Life as a human is dictated by an inborn hunger or purpose, and people, in general, will act on this hunger for their own personal gain in their individual ways. This hunger, be it for wealth, land, love, power, revenge, or pride, can, and will be the undoing or failing of all mankind as Miller so clearly points out in his play "The Crucible". This essay will explore the motives of characters within the play and even the motives of Arthur Miller himself and therefore show how conflict stems from certain recognisable human failings including those mentioned above, fear, and hysteria.

Reverend Parris is the character that initiates the hysteria of the Salem witch trials, in a community where authorities wasted no time minding the business of it's citizens, what should have been seen as teen frivolity was blown into one of the ugliest moments in American History. Parris sparks this by firstly acting

on his own paranoia, which the reader would find in the introduction "he believed he was being persecuted where ever he went", and calling Reverend Hale in an attempt for self-preservation "....if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it." This statement says a lot about the character of Reverend Parris: a greedy, power hungry man who is more concerned with his own reputation than the souls of his niece and daughter. He always acts on fear, a fear that he will lose his position of power in the community. Parris does not want the trials to end as a fraud because the scandal of having a lying daughter and niece would end his career in Salem.

Abigail Williams, until these progressions had held no power; no standing; no rights within the town. It is Abby who, after denying all, first sees an opportunity in the trials, a chance for revenge on the wife of the man she loves and revenge on a cruel and gossiping community. Abigail sees Tituba brought for questioning and notices how easy it is for Tituba to implicate others while saving her own neck "{then} [Abigail rises, staring as though inspired, and cries out] I want to open myself." For the rest of Act I Betty and Abby in feverish ecstasy 'cry out' the names of their enemies. Here two young women, usually powerless in that day's society, find the ability to grant life or death and what sprang from a want for revenge came to a frightening lust for power.

With twelve hanged and seven to hang Reverend Hale returns after having quit the court in disgust. "There is blood on my head! Can you not see blood on my head?" After his ambitious beginnings Hale now realises his mistakes: the accusers are not automatically innocent, they too act on inborn hunger. Hale shows the audience how Abby acted out of revenge and jealousy "She has always struck me as false". The audience would now be able to relate to the main characters in this play as they recognise these failings within themselves and the people around them. Perhaps, if it came down to it we would act in the same way as Arthur Miller's characters.

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Approximate Word count = 1503
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)