Essay about Salem Witch Trials and John Proctor

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In The Crucible , by Arthur Miller a play based on the Salem witchcraft trials, takes place in a small Puritan village in 1692. The witchcraft trials, as Miller explains, grew out of the particular moral system of the Puritans, which caused hysteria in the village and interference in others' affairs and behaviors.The play begins in the home of Reverend [->0], when two young girls became very ill. Everybody in the viilage started spreading rumors about how they must have been posessed and then the girls go along with it. The girls start name three woman that they claim to have worship the devil. The village from there go through many cases and hangs and after a while the people got tired of see so many people get hung everyday because of what girls are saying. the town starts hating blaming the people from the court because of listening to the girls . Then the court decideds to stop all of the hysteria because they rea;ize how they girls were trying to get attention . The girls just wanted to make something go on in the village because they wanted to have fun . Toward the end of the play everyone start realizeing the truth about how the girls just wanted the attention.

A man , though believed to be honest and truthful , may still find a way to sin . John Proctor ,is caged by guilt.
Adultery? Lechery? John, what got into you? Well, apparently John's wife Elizabeth was a little frigid (which she even admits), and when tempted by the fiery, young Abigail, John just couldn't resist. Elizabeth was also sick while Abigail was working for the Proctors, so she probably wasn't giving her husband much attention. More than likely, though, the cause of John's transgression is much deeper than base physical reasons.

It's also quite possible that John Proctor was attracted to Abigail's subversive personality. Miller seems to hint at this in the first scene in which we see them together in Act One. Abigail tells John that all the hullabaloo about witches isn't true. She and the other girls were just in the woods having a dance party with Tituba. Miller writes: "PROCTOR, his smile widening: Ah, you're wicked yet aren't y'! […] You'll be clapped in the stocks before you're twenty" (I.178). The key clue here is the stage direction. It seems to indicate that Proctor is amused and even charmed by Abigail's naughty antics. This would be in keeping with his personality. We see him challenging authority, from Parris to Danforth, throughout the play.
Man of Action
John Proctor is a passive protagonist; for the first two acts, he does little to affect the main action of the play. (Read more on this in "Character Roles[->1].") By the time Act Three rolls around, however, he's all fired up. Spurred by his wife's arrest, he marches off to stop the spiraling insanity of the witch trials and to hopefully regain his own integrity in the process.

Proctor goes to court armed with three main weapons. There's Abigail's admission to him that there was no witchcraft. Also, he has Mary Warren's testimony that she and the other girls have been faking. Last, but not least, he's prepared to admit that he and Abigail had an affair. This would stain her now saintly reputation and discredit her in the eyes of the court. Between the wily machinations of Abigail and the
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