"'A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between.'" Act 3, Scene 1 pg. 87 . The characters in the play are either portrayed as good or evil with no in between , which makes life even harder for them . Salem mislabeled people in town as good or evil , but they had very little or no evidence at all to support it . Salem labels Rebecca nurse as a witch and evil , when really she was innocent and took care of everyone's babies. Abigail was an evil character who was a liar, vindictive and careless , the people of Salem viewed her as good character . In the play Rebecca Nurse was a babysitter of Mrs Putnam babies , when the babies would die of illness or other reasons that couldn't be treated , it was blamed on Rebecca Nurse . Rebecca Nurse given birth to many children with no problems . When Ann Putnam gave birth to her babies many dies , this caused envy to Rebecca Nurse which caused her to get arrested. Parris [trembling] Rebecca , Rebecca , go to her , we're lost . She suddenly cannot bear to hear the the Lord's ". (Pg 31). In the beginning of Act 1 Betty was laying down in bed supposedly sick, she can't get up and her dad Parris starts to lose hope . In the play Rebecca nurse is represented as a strong figure , she tries her best to help the ill people with only great intentions . Usually she was the one to go to help for . Proctor : (I mean it solemnly ) Rebecca : (I like not the smell of this "authority") Rebecca : No you cannot break charity with your minister . You are another kind kind John clasped his hand, make your peace (31) ". Proctor , Rebecca Nurse, and Parris are having a discussion , Parris tries to warn Proctor that there is a battle going on between the go... ... middle of paper ... ...or they probably didn't have any at all but this caused a lot of chaos and executions. Rebecca Nurse was one of the characters who was claimed evil , when really she was basically innocent and didn't have nothing to do with murder of the babies she took care of . Abigail was also mislabeled as a good character when she was really a huge liar and careless of anything that happened in the story. Lastly Marry Warren was a character who was good she liked a little power here and there but she did what was right , but this obviously didn't get her no where . So to save her from being executed she started to lie. In the play being the opposite of good was the way to go , being innocent and staying drama free wasn't going to get you anywhere but executed . Everything was backwards , the concept wasn't right and there wasn't any evidence to prove the witchcraft trials .
During the trial the girls and Abigail pressure Mary into conforming to them by pretending that Mary was bewitching the girls. When she plays along with the girls; Proctor screams at Mary with much rage, “Mary god damns all liars!”(224).Which is ironic because John Proctor has been lying to everyone about his deadly secret. Which he knows will eventually come out and ruin everything for him. Proctor finally comes out and tells the court when there seems to be no way out for Elizabeth he points out, “I have known her sir, I have known her” (220). Proctor finally confesses about his affair in front of Judge
The Salem Witch Trials marks a vulnerable era in history. The play allows us to see that uncontrolled rage, pride, and even religion at times, can lead to destruction and mayhem. With these factors, it’s quite clear to see why Salem was vulnerable to these
Many of the characters in Arthur Miller's The Crucible have specific human flaws that cause the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem villagers exhibit failings, including greed, vengeance, and fear, which eventually lead to the downfall of their town. Many villagers, especially Abigail Williams, take advantage of the opportunity to seek vengeance on others through the trials. Greed for power and land often holds precedence when the hysteria takes over. Fear of being arrested or put to death is the key motivation in turning others in as witches. From these three human flaws, the town of Salem falls into chaos with many innocent people paying the price.
To begin, teenager Abigail Williams exhibits the sinister side of human’s natural tendencies towards desire and deceit through her role in the play, identified Jungian archetype, and Kohlberg moral stage. First, as a female and an orphan, Abigail expresses the desperate sentiments of powerless women in the hierarchy of Salem society. Evident in Miller’s stage direction description, seventeen-year old Abigail depicts “a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller I.8). Abigail’s dissembling or “hiding under a false appearance” (Webster Dictionary), reveals women’s inability to express genuine feelings, often out of fear of societal judgment or intolerance. As a female teen and orphan, Abigail represents a character with no authority in the Salem community, forced to act with malice and spite to get attention (as any female with a desire for influence would in this time). Second, identified with the Jungian archetype of the rebel, Abigail Williams acts with rage in an attempt to reveal and upend the immoral expectations present in Salem. Evidence of Abigail’s
Through time it can be seen that the world’s history has a nature of repeating its self. Author Miller, was aware of this as he experienced a repitition of history of society’s flawed government. In the text The Crucible, the writer, Author Miller has identified and illustrated the problems society faced during the 1950’s setting by drawing parallels with the setting of the 1962 Salem witch hunt. This setting helps readers to understand the characters of John Proctor and Giles Corey.
Rebecca Nurse is first introduced in the first act, and she is seen as a the most superior and wise as she enters the room full of characters with different characteristics. You see her character trait as the trait that stands out and brings justice to all of the town. Goody Nurse was called into the room of the Parris’s to check on the betty the little girl in the deep sleep. And at one point when the whole group got into an argument she was the one with the resolving idea. She stated, “Pray, John, be calm. Mr.Parris, I think you’d best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguin’ again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year. I think we ought rely on the doctor now, and good prayer.” This statement made by Rebecca showed great justice and admirable character to think of
Also important to the play is how Arthur Miller depicts how one selfish, evil person like Abigail Williams can bring others down and make others follow her to commit evil acts. These evil acts affect even the most honest people in the town like John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse who cannot fight the accusations made against them by those following Abigail. Those following Abigail are considered to be holy men that are full of honesty and justice, but the play shows that even those who are thought to be respectable and right, like people of government or community leaders can bring death to innocent people if they are driven by something wrong. II. Plot: The plot begins with the inciting incident where Rev. Parris finds his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty along with his slave Tituba doing some dance in the forest.
The Crucible Film The audience are first brought into the film by the white credits on
The play begins at Reverend Parris' home, whose daughter Betty is ill. Parris is living with his daughter and his seventeen-year old niece Abigail. Parris believes that is daughters illness is from supernatural causes, so he sends for Reverend Hale. Betty first start to look ill after her father discovered her dancing in the woods with Abigail and his Negro slave, Tituba along with several other local girls. There are rumors going around that Betty's sickness is due to witchcraft. Parris doesn't want to admit to seeing his daughter and niece dancing in the woods, but Abigail says that she will admit to dancing and accept the punishment.
In The Crucible, the members of the Salem community accept the lies that their neighbors are taking apart of witchcraft as the truth. The lies and deceit in the community help attribute to the play’s overall theme of hysteria. The theme of hysteria is prevalent throughout the play, as the belief that witchcraft is occurring in the town enables members of the community to believe that their neighbors have committed devilish acts. As the town descends into a hysterical climate, members of the community take advantage of the situation to act upon any long-held grudges or repressed sentiment. Characters, such as Abigail, use both lies and hysteria to seek revenge and gain power. This reveals that the lies and deceit told throughout the play drive
One of the subjects on which Miller commented was that of the notion that there is only pure, white goodness and cruel, unbending evil. In the play he shows us how people chase what they think is evil, (For example: not going to church, not knowing the Commandments, etc.) persecuting basically good people while the truly evil escape and are even seen as the innocent victims. The people of Salem condemned many based on the few things that were considered 'ungodly' and since they committed one sin, then it was assumed that they were committing many others.
The play contained many scenarios of good versus evil, and the characters that generally possessed these feelings and intentions. But it must be understood that there were the intentions, the incentives, and then the actions taken out on a person or a group of people. Every character could either be placed in the intentions under good or bad intentions. After that, almost every character has mixed feelings of evil or good actions. The fight between the center of evil and the center of good is the foremost important of the points. Abigail Williams is the nucleus of all evil in the story. She is the one who triggers off this sense of hate in the play. She tempts Proctor into lechery, and commits unlawful acts which all are against the Puritan religion. To escape punishment for dancing, she deflects the actions and blames them on someone else, and does not care how many lives she ruins. Later when she grows into power and influence, she seems to enjoy sending these innocent people to their deaths. She takes pleasure in her lies, and thrives on the attention and power that they bring her. All these are the aspects of being the evil character, power, attention, and acts of wrongful doing. Therefore she can...
Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation. Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured to death. In the crucible, people were persecuted because of alleged witchcraft.
As Arthur Miller tells us in the introduction to Act 1 'no one can really know what their lives were like.' We would never be able to imagine a life with 'no novelists' and 'their creed forbade anything resembling a theatre or vain entertainment.' ' They didn't celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer.' They led a very austere and bleak life. The people of Salem - from which the audience derive their "good" and "evil" characters - were superstitious and highly religious, and their Theocratic form of government offered them security and unity.
In Salem, during the times of the Salem witch trials, the church and the people were very close. This is what led to the hysteria and chaos which was the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book, because anyone who was against the church was considered a criminal. Some of these conflicts were between; Abigail and the other children, Danforth and the town folk, and John Proctor with himself and his wife. Abigail consistently intimidated the village girls.