The Crucible
In The Crucible by the playwright Arthur Miller, many adolescents and children such as Abigail, Mary, and Betty play a pivotal role in the numerous witch accusals of the Salem townspeople. Abagail is a young lady who could not cope with John Proctor refuting to commit adultery against his wife with her any longer. So in jealousy she accuses Elizabeth Proctor, John's wife, of being a witch. She does this so that Elizabeth will be found guilty and hanged and so that Abagail can finally be with John. In hindsight, her reckless decision turned out to be a disastrous one and ultimately resulted in the death of John Proctor, the splitting apart of a family, as well as the false imprisonment of Elizabeth. Her decision raises many questions. Why did Elizabeth think this was a good idea? Did she not see the possible consequences of her actions? The answer lies within the development of the human brain during adolescence. As stated in a Ted Talk by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, "MRI's and FMRI's have radically changed how we think about brain development." It has been known that a substantial amount of brain development occurs during early childhood however the brain actually continues to develop throughout adolescence and into the 20s and 30s. This new technology actually gives visual representation of how the brain develops during this time. The Prefrontal Cortex changes drastically during adolescence and is responsible for decision making, planning, inhibiting inappropriate social behavior, social interaction, and self-awareness. This can explain Abagail's poor decision as well as all of the young children's decisions to continue to accuse townspeople as well as pretending to be attacked by witch spirits. Another important discovery to note is the development of the Lambic System of the brain during adolescence. The underdevelopment of this part of the brain during childhood causes children and adolescents to be impulsive and to take risks. It is also related to emotion and reward processing. This part of the brain is hypersensitive during this time and gives a greater "kick" out of taking risks. All of this that has been explained in the above Ted Talk video gives insight as to why the children acted the way they did and why the book unfolded into the series of devastating deaths and unjustified accusals.