
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.
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english and Social Studies Department
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