ate The Tragedy, ResThe Crucible: Although Abigail and The Girls Initiate The Tragedy, ResponsibilityLies With the Whole Salem CommunityAlthough Abigail and the girls initiate the tragedy, responsibility lies withthe whole Salem community. Discuss. I do believe that Abigail and the girls initiated the tragedy, what with alltheir talk about spirits and the conjurance with the devil during the openingact. For one reason or another, it can be said that the blame for this tragedylies with the entire Salem community. But could this really be called atragedy? In my opinion, if people get hurt and the whole community falls apart- then it is a tragedy.
Many different emotions and even specific characters are brought into the playand each one holds part of the blame – therefore bringing down the entire of thecommunity and causing people to turn against each other and all principles theyonce believed in. Abigail and the girls deny everything. Part od their denial is accusation. Byshifting the blame onto someone else, they believe that they will not be heldaccountable for their own sins. Abigail manipulates her way through the play,and even after Mary Warren confessed that the whole story was a pretense,Abigail continues manipulating the court room and the people within it withantics of a wind, a cold wind’ and Oh Heavenly Father, take away this shadow’. In the end she is adamant to convince the court that they were only involvedwith witchcraft because of Mary Warren, hoping profusely to save her own name.
Denial in Salem is considered a terrible sin. The narrow mindedness of thecourt possesses an unwritten law that if your name is brought out within thecourt, without any questioning, you are presumed guily. Innocence is not takeninto consideration, and only until the victim confesses,, is the court convincedthey were right. There is no hearing for the victim, and if they are innocent,they have the choice of denial, and being hung or confessing an being throwninto jail. Danforth, the deputy governor, is so caught up in his own beliefsand importance that he won’t listen to anything that he doesn’t want to hear.
He is manipulated by Abigail, bu her innocent young girl front by incredulouslyquestioning Proctor this child would murder his wife?’ It is beyond his narrowcomprehension that someone could be telling the truth. John Proctor stood up for his pride and principles. It is obvious that he wouldrather die with a good name within Salem than live and know that he had brokenhis own principles and lost his pride. He believed that among his own communityhe would be lavelled untrustworthy and states God does not need my name nailedupon the church! God sees my name, God know how black my sins are”. From thesecomments, we know that John Proctor is an honest and trusting man who would doanything to save the name of himself, his family and his friends – even if itwould conclude in his own death – I have given you my soul, leave me my name. ‘Maybe Proctor’s strong will to protest caused the whole tragedy to continue onfor a longer period of time.
Maybe if he hadn’t engaged in adultry, he wouldn’thave felt nearly as guilty that he had to go and stand before the court for hiswife. It could be said that he stood up for her to prove that he still lovedher and maybe to regain some her trust back. The Proctor’s weren’t the only couple with the tragedy coming between them. Thomas Putnam too was caught in secretly trying to obtain the land and fightGiles’s accusation of Putnam killing his neighbours to get their land. GoodyPutnam is maliciously accusing Tituba of murdering all her babies.
These babiesat the time, were announced still born, but now that Tituba is in the public eyebecause of being linked with Abigail and the starting of the tragedy, she isblamed. Wild accusations are flying around Salem linking people to anythingabnormal that has gone wrong. The absurd naming of innocent people becomes an ongoing threat to all withinSalem. Francis Nurse is shocked that his wife, Rebecca – a pillar of the Salemcommunity – has been named before the court by Abigail and the girls.
In fact,the entire community is astounded when they hear the news of Rebecca Nurse beingnamed. The act of people naming others, and then those others naming morepeople still, definantly had a impact on the tragedy, dragging the whole thingout, much longer than it needed to be. To prove that all these people were actually guilty also played a part inlengthening the tragedy. Herrick, Cheever and Danforth, all so full of theirown importance and strictness of the court – the law binds me. I cannot budge’- ask question after question to each victim until finally the defendant breaksdown and confesses to save their own lives. Even Hale who feels for the victimstowards the end, knows the strictness of the court, thought our hearts break,we cannot flinch, these are new times’.
In conclusion, throughout the book, everybody in Salem wanted the whole tragedyto end, but one way or another, nearly everyone within the community had a wayof making the tragedy continue on longer than it needed to be.
