Duty Vs. Personal Retribution

A detailed Summary of Duty Vs. Personal Retribution

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, duty is some kind of personal responsibility to save, protect, or prosecute the residents of Salem, Massachusetts. These duties range from personal retribution to trying to protect reputations to trying save family members and neighbors from the court. Their goals, actions, and obligations depended on the individual?s religious sanctity, personality, and sometimes their position in society.

A 17-year old girl, fired by lust for a married member of the town, becomes the center of the action throughout the whole book. Abigail Williams was found dancing in the woods and drinking blood in order to kill her obsession?s wife. Eventually, she become the accuser of many of the good people of Salem in order to keep the focus off of her and keep her name white in the community. Even though her accusations were not truthful, her strange madness convinces her and others that it is her duty to cleanse Salem of the devil. She says at one point, "And God gave me strength to call th

em liars, and God made men listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him!" (Miller, 150). Her madness and lust for John Proctor make her a dangerous, convincing, and eventually powerful member of society.

Judge Danforth is the most stubborn authority figure in the book. He is an old man with little patience and a short temper. He sees his duty to convict all the witches of Salem if they don?t confess. He does this by having quick witch trials, arresting everyone that could possibly be related to witches, and only really listening to one side of the story, the afflicted girls. He sees the law as something solid and impenetrable. "But you must understand, sir [Francis Nurse], that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between." (94). His confidence in himself assures him that the duty of condemning witches is very important and he must not be judged or questioned at any time.

These three people came from different background

Some common words found in the essay are:
Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, Salem Massachusetts, Francis Nurse, Reverend Hale, Mister Proctor, John Proctor, Salem Massachsetts, Arthur Miller, Reverend Parris, reverend hale, judge danforth, citizens salem, abigail williams,

Approximate Word count = 683
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Duty Vs. Personal Retribution

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