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Salem Witch Trials and Deepest Fear

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Salem Witch Trials and Deepest Fear
Brittany Celestin
Ms.Asmar
American Literature
10 December 2012
Powerful Beyond Measure “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. Fear is the mind-killer. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller show how fear motivates Abigail, Betty and Tituba to act specific way. Therefore, each of the ladies let fear motivate them to act a unique way. The protagonist of The Crucible the leader, Abigail, fear motivates her to lie. She’s afraid to be whipped for dancing and other things in the forest. She deals with her fear by saying Tituba makes her do things in the forest and sends spirits. “She made me! She made Betty do it too! , She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer!”(187). Because Reverend John Hale asked Abigail “Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer?” She had to point finger at someone and she had to seem like a good girl. At that moment Tituba enters and instantly Abigail points at Tituba. Next, the smartest of them all, Betty, has fear motivate her in a unique way. Fear motivates her to fake dead like it’s been witchcraft done on her. However, she deals with her fear by blackmail her cousin. Even though she wrong for faking her death, she makes sure her cousin fear tops hers. “You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that! You did, you did… you drank a charm to kill goody proctor!”(175). This quote shows how Abigail wasn’t truthful with Hale or Parris and how it was her plan. Who rides with the plans, Tituba. Her fear motivates her say things she don’t mean. She stated that she won’t desire the devil’s work. She deals with her fear by saying the devil talks to her and then flips the script off her. “No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.”(188). This quote tells Tituba only said that because she didn’t want to get hanged. She wanted to live even though she



Cited: Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003. Lastname, Firstname. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Lastname, Firstname. “Title of the Article.” Name of the Scholarly Journal Volume.Issue (Date): first page-last page. Lastname, Firstname. “Title of the Newspaper Article.” Title of the Newspaper Date, edition: SectionPagenumber+. “The Title of the Article.” Title of Magazine Date: page number. Name of the Library Database: Name of the Service. Name of the library with city, state abbreviation. Date of access .

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