In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is explored in great detail. There are many theories as to why the witch trials came about, the most popular of which are the girls suppressed childhoods. However, there were other factors as well, such as Abigail Williams' affair with John Proctor, the secret grudges that neighbors held against each other, and the physical and economic differences between the citizens of Salem Village. From a historical viewpoint, it is known that young girls in colonial Massachusetts were given little or no freedom to act like children. They were expected to walk straight, arms by their sides, eyes slightly downcast, and their mouths were to be shut unless otherwise asked to speak. It is not surprising that the girls would find this type of lifestyle very constricting. To rebel against it, they played pranks, such as dancing in the woods, listening to slaves' magic stories and pretending that other villagers were bewitching them. The Crucible starts after the girls in the village have been caught dancing in the woods. Parris berates his niece Abigail because he discovered her, Betty, and several other girls dancing in the forest in the middle of the night with his slave Tituba. As ten-year-old Betty Parris lies in an unmoving, unresponsive state, rumors start to fly that there is witchcraft going on in the woods, and that Betty is bewitched. Once the girls talk to each other, they become more and more frightened of being accused as witches are. Betty awakes and Abigail tells her that she told Parris everything. Betty cries that Abigail did not tell Parris about drinking blood as a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor's wife. Abigail strikes the child across the face. She turns to the other girls and warns them to confess only that they danced and that Tituba conjured Ruth's dead sisters. She threatens, And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the ...
