Blog #4: Abigail of the Third Reich

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an epic with multiple levels of meaning. The story as whole relates to the US in the midst of the Red Scare, or the gossip circles present in everyday life. But even deeper than that, each character has a symbolic purpose. Abigail is the epitome of the corruption that comes with access to power after a lifetime of being denied it. Originally having goodness in her heart, she accused Tituba of witchcraft. Historically, it is believed that Tituba practiced Voodoo, so to a young Puritan girl, voodoo could very well be witchcraft. But as her power and standing in the village raised, she started to accuse the innocent. She no longer had her righteous purpose. She kept slipping and slipping until the village saw her for the demon she was, and in the very end, she completes her corrupted transformation and becomes a common prostitute.

In the same way that Abigail started out good, Hitler was once an excellent leader. He united his divided country and brought them out of the dark days of the Great Depression. But after achieving his absolute power, corruption set in. He convinced the populace that Jews were responsible for their strife, and ordered the murder of 14 million innocent Jews, Poles, POWs, and disabled. He went from the excellent politician to the gruesome monster the Western World saw him to be. As John Dalberg-Acton once said "Absolute Power corrupts absolutely."