In Arthur Miller's text 'The Crucible', Mary Warren was initially hindered by her low social status. However, as she explores the ideals she finds most valuable through Salem's restricting societal structure, she becomes forced to value morals or survival, a decision that consequently shapes the dynamics of her society. Under social pressure, her initial stance of courage and truthfulness gave way to fear, resulting in the return of subservience to the intentions of others and conformity to the crowd. Mary Warren, recognizing the implications of the girls’ actions in the growing hysteria of the Salem community, feels compelled to help Abigail face the truth. MARY WARREN: Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like …show more content…
When the time had come for Mary to confess the truth of the situation as prompted by John Proctor, her fear returned significantly based on what others would think. Abigail’s influence grew with the hysteria, becoming a life-threatening force that Mary feared to oppose. Moreover, Mary discovers that there is a consequence as great as being immoral if she desires to keep her life, and that other girls in Abigail’s group show no signs of betrayal to help another. As a result, she goes from a supposed challenger of deceit to an individual with moral complexities. Lead in: Surrendering her sense of righteousness, a turning point occurs in the play that concludes Mary's sudden change in motivation after the influence she faced. “MARY WARREN, screaming at him: “No, I love God; I go your way no more. I love God, I bless God. Sobbing, she rushes to Abigail. Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you again! They all watch, as Abigail, out of her infinite charity, reaches out and draws the sobbing Mary to her, and then looks up to Danforth.”
“What a grand peeping courage you have!” This quote was said by Mercy Lewis referring to Mary Warren in The Crucible during 1692. Mary and the other girls were dancing in the woods when Reverend Parris found them. When the girls were asked who all danced, Mary said that she was just watching. Mary Warren and I have a few of the same personality traits and that we both are caring, shy, and honest.
A story is only as good as its characters, because the characters are what capture our attention, they are what keeps our attention. A good writer pressures us to feel empathy for those beyond redemption; as a story advances, the characters evolve with it, and sometimes we do as well. These characters may not change in a favorable manner, they may go back to their old ways, but they change at some point, and even the tiny changes matter. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren changes for the better, until she goes back to her old ways. Yet that's what made her so realistic, she wasn't invariably good or honorable, she wasn't heroic. Mary Warren was unequivocally, without a doubt, a coward, and a selfish one at that. Nevertheless, she
In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller explores the topic of fear and how it can be used to silence people or force them into false testimony. In this play we can see the fear of witchcraft and becoming condemned, or having a family member condemned, can take over a person and get them to act unusually. Mary Warren makes the decision to switch between siding with the girls and with Proctor out of fear for her life, yet only some of her decisions are justified as only sometimes she was trying to make the right decision and others were to save herself.
In the Town of Salem Massachusetts, 1692, a group of adolescents are caught dancing in the forest. Among the adolescents in The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Mary Warren. The girls are horrified that they have been caught dancing, a sinful act, therefore they devise a story to evade punishment: they claim to have been bewitched. The first person who they accuse of witchcraft is a the black maid, Tituba. This results in her jail sentence as well as fearful suspicion throughout the town. Arthur Miller demonstrates the impact of lying as the girls recognise and manipulate their power in the town. Lead by Abigail, they go further, claiming countless others guilty and dooming them to exile. Miller demonstrates that there power is so great that even when Mary attempts to stand against her friends, she is quickly overwhelmed and once again plays along with their trickery. As the girls’ conspiracy continues, controversy arise over their truthfulness; people choose sides often lying themselves to support their side, further altering the lives of all involved.
Throughout the many acts of the play, we sense the anger rolling off Abigail’s words. “I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” By these words, we know that Abigail Williams is angry. She’s angry at John Proctor for trying to hide the crime he committed with her, and for the lack of closure she
Abigail demands all of the girls to act along with her plan or she will get angered. After the dancing with Tituba happened, the girls were forced by Abigale to act bewitched, “Say one word to the truth and I’ll beat you, Betty!” (18). A taste of attention drives Abigail’s lies giving her power through the characters. Further into the book, Abigail gains even a greater amount of power just from her attention and it adds when her and the girls go into a “traumatic shock.” As her traumatic shock starts she screams, “But god made my face; you cannot wear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary” (106). When Abigail brings up Mary, she caves under the pressure
She didn’t care about those lives that vanished because of her nor did she care about lying and turning against her own friend, Mary. One of the reasons why Mary was scared to tell the truth to the court was because of Abigail, She frightened her, and the other girls with threats. Mary knew that if she spoke Abigail would turn against her use everything in her hands to rid her and make sure she never spoke the truth again like Mary says on page 80, when proctor and the others were trying to convince Mary to tell the truth. “She’ll kill me for sayin that” Were the words that came out Mary’s mouth.Those words are the ones that prove that Abigail Williams is not innocent but if not guilty.Once Mary spoke the truth, Abigail turned against her just like mary knew it would happen, She began saying things that were not true once again. She began to pretend as if Mary’s spirit had left her body and were hauting her, She said things such as “Mary please don’t hurt me” making it seem as if Mary was hurting her.This made the other girls also begin to pretend and repeat everything Mary was saying making seem as if they were bewitched by her. This is another thing that shows how she manipulates
In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren started off as a quiet, easily persuaded girl. As the play progressed and more innocent people were accused of witchcraft and were hung, Mary grew a thicker layer of skin and exposed Abby’s true colors. Mary developed into a strong, independent young girl who does not let others tell her what to do or how to act to protect their own
Mary Warren is an important character in Arthur Miller’s play, THE CRUCIBLE. Much of the action in Act III revolves around Mary’s testimony in court. She is a kind and basically honest girl who tries to do the right thing, saving her friends from harm. However, throughout Acts I and II, Mary is a follower who allows Abigail Williams to negatively influence her good judgment. To make matters worse, Mary is terrified of Abigail’s threats. Because of her weak will, the reader isn’t certain if Mary will maintain the courage to help John Proctor to win his court case in Act III.
The Rebel. The Caregiver. The Innocent. In the form of a contentious play, Arthur Miller’s, “The Crucible” parallels both the Salem Witch Hunts of 1692 and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “Red” (Communist) hunts of 1950, exploring societal inconsistencies in character and practice. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory, a model interested in moral reasoning and cognitive development, as well as Jungian Archetypes, further reveal universal themes and human nature displayed in The Crucible’s female characters. Throughout the novel, Arthur Miller uses the role and treatment of women to convey the integral theme of human tendency in the presence of corruption and the unknown. Specifically, through archetypes and moral development, Abigail, Elizabeth and Mary Warren are employed to expose humanity’s contrasting movement
Her selfishness is evident when Abigail and her friends accuse the innocent people of Salem of witchcraft. She puts the blame on others, so she does not get punished for dancing in the woods. Abigail shows her anger towards John Proctor when she tries to accuse his wife and ultimately gets John killed. Her anger leads her to make the poor decisions of getting John killed, even though he did nothing wrong. She is a coward when she puts the blame on innocent people and runs away before John gets hung. Her craven attitude is the last flaw that ultimately leads her to run away from Salem. Abigail’s flaws eventually bring her to her downfall by the end of the
In the Crucible, Arthur Miller uses Mary Warren to show that fear causes people to leave behind all their logic and reason. Hysteria in the story made the town of Salem fearful enough to overwhelm their thoughts. Mary Warrens actions
Abigail and the girls feign that Mary Warren sends out her spirit reinforcing the notion
It enforces the belief that humans are not ready to take responsibility for their actions and would rather find a scapegoat than be righteous. The key scene i... ... middle of paper ... ... willing to do to get her way. Only the girls, Mary and Proctor know to what extent Abigail can manipulate a situation in her favour as well as people.
Her ability to lie, her outspokenness and developing sexuality, is unlawful against the Puritan views and deemed as evil. If convicted of the acts she has committed, including her apparent interaction with the Devil, she would face severe consequences. But to avoid this, Abigail realizes that through deceiving innocence she can control and manipulate murderous acts to save herself and her reputation. This was a new opportunity for her to expand her rule over the town. Controlling the young girls around her, Abigail uses her newfound sense of power to manipulate the group in fear. Driving them to aid her accusations, she uses them in the court to prove her claims. Abigail quickly strikes fear into the girls when she begins to hit and threaten the girls screaming, “And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring you a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 19). By threatening the girls, Abigail easily frightens them enough to do her bidding. Using fear to her advantage is evil and this act of manipulation only furthers her antagonism. Abigail now has the ability to use facades and delusion with the loyalty of the other girls, to convince the people that it is not her conjuring spirits, but others in the town attacking