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Taylir Butterworth
Mr.Salow
Crucible Essay
24 October 2016

Crucible Essay
Throughout the book and play The Crucible, there are many different scenarios
and characters that hold significant historical values and stories.
One such scenario is when we could use our knowledge to infer what was or
could be in the forest outside of the village. As well as the manor Abigails parents were killed
outside of Salem. Her parents were killed while sleeping next to her by the Native Americans
that live outside of the village in the woods. From previous knowledge and history classes, I
know or could infer that the Native Americans scalped them, crushed their skulls, or kidnapped
them and made them either into slaves or for females, a bride for one of the tribal members.
Another scenario is when Reverend Hale was talking about believing the young
girls and women who were accused of being witches and how they confessed. John Proctor
brought up a very valid point on how the girls and women could confess to being witches to save
themselves from being hung. The modern day readers could obviously tell that thats what the
girls and women were doing. To us, it's common sense.
One such character is again, Reverend Hale. For example, when he first arrived in
the village of Salem he had many books to carry. And many books infers that the person who
owns those books has a lot of knowledge. Reverend Hale can come off to be very arrogant
throughout the book. He has the mindset that he is better than the rest of the people in Salem

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because he knows just about everything there is to know about the crisis the village is going
through.
Another character is Judge Hawthorne. He is making all of the choices on how,
the girls and women who are accused, are charged and punished. At first, he had believed the
girls and women were being truthful about not being witches and accusing the others of being
witches, but then he realized that the stories weren't falling through. Judge Hawthorne thought
that he had the knowledge needed to criticize and punish the women and girls of being involved
with witchcraft, but evidently, he did not. Modern readers would be intelligent enough to look for
more and/or hard evidence that would support all of the different claims and accusations each
person had against another person.
Deputy Governor Danforth is very outspoken on a number of subjects throughout the
book. He also holds himself higher than everybody else in Salem, for example, Disrespect
indeed! It is disruption, Mister. This is the highest court of the supreme government of this
province, do you know it? The quote is one of many showing how Danforth does think he is
higher than the rest and thinks he has a lot more knowledge on/about the court and the situation
itself. He knows a lot about the court so he uses that against the rest of the people.
Abigail Williams plays many roles in The Crucible. She is the one who finds out
different things from different people throughout the story and makes sure that their secrets get
out. She is the main girl who was accusing the women of being involved with witchcraft. Abigail
had been so convincing to Judge Hawthorne, Deputy Governor Danforth, and the rest of salem,
except for Reverend Hale, John Proctor, and a few others. Abigails goal is to direct the attention
of the people of Salem to the women instead of her and the other girls who actually participate in
witchcraft.

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The rest of the girls think that they are outsmarting the townspeople by following
the lead of Mary Warren and Abigail Williams.
With all of these historical characters and scenarios showing the knowledge of
something, the characters come off as arrogant.