The Crucible Essay

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Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is a story about Puritans, a group of people not happy with the path religion was taking and were in search of reform. The Puritans in this play live in Salem, Massachusetts and it takes place in 1692. In this story Arthur Miller tells the reader about the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials. The Red Scare was Miller’s way of addressing mass hysteria induced by ignorant people searching for trust and acceptance in the colonies. The Salem Witch Trials are an example of the society’s needs to conform to the political, social, and religious beliefs of the time. The girls and their actions in The Crucible represent the unknown and the threat to the court system. Each of the women in Arthur Miller’s play represent and display many different views and characteristics that are still present to this day. In the play we see each woman representing individuality. The views and attitudes of the young girls in the story represent a variety of widespread opinions and personalities, for instance, one of the main characters, Abigail Williams. Abigail is the niece of Reverend Parris, the main spiritual leader of the town. She is unmarried and desperate for attention. She lies, uses and manipulates people for her own benefit, especially the other women in the town. An example of this action is her hate and jealousy toward Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctors wife. John Proctor is a farmer who lives outside Salem. He preaches about hypocrisy, and yet hides the fact that he has had an affair with Abigail, which tests his personal beliefs. Abigail was an orphan, and was taken in by her uncle Parris and his daughter Betty. They feed and clothe her. Her social position is just above the slaves in town. Abigail Will... ... middle of paper ... ...d all the other girls including Abigail were lying about the Devil. Abby took charge and pretended a bird was attacking her, "But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary." The other girls soon follow and also cried out that a bird was attacking them. This mainly shows that Abigail Williams is a liar. All of her lies show that hysteria can be made by one person, causing the death of innocent people. The Crucible reminds us that honesty and morality are part of humanity and these values do not change with time. Our culture today tends to be influenced by pop culture more than the church and we see a lot of bullying and peer presure which in a way is what Abigail did to her fellow townspeople. Lying and manipulating has a snowball effect and unless it stops early it tends to grow fast and far and it is hard to stop.

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