Crucible Essay, Research Paper
The Crucible
In Arthur Miller s play The Crucible the main characters contribute to the chaos
that is aroused in Salem. Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Thomas Putnam and all
contribute to the chaos surrounding the trials. If it had not been for these people most of
the men and women who died never would have seen the horrible death they did. Abigail
was the main source of the craziness that went on in the town and John Proctor s
stubbornness didn t help much as well. Thomas Putnam was just a greedy money loving
man who had no respect for human life.
If it were not for Abigail Williams none of upheaval that took place never would
have gone on. Salem went into hysterics because of a girl who did not want to get into
trouble for something that she knew was forbidden. All she had to do was admit that she
had done something wrong and not blamed everyone else in the town for her wrong
doings, then everything would have been fine. Also, she caused problems with the other
girls. She was the main influence for the lies that were told by other girls who were
witched . She was the one who told that if they told anyone the truth about what went
on in the woods that she would personally kill them. Even when one of the girls tried to
stop by telling the courts the truth, Abby persuaded all the others into lying just so they
would not get into trouble. Abby was the main problem in the Salem witch trials, if she
had taken responsibility and not lied and gotten others into trouble, and killed, nothing
would have gone wrong and Salem could have been a normal town.
Thomas Putnam was another major influence in the hysterity that occurred in
Salem. He was a greedy and revengeful man, who thought of nothing but himself. He
turned in his neighbors for witch craft they never committed. Putnam had many of his
neighbors hung because he was hungry for land and money. He would make his daughter
cry witch on some of the men, so that they would be convicted of witchery and hung by
the courts. He forced his daughter to continue with something he knew was wrong just so
that he could uptain more land and riches for himself. He was also very scared that if the
lie did not continue and the secret was revealed that the girls were lying, that his daughter
Betty would be hung or punished. His wife also started some of the witch hype ,
because she wanted to find a person to blame for the death of her babies.
Reverend Hale also played a role in the destruction of Salem. When he arrived,
he thought that only he could tell who was a witch and who was innocent. Because of
Hale and his many facts about witches many innocent and good people were hung for
witchery. Rebecca Nurse was know by people in and out of Salem for her generous acts
of good, but because of her husband s fear and Hale s beliefs she was hung. Reverend
Hale came to Salem believing that he knew that answers and people believed him, so
when he started to name people left and right for witchery, the people believed it. What,
caused him to start the most ruches is when he back on his theories and decided that
maybe that himself and the people of Salem were wrong. When people found out that
Hale was thinking they were wrong, they turned on him and got even more hysterical.
The Crucible is a play about a town that went crazy because of the lies and stupid
theories by the citizens of Salem. If it had not been for the dishonesty and
misconceptions of three people none of this would ever have happened. The people of
Salem were led to comitt on of the simple senseless massacres of all times because they
were stubborn and could not look to obvious answer, the girls lied so they would not get
in trouble. Well all do it, just no one gets killed.