its hypocritical values by falsely accusing women and men for their wrong doing. Danforth, with the abuse of his authority in a way represents the “Un- American activist committee,” by questioning as many “Communists” as they could. Abigail’s abuse of power represents how blame was thrown onto innocent people, for their lives to be taken if they didn’t “name names.”
Jealousy also played a big role in who was to blame for the deaths in Salem. The Putnams were a small family, whose seven children out of eight did not survive. Mrs. Putnam was a very jealous person when it came to families, and Mr. Putnam was a very jealous person when it came to land. Goody Putnam wanted more children and was jealous of Rebecca Nurse and her large family, so she blamed her for witchcraft.
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is a mean and vindictive person who always wants her way, no matter who she hurts. Through out the play her accusations and lies cause many people pain and suffering, but she seemed to never care for any of them except John Proctor, whom she had an affair with seven months prior to the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth used to employ Abigail, until Elizabeth found out the affair and threw Abigail out. Although John told Abigail that the affair was over and he would never touch her again, she tried desperately to rekindle their romance. "Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again." (Page 23) She claimed that she loved John and that he loved her. Before the play began, Abigail tried to kill Elizabeth with a curse. She thought that if Elizabeth were dead John would marry her. Further into the play, Abigail accused Elizabeth of witchcraft. She saw Marry Warren, the Proctor's servant, making a poppet. Mary put a needle into the doll, and Abigail used that for her accusation. She stabbed herself with a needle and claimed that Elizabeth's soul had done it. Although Abigail claimed she loved John, she may have just loved the care and attention he gave her. John cared for her like no one else had. In a way he could be described as somewhat of a father figure to her. When Abigail was just a child, she witnessed her parents' brutal murders. "I saw Indians smash my dear parent's heads on the pillow next to mine..." (page 20) After her traumatic experience, she was raised by her uncle, Reverend Parris, who is somewhat of a villain. In the play it was written, "He (Parris) was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them." (Page 3) Parris regarded children as young adults who should be "thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak." (Page 4) Therefore, it is obvious to see that Abigail grew up without any love or nurturing.
The people in Salem were ruled by the fear being killed. All the lying that occurred in Salem began the build of fear. Abigail is the main character that caused the lying. Her first lie starts in the beginning of the book after being caught dancing with other girls in the woods. Abigail herself feared the consequences she would face if the town found out about what happened in the forest. She made sure to threaten all the girls by saying “...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 terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…” (Miller 20). Her threat established a fear into the girls’ heads that would prevent them from their normal action of telling the truth. Following this event Abigail must save her reputation, In order to do this she lies to Reverend Hale saying “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!”(Miller 43). Abigail's accusation toward Tituba also leads to the accusation of Sarah Good and Goody Osburn. The way Abigail acted was a result of fear, if she feared nothing bad would come from telling the truth then she wouldn't have lied. The girls may have set the wi...
...Putnam all played a major role in Salem witch trials, while none of their roles were positive ones they all did what they did for themselves. Abigail Williams did what she did so her and her friends could harvest attention from the people of Salem. Judge Danforth was ignorant to fact that verbal evidence is very unreliable just because he wanted to be correct about every decision in the trials. Thomas Putnam accuses several people in Salem all for personal gain of land and money. Many people were charged as guilty but in reality they were innocent, the only people who were actually guilty are Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Thomas Putnam. The Crucible shows how honesty may not seem like the popular choice to make but will always be the right one.
All participants in the witch-hunt were influenced by the society that existed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem operated as a theocracy, a government ruled by and subject to religious authority. In a theocracy, people's sins are not forgiven, so that when they commit an indiscretion, they are left feeling guilty. "The witch-hunt was....a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims." (p. 7) Characters such as Abigail Williams and Mrs. Putnam used the witch-hunts in the way cited above, as a method of confessing their sins without being accountable for them. Others used the chaos created by it for their own benefit. Thomas Putnam made his daughter Ruth accuse both George Jacobs and Rebecca Nurse so he could buy the resulting unclaimed land after they were hung. Any character that accused, confessed, or in any way joined the witch-hunt failed his or her test.
...and accusations. The extend to which Abigail has manipulated Judge Danforth is shown here. Danforth’s unconditional reliability in Abigail motivated the people in Salem to accused each other to save their own skins. This brought about chaos and commotion to the people of Salem.
Thomas Putnam has a very large part in initiating the Salem witch hunt. He is the first character who blames unnatural causes for the illness among the children. Furthermore, he firmly believes in the existence of 'vengeful spirits layin' hands on these children';(15). 'There is a murderous witch among us,'; he vehemently cries out(16). His action isn't surprising because he has lost seven newborns and his Ruth is sick. He wants to hunt down the witch, but he needs some aid. He lays his eyes on Parris because Parris is the minister and Betty is also ill. Thus, Putnam tries to coerce Parris to witchcraft. 'Declare it yourself,'; Putnam tells Parris, 'you have discovered witchcraft';(16). At this point, Putnam captures everyone's attention, and then he strikes.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of trials held before a magistrate which took place in many parts of Massachusetts, revolving around what was thought to be practice of witchcraft or “Devil’s magic.” Many girls from the town of Salem, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris in particular, falsely accused other townsfolk of possessing them or practicing witchcraft. The government officials of this town believed that the girls were telling the truth about what they claimed to have seen/know and their random outbursts caused by this “demonic possession” or having a spell put on them. This scam led on by a couple of teenage girls ultimately ended up taking the lives of 20 people before it was demanded to stop by higher Massachusetts government officials and the cases were proved as a mistake. Since then, many psychologists, philosophers, and historians have tried to figure out the motive of the teenage girls.
The true antagonist of the play is the town of Salem itself, because of the judgemental and self concerned peoples, and its oppressive views. Abigail;s outrageous actions are due to her desensitized views on death and actions otherwise viewed as unethical. From her youth ABigail recalls: “ I saw indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine and i have seen some reddish work at night” (Miller 20), because of this Abigail is numb to death and suffering and is in fact quite morbid. There is no problem in condemning other to death in Abigail’s eyes because she doesn’t see the issue with it. Abigail does not seem to comprehend that it is unethical to let people be hanged and stoned to death and has no issue telling others that she “ can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 20). Not only is Abigail desensitized to murder and death, she is also numb to other unethical dilemmas. Abigail is desensitized to corrupting the Proctor’s marriage because of her childish lust and obsession for John Proctor. Such desires can be seen through her encounters with Proctor. In regards to their so called “relationship” she says: “it’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you love me now!” (Miller 22). Abigail does not view her behavior t...