FREE ESSAY ON THE CRUCIBLE: TURE DEVILS IN SELAM

THE CRUCIBLE: TURE DEVILS IN SELAM

The Crucible: True Devils in Salem
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem Witch Trials is explored in
great detail. There are many theories as to why the witch trials came about, the most
popular of which the girls' suppressed childhood. However, there were other factors as
well, such as Abigail Williams' affair with John Proctor, the secret grudges that
neighbors held against each other, and the physical and economic differences between the
citizens of Salem Village. 
From a historical viewpoint, it is known that young girls in colonial Massachusetts were
given little or no freedom to act like children. They were expected to walk straight,
arms by their sides, eyes slightly downcast, and their mouths were to be shut unless
otherwise asked to speak. It is not surprising that the girls would find this type of
lifestyle very constricting. To rebel against it, they played pranks, such as dancing in
the woods, listening to slaves' magic stories and pretending that other villagers were
bewitching them. The Crucible starts after the girls in the village have been caught
dancing in the woods. As one of them falls sick, rumors start to fly that there is
witchcraft going on in the woods, and that the sick girl is bewitched. Once the girls
talk to each other, they become more and more frightened of being accused as witch, so
Abigail starts accusing others of practicing witchcraft. The other girls all join in so
that the blame will not be placed on them. In The Crucible, Abigail starts the
accusations by saying, I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah Good with the
Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! Another
girl, Betty, continues the cry with, I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe
with the Devil! From here on, the accusations grow and grow until the jails overflow with
accused witches. It must have given them an incredible sense of power when the whole town
of Salem listened to their words and believed each and every accusation. After all,
children were to be seen and not heard in Puritan society, and the newfound attention was
probably overwhelming.
In Act Three of The Crucible, the girls were called before the judges to defend
themselves against the claims that they were only acting. To prove their innocence,
Abigail led the other girls in a chilling scene. Abby acted as if Mary Warren sent her
spirit up to the rafters and began to talk to the spirit. Oh Mary, this is a black art to
change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it's God's work I do. The other
girls all stared at the rafters in horror and began to repeat everything they heard.
Finally, the girls' hysterics caused Mary Warren to accuse John Proctor of witchcraft.
Once the scam started, it was too late to stop, and the snowballing effect of wild
accusations soon resulted in the hanging of many innocents. After the wave of accusations
began, grudges began to surface in the community. Small slights were made out to be
witchcraft, and bad business deals were blamed on witchery. Two characters in The
Crucible, Giles Corey and Thomas Putnam, argue early on about a plot of land. Corey
claims that he bought it from Goody Nurse but Putnam says he owns it, and Goody Nurse had
no right to sell it. Later, when Putnam's daughter accuses George Jacobs of witchery,
Corey claims that Putnam only wants Jacobs' land. Giles says, If Jacobs hangs for a witch
he forfeit up his property - that's law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to
buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land! Others also had
hidden motives for accusing their neighbors. Once the accusations began, everyone had a
reason to accuse someone else as bewitched; therefore it is why the hangings got so out
of hand. The wave of accusations can be likened to mass hysteria, in which the people
involved are so caught up that they start having delusions of neighbors out to do them
harm. 
One of the main accusers, Abigail Williams, had an ulterior motive for accusing Elizabeth
Proctor. In The Crucible, Abigail believed that if she got rid of Goody Proctor, then
John Proctor, her husband, would turn to Abby. John Proctor had an affair with Abigail,
but for him it was just lust, while Abigail believed it to be true love. She told John
that he loves her, and once she destroys Elizabeth, they will be free to love one
another. John is horrified at this, but can do nothing to convince Abigail that he is not
in love with her. Because of Abigail's twisted plot to secure John for herself, Elizabeth
is arrested. It is the hidden motives behind the accusations that fan the flames of the
Salem Witch Trials.
To get the complete picture of the causes behind the witch trials, you must look at the
physical reasons as well. Two historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, drew a map
of Salem Village and plotted the accusers, the defendants, and the accused witches. An
interesting picture arose when a line was drawn dividing the town into east and west. It
became clear that nearly all the accusers lived on the west side, and almost all the
defenders and accused witches lived on the eastside. To determine the cause of the
east-west split, the historians examined many disputes, chief among them being the choice
of ministers.
Once Salem Village was granted the right to have its own meetinghouse, quarrels arose
over who would preach in the pulpit. There were four ministers between the time period of
when the meetinghouse was built and the end of the witch trials. The arguments over
ministers soon became a power struggle. There were two factions that arose during this
dispute, and it was noted that one group supported two ministers while the other group
supported the other two ministers. Each group wanted to prove its influence by choosing a
minister and making him the spiritual guide to Salem Village. The two groups were found
to coincide closely with the east-west division. When the economical divisions of the
village were examined, it was found that in general the western citizens of Salem Village
lived an agrarian lifestyle and were hard-pressed economically. The land on the western
side was well suited to farming and grazing. By contrast, the villagers on the east side
were mainly merchants and lived fairly opulently. The road to Salem Town traveled through
the east side of Salem Village. Many innkeepers and tavern owners lived on this road and
made a good profit off all the travelers. Tension often arose between the two groups
because of their vastly different lifestyles. 
It is not difficult to see why a catastrophe such as the Salem Witch Trials occurred.
Once one accusation was made, it was easy to release all the buried suspicions and hatred
into a wave of madness. The Crucible simplifies the cause to make for a better story, but
in reality the reasons for the witch craft accusations were much more complex. The
reasons behind the accusations would result in many more quarrels over the years, but
none as interesting or as horrifying as the Salem Witch Trials. In such a straight-laced
Puritan society, there lived many people with hidden darkness in their hearts, and the
Salem witch trials exposed and magnified the consequences of those black desires.