Rebecca Nurse Essays

Rebecca Nurse Essays Rebecca Nurse Paper Rebecca Nurse Paper Essay Topic: Rebecca In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, ten teen-age girls claimed that Reverend Samuel Parris slave, Tituba and two elderly women from the town a Salem had bewitched them. In four months hundreds of people were imprisoned, 19 of whom were hanged and one was pressed to death with rock, all due to witchcraft. Two hundred and sixty years later the people of the United States became frightened that communism would strike America as it had in countries such as China and the USSR. People who were suspected of communism were brought before inquiries that were televised and were asked to sign confessions, lead by McCarthy. Senator Joseph McCarthy was anti-communist supporter who lead investigations to seek out people who had left wing sympathies. He worked on the principle of guilty until proved innocent, the opposite of methods usually worked with in a fair court system. One of the ways to get out of it was to name others. Most of the people brought before inquiries were not communists, although they may have been slightly left wing. Although they were not executed, they were prevented from ever working again. Miller wrote the play in the 1950s in America whilst this was going on. The main people who were attacked by these activities were people who worked in mass media, such as Miller himself. Miller saw a similarity between the Salem Witch trials of 1692 and the un-American activities in America in his life and wrote a play set in the Witch Trials in 1692. The main characters in the play are: Parris, a forty year old widower who was Reverend of the village; Abigail, Paris niece aged 17; Proctor, a farmer in his mid-thirties married to Elizabeth with two children; Giles Corey, eighty year old man often blamed for problems in the village; Hale, nearing forty Reverend of Beverly, a nearby town and Danforth, Deputy Governor of the village. The play begins by Parris catching a group of girls dancing in the woods and they are said to be trying to make contact with the devil. Parris accuses them of practising witchcraft. Whilst this is happening Betty and Ruth are struck down with a strange illness and witchcraft is immediately accused. John Proctor and Abigail have a conversation about their past affair and Abigail tells him that she is waiting for him every night but Proctor tells her that he is over her. Reverend Hale a specialist in witch hunting arrives and examines Betty. He questions Abigail and Tituba, Tituba admits to witchcraft to avoid hanging, they begin to name others and accuse them of consorting with the devil. Danforth arrives in town to supervise the court proceedings against the accused witches. Elizabeth encourages John to go and testify against the girls, then Mary arrives and tells Elizabeth that Abigail cried witch against her. Hale arrives and questions the Proctors about Christianity, Proctor can recite all the commandments apart from the one forbidding adultery. Elizabeth is arrested as she is accused of stabbing Abigail in the stomach, through a poppet. Francis, Corey and Proctor go to court to proclaim their wives innocence and Corey charges Putnam with making his daughter incriminate townsmen with the intention of obtaining their land, he has a witness but will not name them and so is arrested. Mary is persuaded by Proctor to tell the truth and is brought to court, but Abigail denies this and leads the other girls to act as if being witched by Mary. Proctor tells the truth about his affair with Abigail and says that Elizabeth can substantiate his claim and that she is incapable of lying. Elizabeth is brought before the court and in an effort to save her husbands name she lies for the first time in her life. By this time Mary is overcome by the hysterical cries from the girls and so joins in with them and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Hale pleads with the prisoners to save themselves and requests that Danforth pardon the accused but Danforth says that I cannot pardon these when twelve are already hanged for the same crime. It is not just. Hale asks Elizabeth to ask Proctor to save himself she agrees to see him, but promises nothing. Whilst alone she forgives him for being unfaithful believing that its partly her own fault. She did not tell him what to do but tells him to judge himself, as she cannot. Proctor does not want to die and confesses, but will not name others. He tears up his confession and Hale shouts to Elizabeth Woman plead with him! But Elizabeth refuses saying He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! Parris was aged forty in the play, a widower and Reverend of the village. He believes that he is superior to the majority of the villagers and particularly Proctor. He feels insecure, as he is worried of losing his job and his reputation for now my ministry is at stake. In the beginning Parris does not wish the situation to get out of control but let you say nothing of witchcraft yet. His admiration for Hale is evident as soon as he arrives as he carries his heavy books for him.