Power Of Women In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble” ~Yehuda Berg. Throughout history, women have strived, even struggled to have a voice, trying to get some type of power in society. This was very evident during the Puritan time period. Puritan women were seen as weak, easily swayed, and had no real say in the town. This is brought to light in the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, when one of the main female characters, Mary Warren, undergoes many changes as she battles with finding her own

voice and coming to terms with this new found power, resulting in many deaths and conflicts.
Mary Warren in Act 1, is apprehensive of the consequences of the dancing in the woods with the girls and the role she had in it.

She is trying to convince Abigail to just confess to it for the reason that the whole town's talking of witchcraft. Mary says with fear in her voice “Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s hangin’ error, an hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’. And the other things!”(1097) and if they confess, then the worse is that they will be whipped, as dancing in the Puritan times was illegal. Mary doesn’t feel any regret nor shame about what they did in the woods, she tries to cover up for herself by saying all she did was watch. “I never done none of it, Abby. I only looked!” (1097) It really displays how weak willed of a person Mary really is because she was too scared to join in and instead just watched. Mercy Lewis says menacingly toward mary “Oh you’re a great one for lookin’’, aren’t you, Mary Warren? What a grand peeping courage you have!”(1097) making it apparent on how the girls really feel about Mary Warren. In the beginning of Act 2, Mary warren is speaking to John Proctor and she says “...I am amazed you do not see what weighty work we do.”(1118) She believes what she is doing is right and that she and the other girls are doing “God’s Work”. She considers herself an official of the court and sees no fault in how many she and the girls are condemning to either hang or to

jail.
At the end of Act 2 and the beginning of Act 3, Mary Warren realizes what kind of harm she is doing and switches to the defense of Elizabeth Proctor, who was accused by Abigail, John’s mistress. She goes to the court to testify against the girls and prove they are all faking. She admits that she lied about seeing and being attacked by the spirits of the accused and had even signed a deposition stating it was all lies.