The Crucible And Half Hanging Mary Analysis

Jesus Arreola

Dr. Murphy

Honors American Lit

1, September, 2016 The Crucible and Half-Hanged Mary In the beginning of the late seventeenth century a sense of fear and panic was sweeping throughout the colonies of North America this fear began in a small town in Massachusetts called Salem and would lead to the death of nineteen people. This fear was caused by young Puritan girls who started randomly convulsing and accusing people of being witches many of the accused were women many single or widowed who owned land and this event was titled The Salem Witch Trails, but another smaller very significant event also took place during this period of time that event is the attempted hanging of Mary Webster. Both of these events are very significant in the fact that they would become a basis of American literature and would bring about a very big theme even in today`s literature that theme being “A majority does not always make the right decision.” Both of these events would lead to the writing of two significant pieces

The tale of Mary Webster is told by the hour and goes about the transition of her mental state following her hanging and goes on to say how she feels slightly betrayed by those she has helped but understand where they are coming from. While The Crucible follows a specific tale jumping in between the various characters that are involved from Abigail Williams to John Proctor. Another difference is the development of the lead characters in both writings Mary Webster is shown to the readers as a woman who lived alone and own land who was accused of being a witch then ultimately survived her hanging, while John Proctor is shown to the reader as a flawed man who in the end does what he believes to be right. Which leads to the point that both these characters were different yet similar just as the writing that they are featured