A, their
the men brought their own tools
You're talking about the crucible right? Abigail Williams threatens the other girls because she wants the chaos of a witch hunt to ensue. If the girls spoke up, Abigail would be caught and John Proctor's wife Elizabeth would not have to pay for "stealing" John.
I believe that an unhappy ending can do that.
When a story has a happy ending, then you finish it and you feel satisfied and joyful about how the story ended. On the other hand, if the story ends in an unhappy manner, you start thinking about the resolutions and imagining what could lead to such an ending and how it could be fixed.
