...There are several characters in “The Crucible” who choose to protect their image instead of defending the people in Salem. Beginning with Reverend Parris, he only cares for his reputation. After discovering Abigail might have committed witchcraft, Parris is not worried about his daughter lying motionless on the bed. Instead, he comments, “Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character” (Miller 11). This remark goes beyond being selfish. Instead of caring for his ill daughter, Reverend Parris is more worried about his loss of position as a minister of Salem. He cares more about his status that he fails to realize the burden he places on everyone in Salem, thus, showing the dangers of maintaining a reputation....
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...In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many people of Salem were accused of committing witchcraft. These accusations were brought by Abigail Williams and several others girls in the community. While the court of Salem tried determining the credibility of these allegations, many questioned the characters of those accused. Arthur Miller was able to depict that the people of Salem had clear Christian reputations that they wanted to uphold and sustain in their society. In Act 1 and throughout the play, Proctor claims that he never had an affair with Abigail. He wanted to maintain his reputation as an ethical and honest citizen in Salem. If John’s affair with Abigail becomes public it would jeopardize his reputation in the community. John Proctor makes an effort to ensure that Abigail knows to stay away from him. In Act 1, he says: “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for...
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...advantage over someone else. These kind of ulterior motives may come about from fear or jealousy and often can result in negative consequences. In 1962 a witch hunt in the town of Salem was held. In The Crucible, Parris feels like he needs to be in control and tries to maintain a moral order. Abigail is a young girl longing for a relationship with a married man named Proctor. Miller demonstrates that ulterior motives can lead to the destruction of relationships and even the demise of a community shown through Parris’ need for a positive reputation and Abigail’s mischief against Elizabeth Proctor. Firstly, Miller exposes the...
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...Abigail Williams is responsible for the chaos and turmoil in "The Crucible" due to her actions and manipulations. She falsely accuses numerous citizens of witchcraft, causing fear and hysteria in the town. Despite Mary Warren's attempt to testify against Abigail, she faces opposition from the other girls who are under Abigail's influence. Abigail continuously tries to convince people that everyone else is a witch, using tactics such as pretending to see and hear spirits whenever a witness tries to testify against her. Abigail's past and present experiences contribute to her actions, but they do not excuse her behavior. She witnessed the death of her parents at a young age, had an affair with John Proctor, and threatened those who crossed her....
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...odd good,and some are dark. There are many important things that happen in the crucible, and there are many important characters in the crucible that i will be talking about in the. All these characters are important in the crucible because they all have to deal with a big part in the crucible. The three characters that i will be talking about from the book are john proctor, abigail williams, and giles corey. All these characters have an important role in the crucible and i feel like you should know about these characters. My first character that i will be talking about is abigail because she is one of the most important characters in this book. Abigail is really concerned with her reputation because she knows that she is lying about the whole thing but abagaile just doesn't want to get in trouble. This starts to change the way abagail acts because she doesn't want to get in trouble she acts like this with all the other girls because she doesn't want any of the other girls telling people about what they did in the woods with tituba. Abigail's situation is different now because she had nothing to hide but now that she got caught dancing in the woods with tituba and all the girls she is lying saying that all they did was...
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...The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play where the town of Salem conducts witch trials and exhibits extreme behavior resulting from dark desires. One notable character, Abigail Williams, was the cause of the mishaps within Salem and displayed an erratic behavior to the townspeople. Her distinct personality and persona have stood out within the plot and ruined John Proctor’s reputation. Abigail Williams actions and dialogue portray her, not only as manipulative but bossy and selfish. Abigail’s physical description ties into her manipulative nature. For instance, she is described as “a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller 8) This suggests that she is powerful in regards to her lies and is tactical...
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...In the Crucible, by Arthur Miller my character Abigail is seen as a selfish person who only looks to do things for her own convenience. Throughout the book we can see Abigail do many actions to benefit herself rather than helping others. The reason she acts this way is because she is worried about her reputation. She also fears being singled out from the Christian community. The only thing she has left is her reputation which is why it is so important that she keeps it. In the phrase “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!,” she tries to act as if she was also a culprit in the situation. In another part of the book she threatens Betty to not speak a word about the accusations. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” Abigail will go to any extreme to save her reputation even if it means using violence to protect herself....
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...Abraham Lincoln once profoundly declared, “Nearly all men can stand Adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller in the early 1950’s, has an exemplary character that shows a defective result. Mr. Lincoln’s quote shows that power defines the strength or weakness of a character. As The Crucible transitioned into its third act, Judge Danforth, a round character, begins as a self-justified and aware judge. As the play progresses, This truth becomes an act to cover his multiplying flaws. In The Crucible, Judge Danforth had his power and authority protecting him, but let his foolishness bewitch him. This cocky and oblivious man ruled Salem’s courthouse. Originally the deputy governor of Massachusetts, Judge Danforth presumptuously took collateral control(Wikipedia). He started his tyranny with unjustly condemning 72, eventually 12 during the Salem witch trials(Miller, 1190,1222). Such unrequited power was abused by leading...
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...Act One of The Crucible introduces a love triangle between John Proctor, his wife Elizabeth, and Abigail, their former servant. This results in a strained relationship for all involved and has a negative effect on all three characters as it costs Abigail her job and reputation, and it leads to a series of possible problems for the Proctor’s marriage. Abigail is introduced in The Crucible as a character who has an “endless capacity for dissembling” (9) As the former servant for the Proctor family, she is not only fired by Elizabeth Proctor because of her relationship with John Proctor but her name is also “blackened” by the somewhat spurned wife. When Proctor enters Betty Paris’s room and encounters Abigail, her “eyes widen” as she is pleased by his presence, and she expresses to Proctor that she waits for him “every night” (22). John, however, tells her to “put it out of mind” as he is not interested (22). Abigail’s words reveal she desires to be with Proctor; furthermore, she makes it a point to remind him that she was fired by his wife because of their past relationship when they had feelings for each other, and according to Abigail, they still do. This foreshadows that...
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...and coming playwright, to create a story that would grab an audience, and bring awareness to a budding crisis (Arthur). The Crucible tells the story of the power of hysteria during the Salem Witch Trials in a way that relates more to the underlying topic of the Red Scare rather than the actual history. Arthur Miller significantly changes...
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...Discuss how an idea developed in a text you have studied. In the play ‘The Crucible’ written my Arthur Miller an important idea the developed throughout the text is reputation and injustice. It shows us that in an environment where people are shelter, oblivious, and ignorant, peple may behave in ways that are unjust in order to protect their reputation. Arthur Miller was able to develope these ideas through the setting and characters. He was able to incorporate his own experience into his play as he was a victim himself of McCarthyism. The Crucible is set in a small town, Salem in Massachusetts, America in 1692 where people were oblivious of anything other than God, believing that they were self righteous. In such time, reputation determined how people looked at you and was considered something of great importance. “A man will not cast away his good name“ shows us the importance of people’s reputation at that time. When something is regarded as such a high level of importance to someone, people will do anything in order to protect it even if the means are considered unjust and ‘unrighteous‘. Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of ‘blackening my name in the village‘ after commiting adultery with John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband. This cause her to fear for her reputation, and how people will view her. Afraid of her reputation, Abigail Williams acts in fear to and pointed the finger at Tituba claiming that she was practising witchcraft ‘she sends her spirit on me in Church; she...
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...The Grudge Trials In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Miller shows the reader that rivalries and grudges can drive people to do crazy things. In The Crucible, the puritan community of 1600s Salem received a chance to reap revenge on people they had problems and disputes with by accusing others of witchcraft, which would either leave the accused dead or their name ruined. Everyone from Thomas Putnam, a land owner greedy for land, to Abigail Williams, a teenager involved in adultery, accused others due to personal rivalries and grudges. Abigail Williams is most known for accusing Elizabeth Proctor, a religious woman and wife of the man with whom Abigail had the affair. When Elizabeth hears of the incident, she immediately fires Abigail, which leads Abigail to believe that Elizabeth is cold and callous. Abigail’s jealousy of Elizabeth leads her to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft and she has Mary Warren, a servant to the Proctors, place a poppet, or small doll, made to be Abigail with a needle in her side, into the Proctor’s home. With this happening, Elizabeth believes that Abigail “thinks to take my place” (II.384) as John’s wife by ensuring she is hung. It is Abigail’s personal rivalry with Elizabeth over John’s attention that sets the stage for others to seek vengeance in court. Thomas Putnam is a wealthy land owner in Salem greedy for as much land as he can buy. Putnam and his family accuse Francis Nurse, an amicable man, due to a desire for Nurse’s land. Putnam...
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...Katie Lewis Mrs. Miller English 11, Period 1 26 November 2014 The Good, the Bad, and the Witches Buddha once said, “There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.” His words describe how there is both evil and good in the world. There is also both good and evil in Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. In 1692, the witch trials played a huge role in the lives of people in Salem, Massachusetts. The townspeople feared witchcraft so much that it created confusion regarding who was actually a witch and who was not. Many accusations were made leaving innocent people responsible for the mysterious acts of witchcraft. Abigail Williams reveals her impurity by doing just this. Abigail constantly lies to the court and does everything in her power to save herself, even if it means falsely accusing others. In Miller's play The Crucible, Abigail Williams proves her impurity of soul by having an affair with John Proctor, lying to the townspeople, and attempting to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail first reveals her impure heart through her love affair with John Proctor. Although Abigail is aware that John is married to Elizabeth Proctor, she does not let their relationship get in the way of her own selfish desires. Johns fends off Abigail when he says “Abigail, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. We never touched Abby” (15). Abigail argues, “Aye, but we did” (15). Here Abigail shows no guilt...
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...Divya Kumar Mr. Kirley ENG3U1-05 November.11.2015. The Crucible: Is John Proctor truly a tragic hero? A tragic hero is a person with admirable qualities yet they have a tragic flaw that leads them to their downfall. In Miller’s play “The Crucible,” the protagonist, John Proctor, is a tragic hero known for his good reputation yet commits adultery with Abigail thus making it a tragic flaw that leads to his death. John Proctor is a tragic hero because he is a well-mannered person that has a good reputation. John strongly believes in Elizabeth’s good morals by proving his honesty and bond towards Elizabeth and speaks up for her as he tries to get her and his friends’ wives out of jail. He tells Danforth...
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...How is the theme of blame and motive established in Act One? In Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ the theme of blame and motive is apparent in Act One of the play. In this Act, we see the drama and hysteria of witchcraft begin to unfold, and during this blame is a dominant theme. In Act One we see Abigail Williams blame Tituba for the cause of Betty’s sudden illness. Abigail begins to accuse Tituba when she exclaims ‘I never called him! Tituba, Tituba’. Her claims are more believable due to her race, which puts Tituba at a disadvantage. ‘No, no, chicken blood. I give she chicken blood’ highlights the innocence of Tituba, however the blame is placed on Tituba with Hale’s response. ‘Are you silencing this child?’ establishes an accusatory tone and shows Hale’s alignment with Abigail in blaming Tituba. Parris's treatment of Tituba reveals his angry and selfish character. The incident also shows Tituba's powerlessness: she's entirely at her master's command. Tituba discovers that nobody wants to hear denials, just as Abigail earlier discovered. Because of this, Tituba knows she must provide a confession and so blames ‘Sarah Good’ and ‘Goody Osborn’. In response to this, Mrs. Putnam shouts out that she ‘knew it’, which shows a sense of satisfaction in getting someone to blame for the death of her children in infancy. During Act One the theme of motive is also a significant theme, in particular with the character’s Abigail Williams and Parris. Parris’s motive and main concern becomes...
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