The Crucibles

The crucible is based upon the Salem Witch Trials which is taken place in the 1950’s the main characters of this book and play are John Proctor and Abigail Williams. Both of these characters had an affair and Abigail ends up falling in love for him while John has his wife and kids at home. I never thought that he would ever be involved with witch craft or even having affairs with someone else. As for Abigail, I did kind of expect her to be rebellious. Irony is seen in both of these characters because I did not expect for them to be involved in any type of problem and in this case its witch craft. During that time Salem Witch Trials, it was very sad to see a lot innocent people die. Abigail Williams was one who caused these deaths. She accused innocent people in order to save herself and other village girls who were also doing witch craft.

            In the movie, the story begins in the forest with Abigail and the other girls dancing in the forest praising the devil and speaking to him. In Salem, the people who live there are very religious and believe in god only. Once they heard about the girls dancing in the forest everyone in the Salem was horrified because they didn’t want to believe that their little girls or daughters would ever find out, but once they did everything changed for them. They ended up gong to court and have to confess, though they decided not to. In my opinion, I though they were afraid at the fact that they would be hanged.

            In the middle of the movie, everyone is only focusing on the accusations Abigail is making. Abigail seems to persuade the judge very well because they listen to the accusations she is making and the court goes after those people. Most of these people were innocent and had nothing to do with witch craft. Some were even neighbors that saw the girls grow up since they were little. It seems to me that these girls did not care at all about anyone else but themselves which in fact is very selfish. Later on in the movie, Abigail goes after John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth, by accusing her of doing witch craft. The only reason she goes after his wife is because she is in love with John Proctor and wants to be with him. Though, he doesn’t feel the same way for her, he is in love with his wife and is taking responsibility of taking care of his children and other children as well.

            John also ends up going to court because as every other husband, he went to defend his wife. Elizabeth is being accused of something that is unreasonable because they have no proof of her doing witch craft, they just assume that because of Abigail. It’s weird how everything was during that time, the way they used to do things. It was very unfair. John,Elizabeth and Abigail as a servant. She mentioned that she had bothered John and herself. After that, the judge puts John in jail because of the fact that he is lying in the court  about the witch craft and because he admitted that he talked to the devil and saw him. Everyone in the village did not expect that out of him because they all got along with him and thought he was very kind to everyone. It was shocking to me as well when I saw this scene because it was unexpected.

            In the end, Abigail visits John in jail and offers him to leave with her, but he decides not to because of his wife and Abigail leaves and never returned. Later on, they take out Elizabeth so that she can persuade him to say the truth about the witch craft. If he confessed about it, he would be set free of charge but only if he signs the paper that states his confession. Though John rips the paper he had signed because he didn’t want his name to be shown every where or he didn’t want his name to be mentioned about the witch craft. In the end he is hanged with two other women and since that very moment, no other people were hanged or burned

            Throughout the whole movie and the book, John Proctor and Abigail Williams were the ones who showed irony. Society during the Salem Witch Trials was very bad because of the accusations and the death of hundreds of innocent people. In the end, no one should expect so much from anybody, when they show so little to others.