When tituba confessed to what the girls were actually doing in the woods in Act I, Abigail sees her confession as a threat to the lies. Consequentially, she plans to cover herself and the other girls with a mask of fidelity. Childish behavior consumes maturity when an individual is presented with the ability of power. When the girls’ ordeal becomes public, it’s shown how they attempt to save their lives and reputation from entanglement with their own altercations. Abigail’s power was obtained and abused using her manipulation to save her self . Author Arthur miller gives us these examples to show us how power in certain people can be destructive and dangerous. Abigails childish jealousy got the best of her[john Proctor] “aye, but we did not... do you look for whippin?”denies any association with abigail.(Miller 22) She foolishly accuses Proctors wife Elizabeth of witchcraft just to get her out of the way of[abigail] being with Proctor. Abigail used the trials for a personal vendetta and saw a way to get exactly what she wants, without the consequences of the society they lived in. Power was the main issue in the society and…
Have you ever craved to be the center of attention? Spun a lie to feel important? However what happens when that certain lie begins to spiral out of control? In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, this complex situation happens to Abigail Williams; she is a mere child of seventeen years old, who frightens her peers due to her belligerent behavior. Therefore, when she begins to falsely accuse townspeople of being witches, her peers begin to blindly imitate her. Their duplicity soon has their whole town, Salem Village, in an uproar. There’s a mass panic as neighbor turns upon neighbor, eagerly wanting to add to the numbers of the accused. Abigail feeds off of their hunger for witches and continues to accuse people with no thought about their well-being, which begins a destructive cycle fueled by her flaws of selfishness, childishness, and self-entitlement that eventually results in the…
Fear was one of the most important things which shaped society but as Miller wrote in his book lies were affected society almost in the same way. Abigail, the main character in The Crucible, uses intimidation to create an atmosphere of fear that pervades the entire play. In act one, she tried to scared girls for do not tell the truth: "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 . . . I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!" This treat predicted Abigail's accusations of…
The citizens of Salem spread many preposterous lies and rumors out of fear and even for their own personal gain. Naturally, blaming someone else for wrongdoing is an immediate and instinctive reaction. For example, the fear of getting in trouble can drive one to put the blame on someone else in order to avoid the consequences. The characters in The Crucible rely on blame to get out of hard situations, motivated by this aspect of fear. Towards the very beginning of the novel, Betty and Abigail have many suspicions surrounding them, and they need to direct the townspeople’s wrath away from themselves. Abigail claims that “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil” (Miller 48)! Abigail and Betty therefore avoid their initial fate. As the book progressed, the lies piled on top of each other, and soon everyone wanted in on the action. Blame turned into a use of getting back at one another. For instance, Ann Putnam claims Rebecca Nurse “murdered seven babies by sending out her spirit on them” (Miller 56). Rebecca Nurse is falsely accused, arrested and later executed. In turn, the natural inclination to blame other leads to false accusations and overall mass hysteria.…
An anonymous source once stated, “When fighting the Dragon, be fearful of becoming the Dragon itself”. This quote means that one’s trepidation of becoming or saying things that one’s contrary to. This quote is true because often times contradiction and hysteria can occur which leads to a change in opinion. The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer equally prove this quote to be true through the use of literary elements or techniques. Characterization and conflict are used in the two works of literature to benefit to prove this quote accurate.…
CULTURE is one of the primary forces that shapes how we view the world. The CULTURAL LENS interprets a story by looking at the culture and time period in which the story was written. It also examines how power is distributed in within cultures. Elements of culture include religion, values, customs, economics, and forms of communication. WHAT ELSE CONTRIBUTES TO SOMEONE’S CULTURE?…
People hiding guilt frequently place it on those of weak groups to get away with their wrongdoings. In The Crucible, as the first news of witchcraft comes to the city of Salem, everyone was looking for the people responsible. Abigail, who did attempt to participate in witchcraft, tried maintaining her power and status in town by covering herself up and shifting focus off of herself, and onto Tituba. “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!”, (Abigail, pg 45). Since Tituba had an extremely low status, being in multiple minority groups (black, woman, slave), Abigail quickly chose her as the victim, and those listening believed it…
The protagonist of The Crucible the leader, Abigail, fear motivates her to lie. She’s afraid to be whipped for dancing and other things in the forest. She deals with her fear by saying Tituba makes her do things in the forest and sends spirits. “She made me! She made Betty do it too! , She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer!”(187). Because Reverend John Hale asked Abigail “Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer?” She had to point finger at someone and she had to seem like a good girl. At that moment Tituba enters and instantly Abigail points at Tituba.…
According to Seneca, a Roman philosopher, “The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.” In other words, the boldest thing in this world is to see an honorable person fighting against misfortune, and never give up. I agree with this statement because it happens in real life and in literature. A man who goes against tragedy caused by nature, human or himself is considered great and honorable. Two works of literature that illustrate the quote as I have explained it are Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Night by Elie Wiesel.…
Communication is a fundamental part of working in a professional environment. Without proper communication, nothing will get done. Outside the Lens is a very collaborative and communicative company as is the work the students the students do at Muirlands, so I’ve seen firsthand how important it is to have good communication and understanding. It’s also important to self-advocate for yourself otherwise you won’t accomplish anything you want. My mentor has always left room for self-advocacy by telling me to let him know if there was anything specific I wanted to learn, or focus on. I’ve felt confident enough to speak up whenever there’s something I want and that’s helped me out while working on my project. While editing I decided I needed more…
An anoymous writer wrote “Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good.” This quote means that literature tells more of the bad things that people do than the the good things. This is because it is more thrilling to read about the misfortunes of someone than an a characters regular life. This quote is proven true in the two works The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and in The Color Purple by Alice Walker.…
When something bad happens, a person’s initial thought is to place blame on another, all the while making the assumption that the motive is evil. Such an assumption is inaccurate. Most people’s motives, no matter the final outcome, are for self-benefit. Just as Maxwell states, “the nature of human evil … cannot be assessed in the measure of the destructiveness of our evil behaviors … That origin is misguided instinct (ignorance) and fear. Even when we lack courage or knowledge, we are still being guided by our simple instinct to benefit ourselves.” Accordingly, self responsibility, in the form of thinking not only about the effect an action may have on oneself but also about the effect an action may have others, may lack when a person, such as Abigail Williams in The Crucible, thinks first for herself. In order to avoid getting into trouble with her uncle and the church, Abigail begins the chain of the children’s confessions, as well as the blaming of innocent citizens. In beginning this chaos, Abigail is considering the immediate threats to herself; if people were to find out that she drank blood, danced, and performed the rituals with Tituba, she would be in a large amount of trouble. By thinking only about herself, masses of people are blamed and many are killed. Rather than confessing, she causes evil – but that is not her intent; she simply fails to take responsibility for her first misjudgment. Although she eventually develops into a knowingly evil character, she was not deliberately malicious.…
Abigail is the reason that the mess of the witch trials got started in The Crucible. In the first act of the play after Tituba confessed to committing witchcraft, Abigail started to blame other people for using witchcraft. Abigail started the her first accusations by saying, “I want to open myself! They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though in a pearly light. I want the…
J.F. Clarke once stated, “The bravest of individuals is the one who obeys his or her conscience.” To me, this statement means that any individual who follows their conscience, and what they find to be right or wrong, is most brave, or strong, because they step away from society’s opinion and go with their own feelings whether it be what they need or desire. I agree with this statement because I also feel that an individual who listens to their conscience shows bravery. In my opinion someone who follows their conscience rather than society’s standards shows a lot of strength. It takes a lot of character for a person to leave their comfort zone to do the right thing, especially when that person has no support. Two literary works that support my opinion are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. In both of these literary works the protagonists are faced with life altering decisions where they must make choices and differentiate right from wrong while having no support from other characters.…
This article, “The RU-486 Abortion Pill Should Be Available to Women”, was written by Laura Fraser in 2001 for the Greenhaven Press. The issue involved with this article is whether or not the RU-486 abortion pill should be available to women in the U.S.. The conclusion Fraser came up with was yes, the RU-486 abortion pill should be available to women in the U.S., and for plenty of reasons. For example, if mifepristone becomes available, it will remove political and practical barriers so women can get abortions and physicians will not have to perform complete abortions. Also, 54% of all…