Crucible Essay

When the town of Salem started the witch trials, Abigail Williams was the honest starter of the whole thing. With Mary Warren on her side, all they needed was someone to tick someone off, and that was John Proctor.  With Proctor having so much power over the town it was him who helped a lot with them.  The Salem Witch Trials were a very unfair, biased, and based on these three characters controlling the whole outcome.

As much as John Proctor did not believe in witch’s and did not want to get involved with the trials, he had a part with deciding what would happen. The affair with Abigail really started it, but then when Proctor ended things, Abigail could not handle it and in her mind she had to somehow get Proctor back.   Proctor has planted the idea in Abigail’s head that he still loves her, and this makes Abigail think that she has to get rid of Elizabeth, even though she already tried to.  “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife”(19)!  Proctor wants things to be over and for Abigail to know that they are forever done with, but he just cannot seem to do it.  “Abby I may think of you softly from time to time”(23).  He is setting himself up for disaster, by not really destroying any form of hope for there love to continue.  Now Abigail knows that she has to have Proctor, and thus the witch trials begin.

            When Mary Warren is first introduced, it is obvious she is a straight up push over.  “What’ll we do?  The village is out!  I just come from the farm; the whole country’s talkin’ witchcraft!  They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby”(18)!  Mary wants to avoid trouble and just confess, and if someone would tell her to tell the truth, she would. Later on Abigail just tells her to shut up,(20), and of course Mary does it.  Soon after she is put onto Proctors “team”, and goes to court to tell the truth, but once again she can not handle it and actually stand up for what she believes in and cracks.  “My name, he want my name.  ‘I’ll murder you,’ he says, ‘if my wife hangs!  We must go and overthrow the court,’ he says”(119)!  Mary turns on him in a second as soon as she starts to get accused, just like everyone else in Salem.  Her character almost represents the whole town of Salem, because they believe anything they here, and will stab everyone in the back as long as they do not get charged.  Although there is some good in Salem, most of them are just Mary Warrens. 

            The most obvious and who really makes this whole story, is Abigail Williams.  She starts out with lying and ends with lying.  From the random outburst of cold, to sticking a pin in her side just so it would seem like Elizabeth Proctor is actually witch, Abigail would not stop at nothing.  “…I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you(20).  She starts off getting all the girls on her side to lie, by telling them if they tell, she will just kill them.  Then she starts accusing whoever she wants.  “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!  I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil”(48)!  Then, after Mary Warren comes to court and tries to put an end to this, she throws her own friend under the bus.  “Oh, Heavenly Father, take away this shadow”(109)!  Abigail did not understand the importance of loyalty and truth, she just was trying to save herself and bring other people down.

            In the end of the story, all honesty is lost and no one can be trusted.  The witch trials were unfair and clearly not handled well, but John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Abigail Williams were the ones most responsible for them.