During the year 1692 the lives of many puritans change because of lies and the necessity of having power and control over others. Many people might ask how the roles in gender and sex played in Salem. It is obvious that in Salem the man had the power over the women and women were used as slaves and were just seen as people that cook, clean, and raise children. Men had the right to whip their women and no one can do anything about it.
The big problem that seemed to cause all these lies about witchcraft was the fact that Abigail Williams ex servant at the proctor home once had an affair with john proctor, because Abigail fell in love wit During the year 1692 the lives of many puritans change because of lies and the necessity of having power and control over others. Many people might ask how the roles in gender and sex played in Salem. It is obvious that in Salem the man had the power over the women and women were used as slaves and were just seen as people that cook, clean, and raise children. Men had the right to whip their women and no one can do anything about it.
The big problem that seemed to cause all these lies about witchcraft was the fact that Abigail Williams ex servant at the proctor home once had an affair with john proctor, because Abigail fell in love with john proctor she wanted to get rid of Elizabeth proctor, John proctors wife and take her place in bed. Women weren’t really treated with equality and some were just taken advantage of. Abigail felt anger towards john Proctor since he didn’t pay any attention to her and told her to forget about their affair. Abigail didn’t want to give up on John and decided to do witchcraft.
The way that many of the young girls acted gave them the power that no one so young had ever had. The girls had the power to accuse someone of witchcraft and let them get killed, they had the power to separate so many families, and to separate the community and cause so much damage in the town. When Abigail started all the rumors and so many weird actions with other girls Salem change in so many ways and people turned against each other.
Power in Salem was a big deal especially for young girls since they never had any power over anyone. Many innocent people died and no one could say anything about seeing any weird actions or reading anything strange with out being accused of witchcraft. Because of jealousy and wanting to have what she desire Abigail grew to have a grudge against John proctor and fond away to control his life.
In my opinion I think that because people lived in a theocracy (the belief of following the bibles rules) many people that committed sins were accuse harshly and because of that people kept every thing a secret and many people got hurt just like Abigail did because of the affair with John Proctor. If we compare the way people lived and followed rules during 1692 to the way people live now in 2010 we can see a big difference because now women are treated with more respect and equality. If people commit adultery now many times the man has the right to go with his other woman and leave his wife or girl friend. I think if during the crucible time John would have been able to leave Elizabeth for Abigail none of these problems would have happened.
The anger that Abigail felt toward Elizabeth made her react in a harsh way and wanted to do everything she could to get rid of her. The power that Abigail had was so strong and big that no one could do anything about it because of fear and no power over her. Even though the big conflict in the story is that Abigail wanted control over John proctors life that didn’t change the fact that many men fought and argued over the power and control over each other. Many men turned against each other and would accuse one another of their mistakes. For example John was accused for not knowing the 10 commandments and for not attending church at a regular base.
This shows us that over all people turn against each other for power and control. Abigail felt betrayed and used by John proctor that all her anger and sadness made her act in a very harsh way and because of all that she wanted to get rid of Elizabeth and have proctor all to her self. The power that these young girls had was very big that it changed the lives of many innocent people and at the end Abigail never truly got what she wanted. Because John was so ashamed of his actions and regretted doing what he did with Abigail he decides to make the decision to save his wife’s life and sacrifice his own.
In my opinion the role that gender and sexual repression played in Salem was that after a long time of women being controlled and over powered by men, the tables turned and women had the power that no one in Salem had ever had before. Although Abigail was just trying to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor so she can be with John proctor her plan had a different turn and she ended up hurting other families and never getting what she truly wanted, because of revenge to John, Abigail had the power to do anything she wanted to his family. In this case no young girls had ever in history had such strong power over so many people and no one had ever done so much damage in so many families and teen lives like Abigail Williams had.
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