Manipulation In The Crucible Essay

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The Power of the Mind
Throughout time we have seen people have the innate ability to manipulate the minds of others; many are able to do this due to having gift naturally from birth. In the Salem Witch Trials many saw the weaknesses in their society as an opportunity to give succor to their own ambitions. These people saw the consequences of the trials and exploited the feeble state of mind of their town 's inhabitants. Whether it be for personal or monetary gain, it is impossible to deny the existence of the power of ones mind on another as a huge cause for the trials. In order to observe the characters innate ability to manipulate in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one must analyze the prior state of Salem, the manipulator Abigail, and the …show more content…

Abigail throughout the entire play has been seen manipulating others all for her benefit, that or get her out of trouble. For example when she sees how Betty starts claiming that she didn 't mention how she drank blood, she then threatens the girls with their life (Miller, 20) The girls then become passive to Abigail but mostly out of fear. One can not blame these girls for being so frightened for their very lives were just threatened with a knife. This only gives Abigail more power over others, it is easily compared to a snowball rolling down a mountain that only gets bigger. These poor young girls are easily manipulated and Abigail is very aware of this; she uses these girls as her cornerstone for her lies throughout the whole book. Abigail 's is also not afraid to manipulate adults to get what she wants for example she tries to use her cunning words to convince John Proctors of his love for her even though he is trying to repair his marriage "I have a sense for heat, John, and yours has drawn me to my window, and I have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness. Do you tell me that you 've never looked up at my window?" (Miller, 23) Abigail knows John has no interest in her anymore yet she still try 's to pull him down by his weakest traits, thankfully however John prevails. If it was not for John 's lack of baseness he would be in a very different situation, Abigail is nothing to be taken lightly, she …show more content…

Now the definition of weak are those that are easily manipulated. We can see that the entire town of Salem is manipulated into believing that witches are real but at a closer look we can see that the girls are easily persuaded by Abigail. For example Mary Warren is a character who is easily manipulated throughout the entire play. At first she is seen joining the girls after believing that she could confess but she is then persuaded by Abigail otherwise (Miller, 20) This is the first example of Mary Warren being bullied around by Abigail, Mary just is not strong enough to stand against Abigail. Mary is then just strung along for Abigail 's endeavors and little does Mary know that it 's just the beginning. Soon afterwards, one can then observe Mary Warren go against the girls and testify against them due to how she is manipulated by John Proctor (Miller, 80). Mary is under Abigail 's thumb for the majority of the entire first act to which then she is only persuaded back into the morally right side of the trial by a stronger individual. While this persuasion was for good, it was manipulation none the less. This shows that Mary is the weakest link in both the eyes of a baseless Abigail and a good at heart Proctor. Then finally we see Mary Warren at the end join the girls after breaking away but only rejoining after Abigail starts claiming that Mary Warren herself is a witch

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