Situational Irony In The Crucible

In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, many women were being accused of witchcraft. The people of the town knew how controversial it was, but the fear instilled in them caused them to go along with the lies. They are forced to choose between survival and what they believe is right, as Puritans. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller depicts his message that self preservation overrides personal morals through imagery and situational irony. Miller uses imagery through the character Mary Warren when she says ,“Then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and i feel a clamp around my neck and i cannot breathe air” (Miller 57). Mary Warren had just come back from court in Salem, and explains how she condemned a woman. Of course, she is lying. You can tell she is lying

He attempted to make abigail look bad in court when he said, “see her what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity” (Miller 110). He confessed their affair despite what would happen to his reputation. This is ironic because John ends up looking bad, not Abigail. He goes against his personal morals as a Puritan by sabotaging Abigail, even though he was justified. John put his wife’s safety above his own name and morals as a Puritan. Elizabeth lied about John’s affair in court when she said “My husband is a good and righteous man. He is never drunk as some are, nor washin’ his time at the shovelboard but always at his work” (Miller 113). She lied so that her husband, John, wouldn’t get in trouble, but it ended up condemning him. This is irony because the opposite of what she thought would happen happened. She goes against her personal morals as a Puritan by lying, especially so publically. She put John’s safety above her own personal