|
It is a play with tremendous feelings with many inside twists hidden in the
archives of the true story. It is a play with emotional feelings, feelings of
anger, hate, evil, manipulation, good, and pureness. It is the The Crucible. In
the play, Arthur Miller develops the idea that powerfully held beliefs direct
people’s behaviour, Abigail Williams who accuses others to escape from
punishment, Mary Warren who chooses to lie to keep herself out of trouble, and
John Proctor who chooses to sacrifice his life to save the lives of other
innocent people. Arthur Miller develops Abigail Williams as an evil character.
She tempts Proctor into lechery, and come its illegal acts which all are against
the Puritan religion. To escape punishment for dancing, she deflects the actions
and blames them on someone else, and does not care how many lives she destroys.
Later when she grows into power and influence, she seems to enjoy sending these
innocent people their deaths. She also uses evil actions disguised as good by
admitting who was with the devil, “She sends her spirit on me in church; she
makes me laugh at prayer!” (P.44) Obviously the people she accuses are actually
innocent, but she has the ability to manipulate Judge Danforth into believing
that she is doing the right thing and telling the truth. Mary Warren’s
intentions at the beginning of the story were to do good and justice. But she
sees that when she is in trouble, she also needs someone to deflect the
punishment on.
This greed results in her saying that John Proctor was associated
with Satan, and that he possessed her and made her do all of wrong actions, “You
are the Devil’s man! I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God.”(P.118) Her
intentions were first good, but then her actions turned into evil, just like
Abigail Williams. John Proctor is the protagonist in the play. He is a hero at
the end of the play, when he falsely admits that he was with Satan all a long.
He then refuses to tell the judge and accuse anyone of being with Satan too like
Abigail did. Therefore he may be considered a hero, for dying for a cause of
saving the lives of other innocent people. John Proctor also tries to defend his
wife, and attempts to make the judge realize how Abigail Williams is
manipulating him. In conclusion, Arthur Miller develops the idea that powerfully
held beliefs direct people’s behaviour. The forces of good always tried to do
what was the best for everybody, even if it meant breaking some Puritan laws.
The evil group did whatever was best for themselves. They were greedy, and had
no consideration of others.
|
