The Crucible; critique essays

The Crucible; critique essays In the film The Crucible, the character of Abigail Williams conjures up a lie in the hopes that her married boyfriend will leave his wife for her. The lie turns into a disaster when the whole community is sent into mass hysteria of the thought that their holy Puritan society had been invaded by witchcraft. The movie starts out with one of the girls of the colony going off into the woods to join her girlfriends in a midnight dance. They are not witches. Instead they are a group of adolescent girls intrigued by the mystery of the rituals performed by Tituba, a slave of one of the families. The girls dance in the moonlight chanting words that they think will make their love interests have mutual feelings toward them. In particular, Abigail smears her face with blood and prays for revenge on the wife of the man who scorned her, a farmer named John Proctor. They are caught and are arrested for consorting with the devil. This is when the lies begin. The girls make an agreement to name those whom they disliked in the town as witches. John Proctor and Abigail had a love affair that had gone bad, and Abigail was lovesick. Abigail uses the situation created by her lie to advance her position in society and wreak her vengeance on John Proctor. One of the first people Abigail names is Johns wife, Elizabeth. Abigail hated Mrs. Proctor because she was fired by her when she suspected that her husband was unfaithful. The girls begin to show signs that the devil is amongst them. They go into intense convulsions, see things such as birds, hear voices and faint when they are in rooms with those they accuse of being witches. The community responds to this by setting up trials for the people that were accused of being possessed by the devil. When the court, lead by Judge Danforth, declares that the only way to escape being hung is by confessing to being involved with the devil and vowing to expel the e ...