When we were all kids, we all have seen our share of puppet shows right? Shows like Sesame Street, Lamb Chop, and even those freaky Muppets. Those entertaining puppets gave us countless hours of laughter, sadness, and enjoyment. But these puppets, as much as you like to think, couldn"t think by themselves. They were controlled to something stronger than them something superior to them. The people who controlled the puppets could do with them whatever they please. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which takes place during the Salem witch trials, there is one character which acts like a puppet being controlled by whoever wishes to control her. Mary Warren, the Proctor's servant, cannot make decisions for herself and relies on others to decide for her. Throughout the play, she changes from the hands of one puppet master, to another.
In the beginning of the play when the accusing starts, Mary Warren is one of the accusers. Here she is being somewhat controlled by the antagonist of the play, and the leader of the accusers, Abigail. The girls who are afraid of the consequences of actions, which was dancing and conquering witchcraft, tried to shift the blame on other people. On returning to the Proctor house, Mary brought a Poppet as a gift for Elizabeth Proctor. This is somewhat symbolic for Mary herself. Mary, who throughout the play gets pushed around, gives Elizabeth a poppet. This poppet also foreshadows the actions of Mary Warren because the poppet which was meant as a gift turned out to be harmful. When Cheever, the Marshall, went to the Proctor's, he found "a poppet Goody Proctor keeps" (79). Right before this, Abby was found with a needle in her stomach and "in the belly of the poppet a needle's stuck" (79). This foreshadows how Mary who was suppose to do good, ends up doing evil, or rather being persuaded by evil. .
In the middle of the play, Marry Warren is persuaded to go to the court and testify against the girls.