Monday, October 20, 2014

In "The Crucible" what had Mary Warren to do with the accusing of Goody Osburn?

Mary Warren, as "an official of the court", is there every day during the proceedings, and so she was present when Goody Osburn was brought in and questioned.  The first time Goody Osburn was accused was at Reverend Parris's house when Tituba, to get out of being hanged or whipped, claimed she saw Goody Osburn with the devil.  While Osburn is being questioned in the courts, Mary states that, "I feel a misty coldness climbin' up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then-I hear a voice, a screamin' voice, and it were my voice-and all at once I remembered everything she done to me!"  Mary goes on to explain that once when she turned Osburn away from the door without food, Osburn mumbled and she "thought [her] guts would burst for two days after."  The implication is that Osburn mumbled some sort of curse or witchcraft to make Mary sick.  When asked to repeat what she mumbled, Osburn claimed it was her commandments, but then couldn't repeat them, and so Mary says that "they had her in a flat lie!"


So, although Osburn was not there on Mary's accusation, she is the one that brings forth the damning evidence that "proves" Osburn is a witch, at least in the eyes of the court.

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