# Power Rollercoaster
### **The Crucible and McCarthyism**

As the greatest American dream, people had always believe that success would come after great effort. However, when one’s path to success involves diminishing other’s value, the end is bound to be **miserable** . Arthur Miller grasped the idea and depicted it through Abigail’s action In *The Crucible*.


### Being innocent

In Act 1, Arthur Miller demonstrates that initially Abigail only blame others to defend her social states. Hale, the reverend from the neighboring town, inquired Abigail whether she was associated with witchery.

**`Abigail: She made me do it! She made Betty do it! `** (40)

Here, The she in the quote referred to Tituba, a slave brought from Barbados by Mr. Parris. Described by Arthur Miller, Tituba happened to enter the door the right before Abigail made her accusation.

It is an intuition for people to accuse others in order to protect their reputation. Therefore, it is reasonable for Abigail to state that Tituba was responsible for all the action.

At this point, Abigail had only done minimal action needed to preserve herself, and yet considered the possibility of utilizing it to acquire power.

### Acting for power

In contrast to the choiceless situation in Act 1, Abigail manipulated people’s fear by cleaver acting in Act 2 and 3. In the court, John Proctor forced Mary Warren to confess that Abigail lied in the beginning, which caused the whole hazard in the village, and Mary Warren was about to provide the truth.

**`Abigail: A wind, a cold wind, has come. Her eyes fall on Mary Warren.`** (101)

Here, Abigail acted like she had been cursed by Mary Warren to redirect the court’s attention to her. Abigail deeply understood that people in the town were feared by witches that might disguised among themselves. Therefore, by faking being witched, Abigail could lead people into believing that someone is indeed a witch, thereby eliminated any person who threaten her social power.

### Fallen trust

However, the action Abigail done failed to secure her social status. After every event had fallen behind the curtain, **`”The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston.“`** (135)

It is clear that manipulating the public’s fear to enhance one’s power is bound to end in disasters. People will end up discovering that someone is controlling others, and combat them for the society’s well being.

### The result

Through Abigail’s action, Arthur Miller alarmed people about the danger of exploiting people’s **fear**. It had taught us that as part of the society, we shouldn’t view others as tools to achieve our goal, but to **respect** and **help** each other. Only through cooperation and trust can we achieve the true greatness.