By Bradley Pankow
Ashlea Dull
And Lauren Johnston
Definition of Vengeance
The desire for
violent revenge
Vengeance In
the Crucible
“She thinks to dance
with me on my wife’s
grave!... But it is a
whore’s vengeance,
and you must see it…”
John Proctor
Page 110
Abby’s Vengeance on Elizabeth
•Abby want to have vengeance on Elizabeth
for kicking her out of her house
•Abby blames Elizabeth of being a witch to
get her revenge
•As the quote illustrates, Abby wants
Elizabeth dead and John for herself
“I’ll tell you what’s
walking Salem–
vengeance is walking
Salem!”
John Proctor
Page 77
Vengeance Throughout the Town
•Many people in Salem used the witch trials
to get revenge on others by calling them
witches
•One notable person in this play who used
this method of revenge was Thomas
Putnam
Thomas Putnam
•Thomas’ brother was turned down as
minister of Salem by a faction
•“Thomas Putnam felt that his own name
and the honor of his family had been
smirched by the village, and he meant to
right matters however he could.” (p. 15)
•Many accusations and corroborations of
witchcraft were made by Thomas Putnam
and his daughter
Definition of Scapegoating
the act or practice of
assigning blame or
failure to another, as to
deflect attention or
responsibility away
from oneself
Scapegoating
In the Crucible
PARRIS: “Then you were
conjuring spirits last
night.”
ABBY: “Not I, sir, not I. —
Tituba and Ruth.”
Parris and Abby
Page 10
“I want to open myself! I want the
light of God, I want the sweet love
of Jesus! I danced for the devil; I
saw him; I wrote in his book I go
back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw
Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw
Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”
Abby
Page 26
Circle Girls
•The circle girls are trying to get out of
trouble by blaming others of a far more
heinous crime.
•They blame people with no social rank in
society so others believe that maybe they
are witches.
•The girls accuse people to get the
attention off themselves
HALE: “I believe him! This girl has
always struck me false! She has-”
Abby, with a weird, wild, chilling cry,
screams up to ceiling.
ABBY: “You will not! Begone!
Begone, I say!”
Hale and Abby
Page 71
Abby During the Trial
•When John talks of lechery with Abby, she
doesn’t want to admit that she did it.
•To get out admitting to having an affair,
Abby decides to pretend that she’s
something in the ceiling.
•Abby drwas the attention away from her
and towards Mary by pretending Mary is
sending her spirit out
MARY: “Don’t touch me-don’t
touch me!
PROCTOR: “Mary!”
MARY: “You’re the Devil’s man!”
Mary and Proctor
Page 74
Mary When Accused of Being a Witch
•Mary doesn’t want to be accused of being
witch and being hung.
•To escape this fate Mary accuses John to
turn the attention on him.
•Mary knew that Parris thought that
Proctor wanted to “overthrow the
government” so she adds that in there so
Parris would be totally distracted from her.
WORKS CITED!!
•“Scapegoating.” Dictionary.com. 2010. October 12th, 2010.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scapegoating
•“Vengeance.” Dictionary.com. 2010. October 10th, 2010.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vengeance