The Crucible Essay

       The Crucible by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem Massachusetts. The Salem witch trials was a horrific time. The Three most responsible charecters for the trials are Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Judge Danforth. Not all of these charecters caused the witch trials but they kept pushing them forward. They did not stop it, even though they had the power to do so. Abigail is probably most responsible, because she is the one that gave people up, in modern day society she could be classified as a serial killer. Reverend Hale, towards the end tried to put and end to the trials but failed. And Danforth seemed as though he just never wanted it to end, he had a million opportunites and did nothing. He would believe anything Abigail told him. Each and everyone of these people is responsible for the Salem witch trials.
        Abigail Williams is the number one person responsible for the Salem witch trials. If she would not have faked witch craft all those people would still be alive. Without her all of her "followers" would have been to scared to say anything. Everything always comes back to a power struggle. "I saw Goody Osbourne with the Devil!... As she is speaking Betty rises from the bed... (Miller 48)." This is the scene that Abigail get's the idea to lie, and name people supposedly a part of witch craft. Betty is sitting up to start naming people as well, because she got the idea from Abigail. And if Abigail does so must all the girls. Though Abigail is most responsible to the trials she did not do it by herself.
        
         Reverend Hale though he tried, towards the end, to stop the witch hunt contributed to it. Hale was the one to decide if a person were a witch or not. For a very short amount of time he did his job, until it was practically given to Abigail and he did nothing to stop that from happening. And if he had would the situation gotten so out of hand? "You are God's instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil's agents (46)." At this point Hale is talking to Tituba and we can see how he practically gives his job away. Hale is held responsible for the trials because he allowed the hunt to go on, when he had the power to stop it. Again, not all the blame goes to Reverend Hale, a lot of it is distributed to Judge Danforth.

         Judge Danforth is in second place for most responsible. He would believe anything that came out of Abigails mouth, without question. No matter how ridiculous or impossible he believed it. It was almost like he wanted to kill innocent people. "This child would murder your wife (104)?" Danforth has a hard time believe anything agaisnt Abigail, he needs much more evidence then he normally would for anyone. It seems as though he enjoys humiliating people, and getting them killed. Which is why Judge Danforth is responsible for the trials.
 
          Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Reverend Hale, are all responsible for the Salem witch trails in their own way. Abigail is responsible becuase she accused so many people and got so many people killed. Reverend Hale is responsible for not trying to stop it so early in time. Judge Danforth is responsible because he was so ignorant and naieve. All 3 were the most responsible.