Essay on Salem Witch Trials and Arthur Miller

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Mari Burgos
September 24, 2014
Period: 4 Changing Characters “And I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” and just with that one simple character stating such horrifying threat, evil was planted in Salem. The Salem Witch Trials began with a variety of young girls that were caught dancing in the forest naked, by Reverend Paris who was actually the father and an uncle of two of the girls dancing. To avoid severe punishment the girls began to fake being be-witched and the pointing of fingers began. Pointing fingers was more like an act of vengeance towards those individuals who once harmed or hurt the inflicted girls. Salem was known to be a holy place, where the devil had yet not reached. The young girls who were inflicted initiated a huge commotion that led to the historical event in Puritanism life known as the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller portrays the characters from the Salem Witch Trials differently than they were in history. By adding differences in Elizabeth Proctor character, the tension and the liability formed the story and made it much more intense and interesting. Based on historical events Elizabeth was in reality the third wife of John Proctor and had up to six children. (legendsofamerica.com) Contrary to the fact that she was the third wife, in the story Elizabeth was seen to be the only wife of John’s and only had 2 children and was to bear another on of John’s kids. “The child, it grows and I have had no word of the two boys.” (Page 235) In the story she was seen as an honorable wife rather than being the side-chick. She was to be viewed as the only true love and wife of John. This gave John bearable reason to feel guilty about his adultery with Abigail. Arthur Miller changed her character in the play for reason to conveniently make Elizabeth seem like she had a reason to be honored as a truthful women for staying by the side of John after he had committed adultery. As for John Proctor, his character changed drastically. In reality he had eighteen children by 3 wives. This meant that Elizabeth was not his only wife (salemwitchtrials.com). But it’s quite comprehendible when you realize that in reality he was sixty years old. In the play Arthur Miller decides to make him be an honorable man in his mid-thirties with only one wife and 3 children. “I have three children, how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and If I sold my friends.”(Page 239) He is now seen as a man with a good name, undecietful rather than being an unloyal lady’s man. Arthur Miller made this change in John Proctor’s character so that he became an untouchable man that died being innocent. To make the Salem Witch Trials, appear tenser Arthur Miller chose to change Abigail’s character in
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