Parris is a corrupt man reaching out for land, Danforth is a stubborn deluded judge who does everything but serve justice, and Abigail is a jealous girl who will stop at nothing to have John Proctor as her husband. Together they raised the witch hunts to new heights and using poor evidence to take the lives of those who deserve to live and stain Salem town forever with the events that took place. These characters prove how easily hypocrisy can take over before all sense is gone replaced by madness and loss of innocent life. Dept. Gov.
When Reverend Hale fails in his attempts to pardon the accused, Danforth states, "I cannot pardon these when twelve are already hanged for the same crime, “It is not just," (Miller 119). Danforth believes he has supreme knowledge of what is justice and a duty to uphold it but when he is faced with the decision to stand up against the wrong doings of the past he goes against justice to protect his own pride. Another character that demonstrates hypocrisy in Salem is Reverend Paris. When he is told that his niece, Betty, is in such dire condition because of "unnatural causes," Paris quickly explains, "No--no. There be no unnatural causes here.
He has commited adultery and this hidden secret unfolds into a mass of accusations, confessions, and madness in Salem. After the affair that John Proctor and Abigail had together, Abigail becomes jealous of John Proctor's wife. She tells him that once Elizabeth is out of their way, they would be free to love each other. John is appalled at this. John makes clear, "Abby, you'll put it out of mind.
The very idea of witchcraft is reprobated, as Reverend Parris reiterates, "Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know thatyou least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house." (14) When the court becomes involved, the judges, reproving the practice of witchcraft in any form, are more prone to believing the girls' accounts of the torture each condemned person had inflicted upon them by the
When John has a talk with Abigail he states, "I will cut my arms off before I ever reach for you again" saying that he truly regrets what he has done and feels terrible from it. He makes it clear to her that he wants to move on, despite his past with her. Proctor’s main goal is to uncover the truth concerning all the false witchcraft accusations and set Salem free from it. His main course of action in doing so is talking to Abigail because he knows that she is the mastermind behind the whole scheme. He wants her to confess to all the trouble caused throughout Salem.
A History of Persecution For millennium humans have been afraid of the unknown and what they do not understand. This fear has led to violence and the perpetration of unspeakable actions in the name of eradicating that fear. During the 1940’s and 50’s the United States was suffering under the fear of communist sabotage and were turning to McCarthyism to root out the traitors. Playwright Arthur Miller saw the unfairness and mad persecutions that were sweeping the nation and satired it all in his play The Crucible which is a retelling of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in Massachusetts in 1692. Miller used the play to represent injustices that were going on at the time such as accusations that had no substantial evidence, an unfair assumption that the accused was guilty until proven innocent, and the tendency of Senator McCarthy to retaliate against any criticism against him an accusation of being a communist sympathizer.
Miller creates a situation of irony in this chapter with the arrest of Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor. These characters are the most innocent in the play, yet are accused of witchcraft by two of the most arrogant, untrustworthy people, Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams. He also makes the audience feel a sense of helplessness as the play unfolds and how characters seem bound by the law but also the superstition and this is one of the main points that Miller is trying to get across. Laws should not control you if they are corrupt. In this scene we see how desperate Abigail has become and how far she will go to poses John Proctor.
Reverend Parris, still in shock that his daughter would be stricken by the devil, wonders why the devil would choose a preacher’s home as his place for invasion. In response, Hale says the following; “What victory would the devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the best the devil wants, and who is better than the minister?” (Miller, 41). Americans had much to fear in regard to communism; restrictions of free speech, deprivation of private property, restrictions of free press, and the presence of false judicial systems, just to name a few. With this in mind, the common attitude in the United States was, as it continues to be today, that communism is evil manifest in a government.
Lastly, Pearl’s abandonment from her father and isolation from society brings about the evil she demonstrates. Arguably, the Puritanical conception of sin confuses these main characters’ knowledge of the nature of evil. Hester and Dimmesdale’s adultery leads to Chillingworth’s transformation into a sinister being as he attempts to impose Puritanical evil on them. For example, Chillingworth’s idea of evil, influenced by the Puritans, helps him decide how to punish the lovers explaining, "I [will leave] thee to the scarlet letter. If that [has] not avenged me, I can do no more!"
Mary Warren displays this anxiety when she allows Abigail to frighten her into abandoning John Proctor and accusing him of witchcraft. This leaves him unable to prove the girls' perjury and at the mercy of the judges who are quick to impose guilt. Reverend Parris also displayed an influence by fear when he urged the judges to condemn the accused and encouraged the accused to confess. He believed that this would help him continue to appear moral in the town during immoral and unjust proceedings. Should he lose his facade of morality, he would lose his position of power as reverend.