Selfishness of Mary Warren

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The Crucible is a dramatic play by Arthur Miller that has a direct tie to McCarthyism and how the witch trials and false accusation was related to the fear of someone being a communist. Generally, the story is about an affair between two primary characters that live in a Theology-ruled village. The secret of the affair was supposed to be assured until things got out when the truth was close to being in the limelight and a huge lie came out instead. This lie led to false accusations of believing that some people were part of witchcraft. Therefore, the situations became much more risky as people got hanged on whether or not they confessed they were a part of the witchery. Through the play, the character Mary Warren is depicted as a shy and powerless girl until she finally gains some control over the lives of people through her lies. This results in being labeled as an antagonist of the story, but she has traits similar to a protagonist which contradicts her character. In the end, Mary Warren is still a villain through her selfish and inconsiderate actions in the play. Mary Warren is a villainous character due to her poor choice of actions. Mary uses excuses to avoid trouble and gain some power through this. Elizabeth states: “It is a mouse no more… ‘I must go to Salem, Goody Proctor; I am an official of the court!’” (192) It is given that Mary had the changed the tables on her masters and decided to set her foot down. She claims that because she is an official of the court, she cannot be held back by anything that is not as important as going to court to do her work. If she was a real hero, she would keep her word to fulfill her duties at the Proctor house when it is time, not to go off to her pretense of a job of declaring wheth... ... middle of paper ... ...fishness is hidden between the lines and how it is read as well. With factors such as: being pressured, situation gone horrible, and everyone in the court watching her. Mary gave up hope and found her solace in the lies that Abby provided and the rest of the town. It was her own pure selfishness that drove her to continue to lie to just protect and sustain living a bit longer. In conclusion, Mary Warren knows what is right and what is wrong. However, she is more concerned about her health and well-being than someone else’s. She becomes cocky when given power and betrays whoever she can when she is pinned against a wall. As long as it looks bad for her, she would be willing to call out anyone to save herself. Therefore, she is an antagonist of the play with very little similar traits when juxtaposed to a typical protagonist. Works Cited: Miller. Arthur. The Crucible

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