Examples Of Scapegoating In The Crucible

If you had to choose between your life or someone else’s, which would you pick? Everybody wants to think that they would do the noble thing, but when it comes down to it, would you? Miller describes it was a choice that can go both ways in his play, The Crucible. The Crucible explores how scapegoating functioned in the Salem Witch Trials and how its characters like Mary Warren and Tituba embody this theme in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

The very first example we see of scapegoating in The Crucible occurs in the first act. When some teenage girls are found dancing in the woods by the minister, Reverend Parris, two of the girls collapse due to the shock of being caught red handed. During this time, dancing was not permitted in Puritan society. The two

girls have not awakened by noon of the next day, and thus the town suspects witchcraft. Parris sends for Reverend Hale, a learned man in the ways of witchcraft and devilious acts. Abigail Williams, a cohort of the girls dancing in the woods, was questioned. When under pressure, she blames Parris’s slave, Tituba, who was also with the girls in the woods. This is the very first instance of scapegoating. As Hale and Parris interrogated Tituba and threatened her life, Tituba told them what they wanted to hear. She lied to them and said that she contracted with the devil, but saw others in his company. Sarah Good, a local beggar, was blamed along with other less reputable people, and thus we have our second example of scapegoating in The Crucible. These two examples are early showcases how scapegoating functions in Miller’s work.
Scapegoating functioned by a repetitious cycle in the play, and could not be easily broken. It was a self-feeding cycle. The way it worked was that once a person was accused, that person would then confess to a crime they did not do and accuse another person, or be jailed and possibly hanged. Seeing as most people did not want to meet their untimely demise, they “confessed their sins” and pledged to turn their back on the devil, to thus follow God. This ignorant system was born out of a theocracy rather than based off of science. This cycle was only broken when enough convicted people refused to lie. Certain people embodied this cycle more than others.
Mary Warren embodied the idea of scapegoating best in Miller’s The Crucible.

One of the best examples of scapegoating occurred in act three in the Salem courthouse. The protagonist, John Proctor, confronts the court for his wife’s freedom and by doing this inadvertently confronts the honesty of the accusers, the girls that danced in the woods. He brought one of the girls that danced in the woods, Mary Warren, with him to testify against the other girls that danced. When she began to testify, the other girls, led by Abigail Williams, pretended to be attacked by Mary Warren’s spirit to scare her and to save themselves. Mary Warren, scared by the possibility of being hanged, said that John Proctor made her testify to try to overthrow the court. This is one of the most critical and influential examples of scapegoating in The Crucible. Mary Warren embodies and follows the scapegoat cycle perfectly. First, she was accused of sending her spirit to attack the other girls. Second, she thought of someone else to blame. Lastly, she accused John Proctor of trying to overthrow the court in order to save herself. Her decision to lie for her survival changed the end of the play and caused the death of several innocent

people.
The Crucible explores how scapegoating functioned in the Salem Witch Trials and how characters like Mary Warren and Tituba embody this theme throughout the play. When put under pressure, Mary Warren and Tituba followed the scapegoat cycle perfectly. Scapegoating functioned by a repetitious cycle in the play, one that could not be easily broken. The question is, if you were put in the same situation, would you take the moral highroad or, would you save yourself and continue the cycle?