Angela Chin

11 October 2010

English 11 Honors

Period 4B

The Crucible Essay

“We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children

are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!

This warrant’s vengeance! I’ll not give my wife to vengeance!” (Proctor 81) In

The Crucible, John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Mary Warren are used in the

story to support the theme, “When good people do nothing, evil will triumph”. In

the story develops and supports the fact that all evil need to prevail is for good

men to do nothing. In the novel, John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Mary Warren

had done nothing. It was all that was necessary for girls to use it against them to

serve their own interests. This also led for others to believe their lies and the

accused were harmed or hurt for the girls’ charges. In the end, evil thrived and

was able to surpass the good. Each of them became a victim of those who had

evil intentions.

As the story unfolds, it was revealed that John Proctor had an affair with

Abigail. Abigail falls in love with Proctor, but Proctor realizes that he had sinned.

As Proctor tries to walk away from her, Abigail uses the chance to kill his wife so

she will have him to herself. “The girl, Abigail Williams, sir … she come to be

stabbed, she testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in” (78-79) Proctor

wants to tell Abigail to leave him and his family alone, but Abigail would have
none of it. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, was accused of witchcraft by Abigail and was

taken to jail. Proctor had no proof that his wife was innocent, unless he revealed

that he had an affair with Abigail. During the court interrogation, he did so, but

that caused to Abigail and other girls to make Mary Warren accuse John of using

witchcraft also. Since the beginning, John could do nothing to save his wife and

that led to John being accused and sentenced to death. Abigail’s evil intentions

led to John Proctors death.

Rebecca Nurse was accused of using witchcraft and was sentenced to

death because she would not confess. The Putnams and Nurses were in a

dispute over land. “For murder, she’s charged! For the marvelous and

supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies.” (75) To take vengeance,

Putnam used the chance to charge Rebecca Nurse of killing their babies.

Rebecca did not do anything for the blame of the death of Putnam’s children’s

death. Even if Mrs. Putnam did not believe in witchcraft, she used the best of the

situation and charged Rebecca Nurse for killing her children through curses. “It’s

a sort of testament. The people signing it to declare their good opinion of

Rebecca” Many people vouched for the good name of Rebecca Nurse, but

others with bad intentions kept reasoning that she was to blame. They gave the

judge reasons to believe their words and sentenced Rebecca to be hanged.

Even till the end, Rebecca would not admit that she was using witchcraft even if

she would be hanged.

“Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error … We must tell the

truth!” (Mary Warren 19) As Abigail and other girls were trying witchcraft around a
fire, Mary was young and naïve to watch them do it. She wanted to tell others

that they were doing those curses, but she could not since the girls were

threatening her. If she told anyone, the girls would accuse her of doing the same

too. Mary was part of their schemes, even if she didn’t want to. When she tried to

accuse Abigail of lying, it had backfired on her. She was then accused of using

witchcraft also. “But god made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is

a deadly sin, Mary.” (Abigail 120) Abigail uses this advantage to accuse Mary of

turning into a bird and attacking her and the girls in the court. Mary could not

prove herself innocent when all the girls were against her.

The victims’ inabilities to prove themselves helped the accusers’ evil

intentions to triumph. Others were able to lie for their best interests, and because

the ones that were blamed could not prove their innocence, evil was able to

prevail. Witchcraft is something that has no tangible proof. Good people that had

done nothing were blamed and others believed they were at fault. The author

was able to fully support throughout the whole novel the theme, “When good

people do nothing, evil can triumph”. Evil did prevail and the accused either had

to confess or be hanged.