During the puritan times women had been thought of as less than men, of being inferior, weak, and lacking intelligence. In the poem, “Half-Hanged Mary” by Margaret Atwood the speaker tells the poem from Mary Webster’s point of view. This poem goes into depth, and it gives chills to the reader. This poem is about Mary’s experience of her own self being executed by being hanged for not “fitting in as the other local towns women” for being an outcast, and as well as having witchcraft accusations. Mary was hanged from a tree and was left there overnight, she explains to the reader very thoroughly her thoughts hour by hour, and it is known that when she was cut down she was still alive and lived for another 14 years. In The …show more content…
Mary was going to be hanged because people saw her as an outcast and she also ended up getting accused of witchcraft in the poem “Half-Hanged Mary”. Mary knew who she really was inside, so she didn’t try to deny it with the the court because she knew women had no chance against a man's word. Mary is hanged at seven p.m. by 12 at midnight she was desperate to die, she didn't want to be hurting anymore. Mary begins to despair and says “To give up my own words for myself, my own refusals, To give up knowing. To give up pain. To let go” (Atwood). Mary says this to herself when she feels the presence of death very keenly. She explains to the reader the physical and mental pain she is feeling. She is loosing power of her own word to keep her head up high, she is ready to let go of everything, she just wants it to be over with. In The Crucible one can only live with so much, sometimes it’s just better to let go. Mary Warren is John’s and Elizabeth's maid, she accused John of being in witchcraft. John denies the accusations, but in this time no one was trusted. Everyone that was accused were to be hanged. They gave him a chance to sign a paper giving up his name, that he is indeed a witch. In return he would not be hanged. John went mad, “Because it it my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth …show more content…
Women were categorized as beneath men and society did not believe in letting women exceed in life. Recently women have been seen to prosper in life, they are becoming role models to the youth audience. In “Half-Hanged Mary,” Mary learned to live on her own because that’s how she choose to live her life even though she was judged and executed. She still managed to live and stand up for herself, that is what independent women do. In The Crucible women are seen the same as in “Half-Hanged Mary,” Elizabeth was under control by her husband. Her husband ended up paying the consequences of his actions by being hanged. Mary was strong to let him go, she believed she could handle herself. It is proven that women don’t need a man, they can easily stand up for themselves and against gender