Discussion Of Who Is The Most To Blame For Starting Witch Craze In Massachusetts

The people from the city of Salem started a craze around Massachusetts, and the craze involves someone being accused of being a witch or conjuring a spirit. Townspeople have been involved in the people being accused of witchcraft or someone being put on trial. The people of Salem have all of sudden turned against each other simply due to the fact that if you are accused and put on trial, your land can be put up for sale. In Arthur Miller’s 1952 drama The Crucible Miller makes it clear that all the craze started from someone accusing someone else of being a witch or using witchcraft. The choice is clear, I think Abigail deserves all of the blame for starting all this to just get up and leave when she can not have John Procter.

Abigail Williams is the most to blame for starting this whole witch hunt in the first place because she had an affair with married man John Proctor. John is a guilty man himself simply because he did not want to admit about having the affair. At the black of the night, Abigail Williams and other girls were “conjuring spirits” in the woods they were all seen doing things that were forbidden like dancing around a pot. After being caught Abigail threatens the girls if they speak about this what they were doing in the woods “let either of you breathe a word or any edge of it, I will come to you in the black of the night and shudder you”. This quote is saying that if the girls were to talk about what they were doing in the woods she will make them pay for it. My second reasoning on why Abigail Williams is the most to blame is the fact that she was lying to the court and about Marry Warren. Her lie included Marry Warren because she told the court that she was putting her spirit out on her and the girls by saying “why do you come yellow bird? oh please Marry don’t you come down”. Meaning that she is telling a lie about Marry’s spirit becoming a yellow bird and trying to hurt Abigail and the other girls in court. My last reasoning on why Abigail Williams is guilty is simply the fact that she lied throughout the whole witch trial. Meaning she lied or made excuses up to save herself from getting into trouble for doing the forbidden in the woods. She blames Tituba to save herself “she made me and betty drink the blood”. Abigail was just trying to get the heat off her when she was the one that did the whole thing in the woods with the other girls. These are the reasons why I think Abigail Williams is the most guilty in The Crucible and why she should take most of the blame for what happened.

Judge Danforth is to blame as well because he believes in Abagail and the girl’s lie’s when the girls can not prove any of it to be true. This reason leads Judge Danforth to believe everything the girls say, According to The Crucible it states “she spoke nothing of lechery, and this man has lied!” meaning that Abagail did not say anything about lechery and that she is telling lies straight to Danforth’s face and he is simply believing everything she says thus far. My second reasoning on why Judge Danforth is to blame is that he hung and threw innocent people in jail because of the lies and rumors that have been spread and told by the people of Salem including the girls. Since Abagail and the girls were feeding Judge false information that he somehow believes to be true, in The Crucible he states “you will confess yourself, or you will be hung”. This quote is stating that if she does not confess herself of having anything to do with the devil she will be hung because of what Danforth believes to be true from what the girls are telling him. The last reason why this choice is to blame is simply that he wants Mr.Proctor to confess or have him tell on the other people accused to get him out of trouble. The other reason is simply the fact that Judge Danforth was also searching for confessions to end the trial for John Proctor. According to the play The Crucible it says “Mr.Proctor, when the devil came to you did you see Rebecca Nurse in his company?” meaning that she was accused of being a witch and Judge Danforth wants Proctor to tell him if she was with the devil when he saw him. These are my reasons on why Judge Danforth is guilty as much as Abagail simply because he was dragging the whole situation by believing everyone and everything the girl’s told to him.

The third person I think should take the guilt too is Reverend Parris because he was the one who caught the girls “conjuring” the spirits in the woods in the middle of the night. I’m saying this because in The Crucible he was only worried about his job and what the others would think of him if he were to admit what he had seen the girls do in the woods. According to page 888, it states “we can not leap to witchcraft, they will bowl me out of Salem for such corruption”, so he keeps his silence about what he had seen in the woods. This quote shows that he is only concerned about his job and what the other people of the court and the town will think of him. The last reason that makes Reverend Parris guilty as the others is that he cries out witchcraft and for Reverend Hale to help him out and try to cover up the fact that he saw and knows what happened in the woods, so he gets the whole town worked up. According to The Crucible on, the quote says “The psalm! The psalm! She cannot bear to hear the Lord’s name!”. Meaning that since his daughter is “ sick” and he saw what happened in the woods he cries out witchcraft and brings Hale into the whole situation when in reality he knows that the girls should not be in the woods having fun, IT WAS FORBIDDEN!.

In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts the witchcraft trials were very chaotic in the town from the beginning until the very end. The townspeople could have stopped the witch trials if they actually asked Abagail for the evidence that was presented to them instead of believing everything that came out of her mouth. I think Reverend Parris was the most to blame because if he had not cried witchcraft and worried so much about his job, Hale would not have been called nor would he be involved. I think the trials should be fair, and the evidence should be within reason not just based on what someone said. This does not apply to today’s society simply because of the evidence that can be proven to back up what the person is saying to the court vs he said she said type of deal.