The Morally Ambiguous Character In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The book and/or play, The Crucible, is set in the 17th century back in Salem, Massachusetts where the witch hunts took place. One character, Mary Warren, is seen differently throughout the play. She’s the servant of John and Elizabeth Proctor, and is also a part of Abigail’s group of girls, to whom accuse innocent people of being witches. Mary Warren is a morally ambiguous character who is manipulated easily especially by Abigail Williams. She’s stuck between doing what’s right and what’s wrong. Mary is portrayed as an evil person but tends to want to help out in a way making her a good person at the same time. Mary Warren’s moral ambiguity helps the work of Arthur Miller by showing exactly how people were affected by the witch hunts and the …show more content…
What she fears the most is getting accused herself and being on Abigail’s bad side. When Mary confesses, she’s very shy and nervous. “I-I used to faint because I-I thought I saw spirits.” (Miller 99) But once Abigail and the girls start to tell lies about Mary, she breaks down. The girls push her to the point where she turns on Proctor in order to save herself from being accused. “You’re the Devil’s man!” (Miller 110) She knows she’s doing an evil sin by accusing John Proctor and by taking back what she confessed. Abigail sure did a great job at manipulating her in doing bad things, while John was only trying to help her do good things. This comes to show how much of a morally ambiguous person she …show more content…
I can see where she’s coming from in a way, but it was still horrible how she was easily manipulated. As a young person, you go along with anything at times, as how I did when I was in elementary school. One of my friends was absent from school one day, so I hung out with another group of girls. Out of nowhere, they started dissing her in front of me and saying rude things about her for no reason. I was flabbergasted but I was so naive at that young age and I didn’t have the courage to defend her. I knew it was wrong to just stand there listening and not say anything to defend her. It was cowardly of me, so when I went home I thought it through. I decided to tell her the next day. Although I didn’t defend her, I knew telling her everything, even what I did, was the right thing to do. I felt better after telling her and I’m still friends with her now. I learned from that experience, so I try to defend my friends and family in any way possible when it’s