Ruth In The Crucible

Words: 449
Pages: 2

Mrs.Putnam in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a bitter, old, hag, characterized in the story as being a mother who is extremely bitter and said that she’s had seven babies born and only one lived, early on in the story, after talk of witchcraft is brought up and “confirmed” by Reverend Hale, she accuses the most altruistic, godly woman in the village for being a witch. She does this because Rebecca has successfully given birth to nine children and only one has died, Ann resents this because while Ruth was having seizures and the Putnams had to worry about their one child dying, Nurse has an abundant amount of healthy children. She also believes that since Rebecca helped Ann birth her children, she used witchcraft upon them to take their life source,this is exemplified in,”Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in …show more content…
I have spoken nothin', but my heart has clamored intimations,”( ). This shows many character flaws in Goody Putnam, first of all it shows she’s not willing to take the blame of her children dying and it's easier for her to put the responsibility of their death upon a woman who she envies to give herself a feeling of closure. Secondly, the night that the girls were caught dancing in the woods with the chicken blood and frog in the stew, Ruth took fright because she thought she was going to be in copious amounts of trouble; however the reason that she was there was that Mrs. Putnam decided that to find the killer of her children, she would have Ruth go to Tituba and have her talk to the dead. This is a great crime for the Puritans at this time dealing with any sort of magic, but she does not tell Reverend Parris at first for she fears of what he may think of her, until they’ve deduced it down to witchcraft so she is safe to tell. This shows a huge sort of selfishness in her character as one who would put her reputation over the lives of many