Essay About Women In The Crucible

During the Puritan era, the colonists were very religious. They worship God and despise the Devil. They believe that they are God’s follower and witches are Devil’s follower. On 1692, they started accusing people of witchcraft and because of the fear of witches they started executing them. In the book “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is set in the Puritan Era, during the Salem Witch Trials. It is the time where people started accusing others of witchcraft. The accused usually confessed or refused to confess. Women are usually the one being accused. Many critics criticize Arthur Miller in his portrayal of women in “The Crucible.” They think he is making denigrating women in the play, but what he is really doing is putting a variety of different female characters in his play. Each female character is different.

There were some vile characters in the play. The main female antagonist is Abigail. She is Reverend Parris’s niece

and the cousin of Betty. She has different personality in front of specific people. In front of Parris and Danforth, she is innocent and is there to help them with the trial, but in front of her friends she is ruthless and threatens them continuously. She said, “I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.”(pg. 20) She is very devious; for example, she drank blood to make Elizabeth Proctor disappear so she could be the one with Proctor. She is despicable and cruel.
In “The Crucible”, some characters are considered strong and admirable.

One of the characters is Rebecca Nurse; she is strong, resilient, and wise character. During the beginning of the play she told Parris to “pray calm yourselves” (pg. 27) If Parris started to freak out, it will not do any good to either him or Betty. She told Parris to send Hale back saying that it will bring trouble to the town but Parris refuse to acknowledge that. When she got accused of witchcraft, she refused to confess. If she confess and give names her life will be spared. Rebecca did not want to lie and accuse other of witchcraft when they did nothing. Another admirable character is Elizabeth Proctor because she did not stop her husband from being hanged. Any wife would want their husband to be alive, but Elizabeth wanted to respect his decision. She is strong for respecting her husband’s decision even if she does not agree with it, especially while being pregnant. Rebecca Nurse is full of wisdom while Elizabeth is full of ardent, both of them are strong

characters.
While some characters are strong, despicable, vile, there are still characters that are weak. A majority of supporting female characters are weak. One of the characters is Mary Warren. She works for Proctor and she is friends with Abigail. At first she was working with Abigail on accusing innocent people, but when Elizabeth Proctor got arrested for a doll in her procession, which is made by her, she decided to reveal everything. Things did not go the way she wanted. Abigail and the girls accused her of witchcraft and she couldn’t take the pressure, so she lied and said Proctor casted a spell on her. It was not true, but she did not want to die so she resorted to this method. Mary Warren is a sentiment character.
This book “The Crucible” has different kind of female character. Some characters were weak, strong, despicable, and vile. Not all the characters are weak and not all characters are strong. Mary Warren is weak emotionally, while Elizabeth is strong emotionally. Miller is not making women seem weak or strong instead; he is trying to use different type of female character to make his play more interesting. Each female character has different personality and their own stories.