Examples Of Logical Fallacies In The Crucible

People have a way of seeing what they want to see, which plays a key role in creating the hysteria that exists in Salem in The Crucible and how people today react to false information. In his novel, Arthur Miller describes the Salem Witch Trials from a satirical point of view of McCarthy’s Second Red Scare, however, he does a brilliant job in portraying the thoughts of those afflicted in the time. Within any satire, connections can be made from the literature to current events. In the play, Reverend Parris invites Hale to Salem to investigate the condition of Ruth Putnam. Hale, a proclaimed witchcraft specialist, brings with him the very idea of witchcraft to the town, sparking the attention of the people. Convinced that witchcraft is among them, the court decides to take spectral evidence into account, allowing opportunities for corruption.

The play “The Crucible” demonstrates great themes of spite from many different characters. In a time of such chaos, these vengeful decisions led to many persecutions during the time of the witch trials. For example, Ann Putnam was jealous of Rebecca Nurse, because she had so many kids. This envy turns vengeful, and Ann accused Rebecca of witchcraft.The court believed this accusation because Rebecca delivered her babies,and only one of them survived. Rebecca could not have actually had anything to do with the death of her babies, of course. Francis Nurse in Proctor’s home says to Reverend Hale, “My wife is the very brick and mortar of the church, Mr. Hale...For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies” (Miller 174). Ann

Authorial violence is introduced into The Crucible as ideas of witchcraft begin to spread through the town. Many minor conflicts contribute to the larger accusations of witchcraft as tension gradually builds over the course of the story. One of these secondary conflicts is the actions Goody Putnam takes as she grieves the loss of seven of her newborn babies. To help cope with her grief, Mrs. Putnam sends her daughter into the woods to conjure the dead. To the inexperienced reader Goody Putnam's situation may seem like nothing more than a sad minor detail included within the play. Foster, however, points to the fact that authorial violence serves a specific purpose when he describes it as, “the death and

With consistent persuasion from John, Mary agrees to talk to the Mr. Danforth, the judge over looking the trial, about faults in her accusations. She admits to faking and only cried spirits because the other girls were (pg. 100). With this event, Mary demonstrates that she does not have integrity. Regret, accompanied with pity, assists Mary in convincing Mr. Danforth but it does not work in her favor because he does not want to backtrack on previous convictions made. Feelings of regret are very influential in determining a persons actions. Miller uses Mary, who has now shown to be morally uncertain, as a scapegoat for all the girls who are fabricating seeing the devil. As tensions rise, Mary becomes unsettled by the consequences that follow lying under oath. Swapping sides once again to save her life, she proclaims, “I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God” (pg. 110). Striking emotion from her declaration tells a story of discord between her ethical thinking. She is now only worried about her life and the author incorporates pathos to make her claim stronger. Fear is the single greatest motivator for humans and Mary is fearful. John will see the repercussions of these actions by facing death later in the book. Due to Mary's incapacity of raining truthful, an innocent citizen would sentenced to

Greed is another human failing that leads to the false accusations of the trials. Thomas Putnam uses the hysteria to his advantage by prompting his daughter, Ruth, to accuse people of witchcraft in order to take their land. Giles Corey points this out to the judges:

When the group of girls were acting strange and got accused of being witches, everyone started pointing fingers. There was the paranoia that any person could be a part of a conspiracy that was created by the devil caused false accusations to be spread around. This paranoia was used to make false accusations on many innocent citizens because people were trying not to take the focus away from themselves. There was research that was done on those that were accused and what it showed was that most of the accusations were against middle-age women who had few or no children and were widowed. The accused witches “were of low social position, and because of some domestic conflicts, they were accused of other crimes and were considered abrasive” (Brinkley, 86). by other people around them. Once a person was accused of being under the influence of the devil, which is a big offence, they would start to be treated differently from the rest. It wasn’t the actual presence of Satan that caused this chaos, but the anxiety and fear of him that did.

In the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller there are prominent examples of doubt in the second act. Act 2 talks about a married man named John Proctor, who is rumored to have had intimate relations with Abigail Williams. Abigail is a young girl who still believes Proctor has feelings for her even after he denies their affair in hopes to save his reputation. In addition, Proctor is married to Elizabeth, who begins to question her husband’s relationship with Abigail. During Act 2, Elizabeth loses all faith that Proctor did not have an affair when he admitted he had been alone with Abigail for a moment. Elizabeth believes Proctor would testify against Abigail’s false accusations about the women of Salem being witches if he did not have

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, delineates many acts of self-indulgence and animosity. With clever accusations on one another for witchery, each character is able to derive the conflict away from themselves and appear innocent. A jealous and manipulative girl, Abigail Williams, falsely accuses Elizabeth Proctor for the sole purpose of seeking revenge, so she could have Elizabeth’s husband John Proctor. She is able to withhold her reputation by making herself appear as the victim in the court. Not only was Abigail a model of self cruelty, but Thomas Putnam is also a befitting example. Being a very acquisitive man, he accuses George Jacob for witchcraft to simply gain the land neighboring him. Both characters strive to achieve their goals, but they do it through many acts of greed. In society overall,

She screams and writhes as, "Stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, [Parris] draw a needle out." (Miller, ) Envy even pushes Abigail to inflict pain on herself. To frame Elizabeth, she resorts to extreme and desperate means of proof. She casts away all shreds of morality, religion, and common sense to pursue her treasure. Anne Putnam exposes similar motives for accusing Rebecca Nurse. Francis Nurse quotes the arrest warrant for his wife, "For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies." (Miller, ) Goody Putnam envies the Nurses because they already have a large clan of offspring while they are left with one weak child. Envy and jealousy play a key role in Goody Putnam's decision to blame Rebecca. To obtain vengeance, they accuse Rebecca in hopes to solve their own misfortune. The Putnams envy her success and instead of celebrating their happiness and cherishing their only child, they choose the immoral action and strike back at their scapegoat, Rebecca. Abigail plays a cruel trick on Proctor to try to resolve her envy, and the Putnams condemn Rebecca Nurse to death for some false hope in their lives. Envy encourages ordinary people to feel disappointed, but it encourages the ones without strong ethics to strike back and take revenge. In The Crucible, this revenge takes the form of unreasonable trials of innocent people.

As the trials go on, many more accusations are made. Giles Corey accuses Putnam of trying to get other landowners hanged for witchcraft so that he can have their land for himself. Marshall Danforth asks for a source and the person’s name. Giles says that he cannot give out the person’s name. Giles is in the court because his wife, Martha Corey had been arrested and accused of witchcraft. She gave away a pig to a man, and the pig became ill and died shortly after the pig was acquired. Francis Nurse is in the court because his wife, Rebecca Nurse was arrested too. He along with Giles continue to confront Danforth about Putnam’s doing, but Danforth responds with that they will have to put their thoughts into writing

People believe that actions happen for many different reasons and tend to blame others before themselves. Some believe that the devil is doing the work in the body of someone else, and some believe that the devil does not, and some even believe in witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, nineteen innocent people are hung for accusations of performing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of young girls go out into the woods which is forbidden in Salem. They are sent into a frenzy when the town’s reverend, Parris, spots them dancing in the woods. The girls are led by Abigail Williams, a young teenage girl who lives with her uncle, reverend Parris. Abigail is not the most truthful girl, which ends up causing 19 innocent people their lives. Previous to these events, Abigail was a servant in the Proctor household, but was sent off after Elizabeth Proctor found out about the affair between Abigail and her husband, John Proctor. In Abigail’s case the more lies she told, the more lives she ended.

It is 1692 in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts; fear and hysteria are running rampant. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the residents of Salem are allowing their grudges and personal rivalries to distract themselves from the truth. The witch trials are escalating, more and more people are being accused, and the tensions are high. The Putnams have different motivations and grudges that are driving the accusations. Ann Putnam is using the trials to harm the women she deems responsible for the deaths of her seven children. In contrast, Thomas Putnam is driven by his greed for wealth and land to accuse those he is envious of. A young girl, Abigail Williams, is a devious teenager seeking revenge on the innocent wife of her past lover.

All of this relates back to the theme of the, The Crucible to not believe in false accusations, because that’s exactly what happened even though the opposite should’ve happened when Tituba got accused and Abby was the guilty one. Another part of the story to show the theme is when Rebecca Nurse is being accused and even though this is so odd because everyone knows how good of a soul Rebecca is they still believe it just because someone accused her. It is explained here in the text, “You will never believe, I hope, that Rebecca trafficked with the Devil. Hale: Woman it is possible”(32). This part of the story shows the theme, because Rebecca is being falsely accused but everyone is still going along with it. Arthur Miller writes about why he wrote the crucible and says, “There was bad blood between the two women now”(3). Miller is talking about Abigail and Elizabeth in this part about how Elizabeth fired Abigail and now Abby is accusing John of witchcraft. This can explain the theme, because since those two have bad blood between them you can guess that Abby’s accusation is not the truth. This shows to not believe in false accusations, because they could be accusing someone for other reasons than just witchcraft. All in all the theme in The Crucible is to not believe in false accusations or accusations that had no proof, all these examples from the story showed it well because all the

Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, writes “For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud” (I. 1153- 1156). Miller illustrates that there is a difference between men belonging to ignorance from having no options and men not taking opportunities to gain knowledge. The town of Salem is caught committing sins in everyone’s daily life. This town is running on fear and quick decisions because the citizens do not understand the inevitable power of God. These people have claimed witchcraft by the devil has taken these people and it is their job to prevent this on anyone else. The town quickly accuses anyone that shows a questionable action of

Explanation 1: Putnam has a history of holding grudges against people and obtaining his revenge by accusing them of witchcraft. He is even accused of these crimes but denies their truth.