The strumpet and the wife

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Recommended: Comparing and contrasting the historical Salem Witch Trials with the way that they are portrayed in The Crucible research paper

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, renders the horrific events of the Salem witch trial through a crew of many fantastic characters. Fear pedals the citizens of Salem Massachusetts to reveal their true character while facing the judgment of a bias court before barbarous judges. While the whole town of Salem is filled up with this madness, two particular women stand out above the rest. Shame and revenge lives in the mind and heart of an adulteress teenager Abigail Williams, while truth and righteousness lives in the soul of Elizabeth Proctor, a faithful wife to John Proctor. Abigail and Elizabeth both heighten the suspense and tension of the play along with their differences leading to turmoil due to both of their desire for one man’s love. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a cunning, manipulating and deceitful character who thought of an idea where she can get away with anything without fearing any consequences. A teenager never looked at as a dangerous character by her society; Abigail figured that she could avoid trouble by making up lies to cover up her practicing witch craft. When the other girls from her community who were also involved in this started feeling guilty, Abigail verbally threatened by saying "..Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shutter you. And you know I can do it.."(Act I, 20). She never did play around with her getting in trouble and ruining her chances to be with John Proctor, the man whom she was most in love with. Elizabeth and Abigail are merely opposite of each other. A faithful wife to John Proctor, Elizabeth was more than a bystander in her commu... ... middle of paper ... ...proves how unethical, immoral, and selfish she is. Elizabeth is a stand up women. Throughout The Crucible, she seems to be struggling to forgive her husband and let her anger go for his infidelity. Of course her anger towards Abigail is understandable. Elizabeth’s hatred for Abigail is justified because Abigail later in the play tries to murder Elizabeth by framing her of witch craft. Elizabeth is the blameless victim. The only sin we see her commit is at the court. Elizabeth in the play is portrayed as a noble and a honest women. The Puritans really did believe in witch craft. Reading about the witch trail may look stupid and make many people mad but the truth is that Puritan’s life was different than one’s life in the 21st century. Because in Puritans society moral law and state law was the same individual’s soul, sin, and status was matter of public concern.

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