Abigail Williams And The Girls Initiate The Tragedy in The Crucible

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Although Abigail and The Girls Initiate The Tragedy, Responsibility Lies With the Whole Salem Community I do believe that Abigail and the girls initiated the tragedy, what with all their talk about spirits and the conjurance with the devil during the opening act. For one reason or another, it can be said that the blame for this tragedy lies with the entire Salem community. But could this really be called a tragedy? In my opinion, if people get hurt and the whole community falls apart - then it is a tragedy. Many different emotions and even specific characters are brought into the play and each one holds part of the blame - therefore bringing down the entire of the community and causing people to turn against each other and all principles they once believed in. Abigail and the girls deny everything. Part od their denial is accusation. By shifting the blame onto someone else, they believe that they will not be held accountable for their own sins. Abigail manipulates her way through the play, and even after Mary Warren confessed that the whole story was a pretense, Abigail continues manipulating the court room and the people within it with antics of ‘a wind, a cold wind' and ‘Oh Heavenly Father, take away this shadow'. In the end she is adamant to convince the court that they were only involved with witchcraft because of Mary Warren, hoping profusely to save her own name. Denial in Salem is considered a terrible sin. The narrow mindedness of the court possesses an unwritten law that if your name is brought out within the court, without any questioning, you are presumed guily. Innocence is not taken into consideration, and only until the victim confesses,, is the court convinced they were right. There is no hearing for the victim, and if they are innocent, they have the choice of denial, and being hung or confessing an being thrown into jail. Danforth, the deputy governor, is so caught up in his own beliefs and importance that he won't listen to anything that he doesn't want to hear. He is manipulated by Abigail, bu her innocent young girl front by incredulously questioning Proctor ‘this child would murder his wife?' It is beyond his narrow comprehension that someone could be telling the truth. John Proctor stood up for his pride and principles. It is obvious that he would rather die with a good name within Salem than live and know that he had broken his own principles and lost his pride. He believed that among his own community he would be lavelled untrustworthy and states ‘God does not need my name nailed

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