The Crucible By Arthur Miller - 1061 Words

Lie To Live, Live To Lie In Arthur Miller’s historical fiction play The Crucible (1953), witchcraft surfaces in the town of Salem leaving everyone to fend for themselves. Generally, people will do whatever they can to save their lives. In The Crucible, a group of girls are found dancing in the woods and are caught by Reverend Parris, minister of the Salem church and uncle to Abigail Williams. One of the girls, Betty, faints and draws many to visit and try to find the source of her illness. Reverend Parris has Reverend Hale, a minister well versed in affairs of the devil, to come and cure Betty. Many people accuse Betty’s symptoms of witchcraft, including Hale. This witchcraft conviction starts the â€Å"witch trials†. Abigail and the girls are†¦show more content†¦Abigail’s young insecurities cause her to make drastic decisions to save her life. Her decisions are made accordingly based on her young age of 17. Even at this young, innocent age, she has already had an affair with John Proctor when she was the house help to the Proctors. Ever since the affair, Abigail generally bases her decisions off of her desire for John. Even though, she didn’t show it, Abigail was very afraid. She was afraid she would lose John, so she has to continue to keep the lie of witchcraft hidden in order for Parris to believe her. Because of her fear of losing John, her intentions from the start were to kill his wife Elizabeth. Killing Elizabeth gave hope to Abigail that she and John could get married. Once John was convicted because of Abigail, she knew she had made a huge mistake with the witch trials. From her poor decisions, John eventually is accused and convicted of witchcraft. She knew this mistake couldn’t be undone without it costing her own life. Abigail then decides to leave Salem offering to take John. The night before John’s hanging, Abigail visits him in jail to free him so they can run off together. Unfortunately , Abigail’s plan didn’t work and John rejects the offer and is left to hang. Later that morning, Abigail was pronounced missing. She decides to take up her own offer and sail off on a ship to Barbados. Abigail left because she didn’t want to see John be hanged.