Greed in Salem
Remi
Abigail Williams is known to readers of The Crucible as a weird character, but everything she does stems from something relatively normal: greed. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, there is strife, and many are using the chaos for their own gain. Lots of people can get what they want by accusing their enemies of witchcraft. In Salem, people only start trials because they want something out of it, and most of the time they want land.
Abigail is one of the main perpetrators for all of the hangings, and it’s very likely that she is doing it for land as well as John Proctor’s heart. As Elizabeth is being taken away to await trial, Miller writes, “Elizabeth walks out the door, Herrick and Cheever behind her. For a moment Proctor watches the doorway. The clank of chain is heard”(p.74). The reason Elizabeth is arrested is because Abigail accused her of being a witch. Almost everyone who has power over the trials believes Abigail, and it’s viewed as just another arrest, when in reality it’s just another one of her schemes to acquire more land for herself .
The girls are heavily taking advantage of the excitement and chaos in the town. Abigail says, “I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!”Betty says, “I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil!”Abigail says “I saw Goody Booth with the Devil”(p. 46). The children start accusing people they have personal issues with, and take advantage of how everyone in power will believe them. Many people most likely take advantage of the chaos the girls started; almost anyone can get another person’s land by accusing someone of witchcraft
Even though innocent townsfolk are being accused of making deals with the devil because they have land that someone else wants, some of the victims’ land is disregarded. At the end of the book, Miller writes, “Certain farms which belonged to the victims were left to ruin, and for more than a century no one would buy them or live on them”(p.135). Some of the more vile prosecutors could’ve had so much new land they didn’t know what to do with all of it, and had to leave some of it unused.
Land is the main reason the citizens of Salem started trials. Loads of people say to assume the best in people, but The Crucible is a very realistic description of what goes through everyone’s head when there’s a choice between right and easy. It’s sad how even though The Crucible is fiction, sacrificing someone for a different person’s gain happens too many times in the world of not-fiction.
