"Tituba's Troubles" Examines Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" and Tituba's role particularly

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Tituba's Troubles

In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Abigail William's is a young puritan woman who leads her friends in court as they wrongly accuse dozens of Salem citizens for being "bound with the devil". Abigail is responsible in some ways for many of the deaths sentenced in the play, particularly that of John Proctor, but Tituba really started Salem's troubles when she falsely confessed to Reverend John Hale that she was a witch.

Abigail's uncle, the Reverend Parris, finds his ten-year-old daughter Betty with Abigail, Tituba, and a number of other Puritan girls dancing in the woods around a caldron. This does not seem like such a serious offense, but dancing was not permitted in Puritan communities. The girls find out that Parris has seen him, frightening his daughter and causing her to pretend that she has been taken over by spirits and is unable to awaken. Parris then calls in Hale to look at his daughter, and he tells him about his encounter the day before in the woods.

Hale asks Abigail about her involvement and she immediately blames Tituba.

Tituba's influence on Abigail and the other girls started when she introduced them to her beliefs in spirits which she probably acquired from her African roots. She gets the girls involved when she takes them to the woods to "conjure up the boys". Abigail participates along with the others, although she is the only one who drinks blood. Another anonymous girl also proceeds to take off her clothes, though her identity is never revealed. When Hale goes to question Tituba, she confesses to being a witch and is forgiven. This is where the other Salemites get their idea to confess up even though they are not really witches.

Abigail's actions in the remainder of the play are the...