When a little child holds his lifelong pet, a hamster, too tightly, it turns on its master and bites him so as to preserve its survival. In that same way, humans, although not entirely animals, react with this same instinct, survival. In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, this natural instinct is bestowed in every individual in the town of Salem and brings about horrific behaviors and character flaws that immensly impacted the society of the village in 1692.
Through the despicable trait of vengeance, many of the townspeople are accused and murdered for the actions of others. Abigail, who is the main accusor, lashes out in vengeance against John Proctor's wife by accusing her of having her spirit stab Abigail with a needle. Abigail testified, "Goody Proctor always kept poppets", so as to indict Mrs. Proctor of witchcraft known as voodoo (Abigail 870). It is also this vengeful behavior that Thomas Putnam has, for the town of Salem, for not accepting his wife's brother-in-law to be the minister, which condemns many others. In Arthur Miller's aside about Thomas he tells us of his resentment toward the town and Thomas accusing the citizens of Salem is clearly he getting his revenge against them. All of the lies, some caused by vengeance, eventually get the characters into more trouble and more people killed.
Dishonesty was one of the predominant traits whose causation was disasterous upon the town. The entire witch trials in Salem could have been avoided if the community had just told the truth. The most accountable individual for this trait is without a doubt Abigail. Abigail's outrageous lies doomed many innocent people that could have been saved if she had just told the truth. It was Abigail that when asked if she had done witchcraft in the forest exclaimed, "Not I, Sir Tituba and Ruth", just to save herself (Abigail 836). But, a good amount of blame is also to be emp...