Therefore exploiting the population's weakest qualities and insecurities. This obvious collapse in social order led to the tragedy, which saw twenty innocent people hung on the allegation of witchcraft. A strict social system, fear and confusion were apparent conditions that became prevalent before and during the witch trials. However only contributing to th... ... middle of paper ... ... consorting with the devil. These names were given by all of the girls present that took part in the ritual in the woods, in an attempt to return to God and to be declared bewitched.
The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society. The witch hunt in the crucible is initiated when Abigail and her friends fear the consequences of their ‘dancing’ in the forest. This connects to McCarthyism as the HUAC is represented by the judges and the ‘accuses’ (the girls) are representatives of Elia Kazan and others like him. The theocratic society of Salem is what the girls fear as the forest is seen as the devils resting place and the puritan nature of the town forbid dancing as it was seen as ‘vain enjoyment’ which as Miller himself states at the beginning of the novel to not be allowed.
With treasures of valuable lessons to learn, Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ is a sturdily startling fictionalized account of the McCarthyism era that took place in the 1950s. The rigid religious and moral views by Salem’s religious leaders on the townspeople, overthrowing the community’s thoughts by ruling with absolute terror and violence subsidizes to a town’s mass hysteria when Abigail, a young girl coated with selfishness and wickedness, along with her group of friends indict innocent people who have slighted them of performing witchcraft. The use of potent and unnerving imagery is extremely tragic and painful to witness positioning the audience to evoke an emotional reaction towards the innocent people blamed in the text and therefore indirectly
The trials are an opportunity for Ann Putnam to seek vengeance against Rebecca for having healthy children and grandchild... ... middle of paper ... ... life and goes back to these girls who turned on her in an instant. Others even confess to witchcraft because, once accused, it is the only way to get out of being hanged. The confessions and the hangings actually promote the trials because they assure townsfolk that God?s work is being done. Fear for their own lives and for the lives of their loved ones drives the townspeople to say and do anything. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows that the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials stems from human failings, particularly the need for vengeance, greed, and fear.
When the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just themselves but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil took them over and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw members of the town standing with the devil. A community living in a puritan society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a difficult time dealing with what they consider to be the largest form of evil. Salem's hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs that they were trying to strictly enforce.
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).
Naturally as humans we tend to belief or convince oneself that those things are not good. Then we need to attribute those ‘bad things’ to people but what is done instead is blame others. Either of two things happen once people are blamed; the first group of people blame others to get themselves out of trouble as it was mainly done in ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, while the second group of people choose to live with the blame while trying to break free from it and the, like in modern day Gay Hunt As it can be seen witch hunts start with fear. Fear of the unknown is probably the biggest fear people have. This kind of fear starts every witch hunt as people decide to pre-judge those thing they do not know to stereotype them as bad things.
This is the reason why she goes dancing in the forest. ‘We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it.’ This shows why there is a need for Abigail expressing her need to act her age and to break out of the restrictions of the law. Her struggle is to do what she wants in a society that believes in ordering her around. Arthur Miller shows Abigail's not trusted by other people including her uncle.
Arthur Miller, by writing The Crucible, warned us that if we did not become aware of history repeating itself, our society would be in danger. Such as has been seen during the McCarthy era. As the witchcraft hysteria took place in one of America's wholesome, theocratic towns, it makes the miscarriage of justice such a mystery even today.
As soon as something bad happened, the God-fearing people of Salem were quick to blame it on a witch or wizard. Anything a little out of the ordinary like children claiming to see things that someone else could not was blamed on a witch. The people seemed to be always out to find a witch in hopes of stopping their misfortunes. They believed that once the witch was executed all the bad luck they were experiencing would disappear. Since their bad luck never disappeared their witch hunt would not soon be satisfied.