Arthur Schutzberg
Ms. Hughes
HN English 11 Period 2
23 December 2011
In life as in liberty, there is always the pursuit of happiness and success. The pursuers are willing to do anything to succeed and often do things that are immoral to preserve the title of success. They are willing to sever their ties with friends and family, and the memories they grew up with just so that they can be successful in life. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller tells the tale of the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. The story begins when a group of girls are found in the woods dancing with the notorious black slave, Tituba..Some of the girls found in the woods, try to fabricate a story which ...view middle of the document...
Mary bows down to power again when she is with John Proctor. After John Proctor finds that Mary Warren and the town knows about his adultery, he feels relieved. He wants Mary Warren to tell the truth, otherwise severe consequences will occur. .
PROCTOR, grasping her by the throat as though he would strangle her: Make your peace with it! Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretense is ripped away-make your peace! He throws her to the floor, where she sobs, "I cannot, I cannot.. " And now, half to himself, staring, and turning to the open door: Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now. He walks as though toward a great horror, facing the open sky. Aye, naked! And the wind, God's icy wind, will blow! (II.427-436) Here Mary Warren has the words choked out of her by Proctor. Proctor realizes that Mary will do anything in the face of power to make sure that she is safe.
The reader first sees how hysteria can be a great motivator to change a person’s identity when Mary Warren (Mary warren would never do this show) is eager to turn in her friends rather than being caught for supposed witchcraft.
In this scene the girls realize that Reverend Parris has seen them dancing in the woods, an action related to witchcraft.
She is described by Miller as “a subservient, naïve, lonely girl†(18).
Initially she is described as naïve and lonely. As the story develops she becomes less and less naive as the story progresses. As the story goes on, Mary Warren sheds her innocence and changes her identity to become someone who tries to save herself and sell out everyone around her. Throughout the story we will see her evolve.
Mary Warren is easily swayed by the public opinion and by the opinions of others, and changes her own stance based upon that of others around her.
In...
