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Characterisation in the crucible
The crucible as a social tragedy
The crucible reflecting the character of a society
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The Defense of Mary Warren Like many character in The Crucible Mary Warren will say things just to save herself or believe what others have told her. I believe that she is innocent because she always tries to do the right thing but in her case it didn’t go the way she’d hoped. To start off i would like to talk about Mary’s bad traits. She talks about Sarah Good being arrested and confessing her crimes. She says that Sarah Good “tried to kill her many times” (Miller 1296). She also says that she supposedly “remembers everything she done” to her (Miller 1296). Even though she admitted that she didn’t know of any of this but she could have just been told what she could have done to her and easily believed it or she could have made
She even claims that John should know her better than to expect such a thing from her. Elizabeth often believes that she has not been a good enough wife to John and that she does not deserve his love, or any love. She confesses, “I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love could come to me!” (137). Her confession displays humbleness, an admirable trait in any Puritan. All of the young girls in The Crucible exemplify conformity by submitting to Abigail Williams. As the leader of these young girls, Abigail persuaded them to do whatever she said, including accusing people of witchcraft. These accusations led to the deaths of many men and women. Mary Warren is a victim of Abigail’s peer pressure. She eventually admits that everything she claimed was a lie that Abigail made her tell. She explains these lies by saying, “It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits” (107). This confession is her way of saying that they never meant for one small lie to turn into something so huge. Later, Mary agrees to testify against Abigail in court, but, in yet another
Unlike her peers, Mary Warren is innocent of and wishes to tell the truth, "We must tell the truth, Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things!" (Miller, Arthur. "Act 1." The Crucible. 50th Anniversary ed. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1976. 18. Print.). Upon hearing this, Abigail immediately shoots down Mary's request, threatening her life if she dare
Mary Warren is an important character in Arthur Miller’s play, THE CRUCIBLE. Much of the action in Act III revolves around Mary’s testimony in court. She is a kind and basically honest girl who tries to do the right thing, saving her friends from harm. However, throughout Acts I and II, Mary is a follower who allows Abigail Williams to negatively influence her good judgment. To make matters worse, Mary is terrified of Abigail’s threats. Because of her weak will, the reader isn’t certain if Mary will maintain the courage to help John Proctor to win his court case in Act III.
Mary Warren’s first lie comes as a result of her wanting to fit in and feel like she is a part of something. She claims that Sarah Good, an old and poor woman who sleeps in ditches, sends her spirit out on her in court and chokes her to “near death”. She describes the courtroom experience to John Proctor and says that she felt “a misty coldness climbin’ up [her] back” as “ the skin on [her] skull began to creep” and she felt a “clamp around [her] neck” until she could not breathe” (57). It seems as if Mary Warren has convinced herself that witchcraft is real, just to fit in with the girls. Pretending that Sarah Good sent her spirit out into the courtroom has major consequences on the town as well as on Sarah.
isolate him from the rest of the society who thought of Mary as a bad
In the Crucible, Arthur Miller uses Mary Warren to show that fear causes people to leave behind all their logic and reason. Hysteria in the story made the town of Salem fearful enough to overwhelm their thoughts. Mary Warrens actions
She tries to be a goody two shoe about almost everything but she turns out to be a liar along with everyone else. Mary lies when she says “you’re the devil’s man Proctor” she is actually lying after she realizes that everyone is starting to think that she is a culprit in the court and that she may be getting charged so she then decides to blame Proctor to save herself and to ensure she gets away clean and clear. Mary also lies many other times throughout the crucible, all in ways that she really didn't need to lie up until the very end when everyone was being tried in court. My final example of dishonesty is Elizabeth Proctor, a woman famous for her honesty and absence of mistakes throughout her entire life in Salem.
Our scene is more than a preface for the involvement of John and Elizabeth Proctor in the witch trials. Arthur Miller’s intent was to mature the personal depth between three crucial characters: John, Elizabeth, and Mary Warren. As one reads through the scene, they come to experience distinctive individuals replacing characters they once only vaguely knew. John appears aggressive, raising his voice and speaking outraged words to make himself appear more large and powerful than anyone else. Elizabeth shelteres within a rigid calmness, speaking few words at most and remaining stable. Mary Warren’s weakness shines through each emotionally unstable statement and she often trembles and lies like a child in the face of John Proctor. These characteristics
Mary shows her honesty in The Crucible by not lying to Danforth no matter what it costs. She would not change her answer to Danforth even though he was badgering her in court, which is currently not allowed. Honesty is one of my best traits because it makes me trustworthy. I am trustworthy because it gives me a better chance to keep the people that I also trust. My honesty also shows that I won’t lie to others. I don’t lie to others because I feel that it isn’t right and I do not want lied to in return. Honesty is the final trait that Mary and I have in
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about the Salem Witch Trails in 1942. John Proctor is a middle aged man married to Elizabeth Proctor, and he plays the protagonist in this play. Marry Warren is the maid to the Proctor and she plays a big role in Elizabeth Proctor's arrest for witchcraft. These two characters both play important roles in The Crucible but both have different character traits, John Proctor is quick tempered and stubborn, but as for Marry Warren she is easily frightened and sneaky.
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
Throughout history, every story (or at least the ones worth telling) changes us for the better. We change because the characters change, whether they change for the better is up for debate. In The Crucible, Mary Warren goes through a rare form of character change; she evolves, and then goes through a stage of devolution. In other words, she begins to change, and then regresses back into the state she was in at the beginning of the story.
In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren started off as a quiet, easily persuaded girl. As the play progressed and more innocent people were accused of witchcraft and were hung, Mary grew a thicker layer of skin and exposed Abby’s true colors. Mary developed into a strong, independent young girl who does not let others tell her what to do or how to act to protect their own
Out of all the characters in the crucible was great, but in my opinion, Elizabeth is the best character in the cast in the Crucible. She was a faithful wife, a good mother, and strong in her faith/religion. Even though her husband cheated on her she still remained faithful to him. Elizabeth demonstrates a very truthful woman. She’s the wife of John Proctor. Nicknamed Goody Proctor, because she was a good christen woman. Everyone liked her, because she was a woman who never lied. Until, she lied in court one day to save her husband’s life. She acts very frigidly to others. The only person that didn’t like her was Abigail Williams. Abigail wants Elizabeth to die because Abigail wants John Proctor all to her self.
In conclusion, Mary is clearly shown to have a very manipulative and sinister character because she was a cold blooded murderer who had no feelings for her husband when she killed him, and she made people believe her grieving stories to make them feel sorry for her. But, all she wanted at the end was to cover up all of the evidence so she does not get caught and go to jail.