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Social impact of salem witch trials
Social impact of salem witch trials
Salem witch trials impact on history
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The Crucible the film is an adapted version of Arthur Miller’s play of the same name, which was inspired by the 1692 Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. The two main characters are Abigail Williams played by Winona Ryder and John Procter played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The Crucible’s opening scene is Reverend Parris catching Abigail and her friends dancing in the woods and conjuring spirits. Abigail did not want to get in trouble so she blamed Tituba, a Barbados slave, for making her drink chicken blood, and tempting her to sin. Abigail and her friends start to accuse people in the town of witchcraft; by saying a person’s spirit attacked them. The people who were accused were usually the outcast of the town or someone Abigail and her friends …show more content…
First change he made was to Abigail Williams and John Proctor’s age. Abigail was eleven years old during the actual Salem Witch Trials, but for the film Miller made her older and changed her age to approximately seventeen years old. John Proctor was sixty during the Salem Witch Trials, but for the film Miller made him younger and changed his age to somewhere in his thirties. Miller also changed a character’s name. Thomas Putnam’s daughter, Ann Putnam Jr, was renamed to Ruth Putnam for the film. Another change to the Putnam family was the amount of living children they had. During the actual Salem Witch Trials they had six living children according to Margo Burns, but in the film only their daughter Ruth [Ann Putnam Jr] survived. Miller also got rid of certain characters, such as Betty Parris’s mother, in the film. Another characteristic change made my Miller was giving Abigail a backstory about Indians smashing her parents’ head on the pillow next to hers. Historians are not sure why Abigail was living with the Paris family or if they were actually family. The afflicted was not just Abigail Williams, Betty Paris, Ruth Putnam, Mary Warren and the other neighborhood girls. According to historical depiction, older women and men came forth as being afflicted. Miller also got rid of Tituba’s husband John
Abigail Williams forms a continuous string of deceitful lies about the presence of witchcraft in Salem and her involvement with it, triggering the beginning of the trials and causing mayhem to permeate the town. Playwright Arthur Miller characterizes Abigail as "a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling"(8). Her fabrications induce calamity in Salem, and entangles many innocent people in her slanderous web of stories. In most cases, Abigail lies to evade discomfort or punishment. This pattern is first displayed when Reverend Hale interrogates Abigail:
The statement,“The Crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is proven true numerous times, throughout the play. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, about the true events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, between the years 1692 and 1693. The Salem witch trials consisted of many hangings, lies, and complete mass hysteria. The citizens of Salem followed the religion of Puritanism, and the ideas of predestination. The root of the mass hysteria comes from their belief in the sense that in something happens then it must have been planned by God. In Miller’s portrayal of the story, Abigail Williams was the ringleader of the witch trials, and she used the idea of predestination to cover up her own sins. Abigail was a very manipulative girl and ruined many lives. John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor were just a few of the victims in Abby’s game. John, Mary, and Elizabeth exhibit the traits courage, weakness, and truth, whether it was in a positive or negative way.
The Crucible – Characters and Changes & nbsp; Change is good for the future. " We hear the catchy phrase everywhere. From company slogans to motivational speeches, our world seems to impose this idea that change is always a good thing. Assuming that the change is for the better, it is probably a true statement in most cases. The root of this idea seems to come from the notion that we are dissatisfied with the state that we are in, so, in order to create a more enjoyable environment, we adjust.
For example, the morning after the girls were found dancing in the woods, the townspeople marched through the streets of the town speaking of witchcraft. Abigail’s uncle, Reverend Parris, suspicion was raised when Abigail was one of the girls found dancing the woods, asking her why she did it. She spoke to the other girls in the woods threatening
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is about The Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600’s. The town was placed in hysteria by some of the town girls such as, Abigail, Tituba, and Mary Warren. Certain events in the story led to the widespread of hysteria amongst the town. First, when Abigail pointed her finger to blame Tituba. Second, names of people were mentioned and other events made the town think that the Devil was taking over.
Abigail is presented to the court with a group of girls who also have been with her during the night when she was caught dancing. She pleads “I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil” (Miller 45). She uses them as a scapegoat even though she knows that they have a high reputation in this village. This brings the villagers more fear that “Witches” can also be highly respected people, but so far they were the only ones with high reputations to be accused. Abigail knows that she now holds a high reputation, so she uses it to accuse others to cover up what she has done. She was considered wicked and sinful before the trials, and now is viewed by the village/court as an innocent young girl.
...ong after John Proctor and other accused members of the town attempt to debunk Abigail’s act, she mysteriously “[vanishes]…she does not return and… [has] robbed [her uncle]” (126). Her blatant disregard for important aspects of Puritanism shows her lack of reverence for God; and although Abigail manages to escape prosecution in her hometown of Salem, she is no safer from hell than a true witch.
Imagine people are so in love, that they would do anything for that person, even kill. Abigail Williams, in The Crucible is that person. She is galvenized by lustful desires and jealousy for John Proctor and it causes mayhem in Salem.
The Crucible, penned by Arthur Miller, a four-act dramatic play based on events of the Salem witchcraft trials, takes place in a small Puritan village of Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials grew out of the particular moral system of the Puritans, which promoted a repressive code of conduct that frowned on any diversion from norms of behavior. The play opens with the reader finding out about a young girl who is inert in her bed. The villagers automatically suspect witchcraft. However, they do not know that all the girls in the village sneaked out to the woods the night before where they made a potion to let them have the man they love. The black slave who helped the girls make this potion was Tituba. It was fine until Abigail went too far and wished death on the wife of John Proctor. The girls went crazy, dancing and stripping but then Abigail's uncle walks in and finds them. This is the real reason the girl is unable to move, fear. The girls turn on the rest of the village and blame them for the witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero as he has many positive traits about him, such as his noble characteristics and his honorable and righteous qualities. He also has a darker side to his otherwise pure nature by having an affair with Abigail Williams. Proctor’s actions lead to his eventual fatal downfall and the downfall of others as a result of his sin. However, he was very willing to reverse the effects of his actions to save others around him. The more shocking reality is that these events were factual, which just further fuels the tragedy of the play, especially towards John Proctor.
To further complicate matters, John decides not to reveal to the court that Abigail has admitted to him in private that they were just sporting in the woods. Abigail spreads additional accusations and false rumors about her neighbors. These accusations have no basis in truth and their only purpose is for Abigail’s own benefit. Furthermore, Abigail is jealous of John’s wife, Elizabeth, and she schemes to get rid of her in order to take her place. Abigail’s plot is to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play set in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts. The play opens with Reverend Samuel Parris kneeling in front of his daughter, Betty Parris, who has been lying motionless in bed since midnight. Parris begins to pray and weep in front of his ten year old daughter when his slave, Tituba, enters the room. Parris gets to his feet and angrily yells at the forty year old lady to get out. Afterwards, his seventeen year old niece, Abigail Williams, comes in. She is also worried about the well-being of Betty and informs Parris that Susanna Walcott is here with news from the doctor. Parris allows Susanna in and asks her what the doctor had said. The little girl notifies him that the doctor had nothing in his books that matched
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is an exaggerated and a fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In this play three characters embodies three different traits. The three characters are Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, and Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams is a manipulator who tells lies and deceit people that she doesn’t like. Mary Warren is a very weak girl that wants to tell the truth but scared to do so. Reverend Parris is a selfish old man who only cares about his reputation, and how others look at him. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Miller uses these three characters to accomplish that the Salem witch trials make people do things that they wouldn’t normally do.
She became intimately involved with John Proctor in an illegal love affair while employed as a servant girl in the family home of John and his wife Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail was willing to go to great measures to carry on her very intense relationship with Mr. Proctor. Once John Proctor informs Abigail that he no longer wants to be in a relationship with her, she becomes desperate. Abigail insisted that John Proctor still loved her, and I quote “ You loved me John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet.” As a means of self-preservation she was willing to sacrifice others, as well as falsely accusing many. Abigail was the leader of the girls who blamed witchcraft for their behavior.
Abigail’s struggles come from many of her personal desires that are forbidden in her society, causing her to lie. However, this also creates further social problems, such as the initiation of the witch trials. After Betty is stuck in a coma, Reverend Parris questions Abigail about the night in the woods, because he is suspicious and she denies that it had anything to do with witchcraft. Abigail replies to Parris saying, “ We never conjured spirits” (24). Abigail lies to Parris, denies the statement that witchcraft ever occurred, and says that all they did was danced. Witchcraft and dancing both are sins in the society, and she knows that her reputation is at stake and finds the need to lie to look innocent. Parris wants to be sure and calls Reverend Hale to look further into the issue. Once Reverend Hale comes into town, he questions Abigail about the night, and she once again denies everything he asks her. Abigail is being questioned by Hale, and once Tituba enters she screams, “ She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!” (45). Abigail denies every...
AHH! It was the seventh grade girl’s ear-piercing scream that could have shattered glass, and she was right in front of us. Then all of a sudden the rest of the seventh graders were laughing hysterically like hyenas and pointing their bright flash lights directly at August’s face. From then on, I knew whatever was coming next would not be good. We were in the forest at night and it was pitch black, I could barely see anything. They started to insult Auggie and make fun of his deformed face. This annoyed me but I knew I could not take on the sinewy boys alone. Sure August was there, but he was not strong enough to fight them either.