Delmi

Rodriguez December 12, 2012 Period 4 Hampton Fear Fear has the ability to take over ones mind and actions. When fear crawls

into the brain, one focuses only on how to shelter oneself from harms way. In the play The Crucible, Miller portrays the message that when fear overpowers a person one can become easily manipulated, vulnerable, and a liar in order to protect oneself. In the book Miller portrays that when fear overcomes someone they can be

easily manipulated. When Abigail felt threatened that the truth was going to surface she threatened the girls so that she could manipulate them I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning (12). When Abigail threatened the girls she made them keep quiet about the night in the forest. At this point, the girls are terrified because they know that if they tell the truth about that night Abby will come after them. Since Abigail threatened the girls, she now has complete control of their actions. Furthermore, Abigail manipulated Betty into In addition, when someone is scared they become vulnerable. Hale goes to

the Proctors house to take Elizabeth to jail for supposedly stabbing Abigail in her stomach with a needle, And she charges me?!(44). Elizabeth has become Abigails number one target, Abigail is so determined to get rid of Elizabeth and unfortunately Elizabeth becomes vulnerable when she is accused of witchery. When someone was accused of witchery the punishment was death and when Abigail accused Elizabeth

Abigail had Elizabeths life in the palm of her hand. Elizabeth couldnt prove herself innocent because the town was so convinced that she was actually a witch. Elizabeth was powerless and so vulnerable under Abigail because Abigail couldve easily gotten her killed. Furthermore, a lot more people are accused of committing witchery and they all become vulnerable because they cant stand up for themselves in court unless they confess, most of them get hanged. There will be no postponement(79). Danforth claims this when Parris asks him to give Proctor more time to confess. The accused have all become vulnerable under the law of Salem and unfortunately because no one believe that they are innocent majority of them will hang. When someone feels threatened they often lie in order to save themselves

from the consequences. When Parris servant, Tituba, is asked to confess if she has seen the devil she is threatened to be killed if she doesnt mention names Aye, sir, and Goody Osbourn(25). Tituba claims to have seen people with the devil because if she doesnt accuse anyone she knows that she will be killed. In order to save herself Tituba lied and accused an innocent person for doing something that they didnt. Although they shouldve investigated the whole situation more, Hale and Parris believe that what Tituba is saying is completely true. When confronting Mary, Proctor discovers that Mary has been lying and hiding things because she is afraid that if she tells the truth Abigail and the other girls will harm her. I cannot. Theyll turn on me (47). Mary is afraid that if she spills the truth to the town Abigail will harm her. Abigail has power over her and has Mary on her toes. Mary lies in order to protect herself from harm. Mary knows that of she tells the truth Abigail could

possibly accuse her of being a witch and Mary would die. Even though Mary doesnt want to lie she has to in order to save her life. In the play, Miller portrays the message that when fear is put into someones

head they will get manipulated, become weak, and lie in order to save their own lives. Fear is a very powerful thing and it makes people do things that they dont necessarily dont want to do, but they have to. Although some of the characters in the book seemed bad they were scared to death so they felt the need to accuse someone else to be killed. In the end a lot of innocent people died and the ones who caused the problems ended up living. Miller shows that people will stop at nothing to save themselves even if it means killing someone or doing something you dont want.