The Crucible
The Crucible
In the article "Witch-Hunting, Thwarted Desire, and Girl Power: Arthur Miller's The Crucible by Karen Bovard, Bovard talks how people fight to gain power in the hysteria of the witch trials. Abigail Williams leads the girls into accusing people and turns people against each other. Mary Warren tires to stand up and tell the truth but fails. Male ministers and judges fight for power. Proctor and Abigail have an affair that starts the turning of friends against friends by the towns’ people accusing others of being witches. Bovard says that it is interesting that no young men have interest in Abigail, except a married one. Proctor and Abigail’s relationship could be seen as harassment because Abigail worked for the Proctors in their home as a maid. Proctor’s wife Elizabeth knows about Abigail’s desire for Proctor before the affair even starts. She knows that Abigail want to replace her, in her home and bed. Another desire is of Ann Putnam who has lost 7 children during childbirth and she starts to accuse her neighbors of witchcraft. She accuses Rebecca Nurse, who has had many children and grandchildren and out of jealousy Ann accuses Rebecca. When girls are found dancing they are thought to be posed by the devil and then they fall ill and everyone thinks it was the devil and witchcraft. Bovard also makes the comparison about how slaves in Barbados and the town misfits are accused of witchcraft because they are easy to accuse and easy to bring down. And they accused people by what they were. More women with accused and race were also an issue.
Something that I think both the crucible and this article talk about and focus on is how people are power hungry and how they want to gain power and leverage over other people. One example is the judges in the court. Judge Danforth found a lot of power by signing death warrants. He liked signing them because he felt like he could scare people into doing what he wanted them to do and listen to them. In the
In the article "Witch-Hunting, Thwarted Desire, and Girl Power: Arthur Miller's The Crucible by Karen Bovard, Bovard talks how people fight to gain power in the hysteria of the witch trials. Abigail Williams leads the girls into accusing people and turns people against each other. Mary Warren tires to stand up and tell the truth but fails. Male ministers and judges fight for power. Proctor and Abigail have an affair that starts the turning of friends against friends by the towns’ people accusing others of being witches. Bovard says that it is interesting that no young men have interest in Abigail, except a married one. Proctor and Abigail’s relationship could be seen as harassment because Abigail worked for the Proctors in their home as a maid. Proctor’s wife Elizabeth knows about Abigail’s desire for Proctor before the affair even starts. She knows that Abigail want to replace her, in her home and bed. Another desire is of Ann Putnam who has lost 7 children during childbirth and she starts to accuse her neighbors of witchcraft. She accuses Rebecca Nurse, who has had many children and grandchildren and out of jealousy Ann accuses Rebecca. When girls are found dancing they are thought to be posed by the devil and then they fall ill and everyone thinks it was the devil and witchcraft. Bovard also makes the comparison about how slaves in Barbados and the town misfits are accused of witchcraft because they are easy to accuse and easy to bring down. And they accused people by what they were. More women with accused and race were also an issue.
Something that I think both the crucible and this article talk about and focus on is how people are power hungry and how they want to gain power and leverage over other people. One example is the judges in the court. Judge Danforth found a lot of power by signing death warrants. He liked signing them because he felt like he could scare people into doing what he wanted them to do and listen to them. In the