The Crucible And Half Hanging Mary Analysis

Jesus Arreola
Dr. Murphy
Honors American Lit
1, September, 2016
The Crucible and Half-Hanged Mary
In the beginning of the late seventeenth century a sense of fear and panic was sweeping throughout the colonies of North America this fear began in a small town in Massachusetts called Salem and would lead to the death of nineteen people. This fear was caused by young Puritan girls who started randomly convulsing and accusing people of being witches many of the accused were women many single or widowed who owned land and this event was titled The Salem Witch Trails, but another smaller very significant event also took place during this period of time that event is the attempted hanging of Mary Webster. Both of these events are very significant in the fact that they would become a basis of American literature and would bring about a very big theme even in today`s literature that theme being “A majority does not always make the right decision.” Both of these events would lead to the writing of two significant pieces

of literature that are even studied today those pieces are The Crucible , written by Arthur Miller, and the poem Half-Hanged Mary , written by Margaret Atwood, both of these author would use the theme of a majority not always being right in their own writing Arthur Miller will do this through the tale of Salem Witch Trial just as Margaret Atwood will but Arthur Miller will take on a more creative approach by adding in a tale of adultery and jealousy while Margaret Atwood will tell the tale through her distant relative Mary Webster and will tell it in segments from a first person point of view. Which will make both pieces of literature different yet similar and will allow for both documents to be considered as historically important to the development of the United States of America.
While both of these writings did take place during the same year they have much more in common. They are both tales that involve the breaking of a social norm during the time period in the poem by Margaret Atwood she states,” I was hanged for living alone/ For having a weedy farm in my own name.” (page 1 lines 10-13) While Arthur Miller`s writing Abigail Williams states, “She always sings her Barbados songs, and we dance,” (page 916) This is stated when Abigail explains why they were in the woods at night and both of these quotes are significant in the fact that because they broke a rule that the majority followed a punishment was too come. Another example of similarity in both pieces is that both Mary Webster and many of the women that were accused of witch craft were considered minorities. This is due to the fact that many women accused, like Mary, also lived alone, owned land, or had been widowed. There are not only similarities between both writings both also take on different approaches to the theme.
These pieces of literature both underline the theme as a very key aspect in the writing but go about a different way of expressing it.

The tale of Mary Webster is told by the hour and goes about the transition of her mental state following her hanging and goes on to say how she feels slightly betrayed by those she has helped but understand where they are coming from. While The Crucible follows a specific tale jumping in between the various characters that are involved from Abigail Williams to John Proctor. Another difference is the development of the lead characters in both writings Mary Webster is shown to the readers as a woman who lived alone and own land who was accused of being a witch then ultimately survived her hanging, while John Proctor is shown to the reader as a flawed man who in the end does what he believes to be right. Which leads to the point that both these characters were different yet similar just as the writing that they are featured

in.
The theme that is key in both these writings is that of “A majority does not always make the right decision.” This is seen in both plays through both the events they are based on and the people who made it the events possible. They are just expressed in different ways and through different types of characters. While both tales take part in the same year they are located in different towns and yet have a shocking resemblance and will become important to American literature to the point where they will be studied for many years.