The Crucible

The act of betrayal is the root for The Crucible. Taking place during the Salem Witch Trials, The Crucible includes a variety of characters that are involved with betrayal. Abigail, a young girl who had been committed adultery with John Proctor, is driven by lust to eliminate her "competition" Goody Proctor. After being caught in the dark and queer woods, Abigail, Rebecca, and Tituba are accused of being involved with dark magic. Abigail desires not be get hanged for her acts and would rather feign her innocence and kill innocent people. A witch hunt ran by Abigail becomes the betrayal of all moral values.

John Proctor, his wife Elizabeth, George Jacobs, Goody Sibber, Martha Bellows, Alice Barrow, and many others are accused of being with the Devil. The judge and the people, without any doubt, foolishly believe that these innocent people are the Devil's people. Abigail in charge of this madness continues to feign her innocence and becomes the center of attention for the person claiming the wickedness of the accused. Without any qualm, she threatens Proctor to eliminate Elizabeth if he doesn't love Abigail again. She is driven to madness by lust and doesn't stop even when she sees tons of innocent people in the grasps of death.

For in the court, people believe her innocence and claims that the wrongly accused are with the Devil. For Abigail was once in the hands in the Devil and now is pure and rid of all darkness. Giles in contempt with the circumstances says "she is solemn and goes to hang people." It is true that she goes hanging people by saying they are with the Devil.

John Proctor now faced the challenge of choosing to uphold his innocence and die or feign his guilt and live. Danforth, there to get a confession from Proctor, says he "is not empower to trade" Proctor's "life for a lie." However, if he implores that he is innocent, he shall die claiming he is innocent. John Proctor is faced with this painful decisions of life or death. Painfully for his will of life, he signs his moral values away for life. He then has to turn over the document to the court to show the public that he has confess of being with the Devil, however, he is unable to hand the paper to Danforth because he knows that it is not true, “What others say and what I sign to is not the same.” Proctor continues to fight for his life and in the end decides that his moral values are more important than his life. He knows that even if he is guilty of adultery, he will be displeased with having to lie that he has been involved of the Devil because he knows that this claim is false. He will acknowledge only what is true thus leaving him with one option: death.

Elizabeth knows that Proctor had finally gotten “his goodness” and refuses to take that away from him even if it means that Proctor will die. For Proctor is only one of many that die imploring their innocence. Some, however, believe that betraying their moral values is more important than their innocence.

The root for The Crucible is betrayal. Abigail causes an uproar and mayhem when she accuses that various people are with the Devil. The nature of betrayal is throughout the book. At first, Abigail claims that people who she personally doesn't life are guilty of being with the Devil and later escalates to her using it as a weapon to get whatever she likes. Innocent Tituba had been forced to confess that she was with the Devil.