In Acts 1 and 2 of The
Crucible, the town of Salem goes into a frenzy after Abigail Williams and a
few other girls accuse innocent people of witchcraft. Though their accusations
were not supported with hard evidence, the authorities of Salem believed them
anyways. Once the possibility of witchcraft was spoken, it seemed to have taken
root in most of the townspeople’s minds. In other words, once one version of
the truth is established, it is hard for it to be changed or altered. Abigail
and Betty, in order to evade the prospect of being hanged for witchcraft,
accuse Tituba of bewitching them instead. Tituba, also afraid of her own
execution, falsely admits to being in touch with the devil and accuses innocent
people of associating with the devil. These innocent people are forced to
confess to a sin they did not commit in order to avoid being hanged. Thus, the
false story of witchcraft is perpetuated and the people of Salem stray further
and further away from the truth as the number of persecutions grow. One
particular part of the play that struck me as ridiculous was when Doctor Hale
asked Mary Warren if she was “certain this be your natural memory?” (72).
Although Mary could have proved Goody Proctor innocent, her word could not be
taken as hard evidence and is challenged by, what I consider, a weaker
argument—that her memory has been manipulated by witchcraft. This continues to
reflect the theme of the power of established truth.
I really like how Arthur Miller show the human nature when facing problem. I can also relate this to a concept learned in my business class, which is the fundamental attribution error. People tend to blame failure to external factors (others) and attribute success to internal factors (self). Although it is not exactly failure they are facing here, but similar concept can be seen. There also is an escalation of commitment. The judges have put too much effort into the falsely accused witchcraft that they turn out to be reluctant to pull away from it. These biases along with some others sum up what happened in Salem.
ReplyDeleteIt almost seems as if the young girls used Tituba as a scapegoat throughout the trials. Since Tituba is culturally different (being from Barbados) it is easy for the young girls to convince the town that Tituba was the source of the madness. Personally, I feel that the girls blew Tituba’s culture out of proportion. They easily could have seen Tituba perform some sort of innocent ritual from her culture, expressed interest in it, and escaladed it to a new level with their young and creative minds. Also, Abigail’s rebellious nature turned a harmless act into an event resulting in many deaths. After the rumor of witchcraft escaladed and the town had accused and executed a dozen of innocent townsfolk, they could no longer take back their actions and release the remaining individuals accused. The power of the court would be compromised and be viewed as malleable and weak if they removed the death sentences of those falsely accused. -Erin Harpur
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