What is Danforth in The Crucible?
In Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible, Danforth is depicted as the leading judicial figure overseeing the Salem trials. William Stoughton is not a character in the play, and Miller portrays Danforth as an honest but domineering and selfish judge, under whose authority many are imprisoned and sentenced to hang.
Danforth represents the evil of blind certainty in the play: he refuses to accept the truth because to do so would humiliate him. He'd rather see people die.
Judge Danforth is one of the key characters in Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible." The play tells the story of the Salem Witch Trials and Judge Danforth is the man responsible for determining the fates of those accused.
Type of Villain
Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth is the central antagonist of Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible and its numerous adaptations of the same name. Danforth is a fanatical Puritan authoritarian and hypocrite that oversees a corrupt witch trial in Massachussets.
Thomas Danforth's character in "The Crucible" is stern, judgmental, and proud. He thinks of himself as the most intelligent man in New England and, therefore, the only man capable of overseeing the Salem witch trials. He believes his word is final, and he fancies himself above questioning.
Danforth tells Hale in Act III, Scene 2 that witchcraft is "an invisible crime," one without witnesses. As a result, once an individual stands accused of witchcraft, he or she is guilty.
In ¨ The Crucible¨ by Arthur Miller many people panicked from the witch hysteria which caused many to be accused of being witches, Judge Danforth decided what happens to the accused witches and is the most corrupted in Salem because his power of being a judge made him go overboard with his decisions on people.
Deputy Governor Danforth
The deputy governor of Massachusetts presides over the Salem witch trials. He is a stern yet practical man more interested in preserving the dignity and stature of the court than in executing justice or behaving with any sense of fairness.
Judge Danforth is responsible because he is not concerned about justice, all he cares about is being correct about the witch trials.
In his final years, he was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. Notably, he served as a judge during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Danforth married Mary Withington in 1644, and they had twelve children.
Who quits the court in The Crucible?
Hale denounces the proceedings and quits the court. Scene 3 is the most intense scene in the play because everything is revealed, and timing proves to be one of the most important factors.
He likes to think of himself as fair-minded, so it disturbs and angers him to discover that people fear the court. He believes that no innocent person should fear the court, and that he and Judge Hathorne are guided by God, so nobody will be punished unjustly.
Of the major characters, Abigail is the least complex. She is clearly the villain of the play, more so than Parris or Danforth: she tells lies, manipulates her friends and the entire town, and eventually sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths.
Abigail is the antagonist of the play. She stands opposed to John Proctor, even though she claims to love him and want to be with him. Her refusal to believe that their affair is over, and her desire for revenge on John and his wife, Elizabeth, drive the action of the play.
In Author Miller's The Crucible, Abigail Williams is the most to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail is one of the main characters in the play.
Elizabeth shows great courage sticking up for herself, making her the strongest character in the play. The final reason Elizabeth Proctor is the strongest character is because she has the courage to stand up for herself even though it may ruin her life.
The first trait Deputy Judge Danforth has is that he believes in witchcraft and the girls from the start of the book until the end.
Danforth is shocked, and perhaps a little offended. Seventy-two people have been condemned to hang and four hundred are in the jails—by his signature, he says.
Danforth cannot pardon the prisoners, despite Hale's pleas and his obvious doubts about their guilt, because he does not want to “cast doubt” on the justification of the hangings of the twelve previously condemned and on the sentence of hanging for the seven remaining prisoners.
Danforth refuses because he's already executed other prisoners accused of the same crimes, and he doesn't want to look weak. They decide to bring in Elizabeth Proctor so she can talk to John and hopefully convince him to confess before he is sent to the gallows.
Why is Danforth the most to blame in The Crucible?
Judge Danforth is most to blame rather than Reverend Parris due to the fact that he didn't let anyone defend themselves, asked misleading questions with little or no evidence, and last, he was in charge of all the trials.
In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, Danforth's flaws- pride, gullibility, and stubbornness- led him to be the reason for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem.
Giles refuses to name the man who gave him the information because he does not want to open him to Putnam's vengeance. Danforth arrests Giles for contempt of court.
The reason Judge Danforth is the most powerful out of all the characters in The Crucible is because, Judge Danforth has the power of speaking, the power of speaking is where Judge Danforth decides who is able to speak or who is able to be heard, where Judge Danforth says “Turn your back. Turn your back.
A Deputy governor of Massachusetts who comes to Salem to preside over the witch trials. Though he's more open-minded and intelligent than Judge Hathorne, Danforth believes completely in his ability to distinguish truth from fiction. He views those who disagree with him as suspect.
Judge Danforth insists that John Proctor sign the confession in order to give the faltering trials a sense of legitimacy. He needs concrete proof that one of the Salemites confessed to witchcraft so he can justify all the deaths that have occurred under his watch.
He begs the men to pardon the prisoners because the prisoners will not confess. Danforth replies that postponement or pardons will cast doubt not only on the guilt of the seven remaining prisoners but also on that of the twelve who have hanged already.
The Crucible ends with John Proctor marching off to a martyr's death. By refusing to lie and confess to witchcraft, he sacrifices his life in the name of truth. At the end of the play, Proctor has in some way regained his goodness.
Danforth claims, 'I judge nothing. ' - This is verbal irony because he is a judge and his job is to preside over the court proceedings.
Salem witch trials
Tituba was the first person to be accused of practicing witchcraft by Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams. It has been theorized that Tituba told the girls tales of voodoo and witchcraft prior to the accusations.
Who cheated on who in The Crucible?
John Proctor is a tormented individual. He believes his affair with Abigail irreparably damaged him in the eyes of God, his wife Elizabeth, and himself. True, Proctor did succumb to sin and commit adultery; however, he lacks the capacity to forgive himself.
In a sense, The Crucible has the structure of a classical tragedy, with John Proctor as the play's tragic hero. Honest, upright, and blunt-spoken, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw.
| Russell Williams | |
|---|---|
| Criminal status | Under sentence for life, currently incarcerated |
| Spouse | Mary Elizabeth Harriman ( m. 1991; div. 2014) |
| Conviction(s) | First-degree murder Sexual assault Forcible confinement Breaking and entering |
| Criminal penalty | Life sentence |
Abigail Williams is the main antagonist of Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible. She is an intelligent and manipulative young woman from Salem during the seventeenth century, who single-handedly started the Salem witch trials as does her controversial real-life counterpart of the same name.
In the story, flashbacks reveal that she was hanged for her part in the witch trials.
Reverend Hale, one of The Crucible characters, is from Beverly, Massachusetts, and is an intelligent man. He is somewhat of an expert in witchcraft, which is why Parris calls for him to examine Betty.
In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris.
But when Danforth asks Elizabeth, “Is your husband a lecher?” she responds, “No, sir.” Elizabeth, who John describes as never having lied, lies in this instance to protect John's reputation.
Proctor has been in jail for three months, giving the people in the town time to think about his charge against Abigail and what happened in Act III, Scene 3.