Dorothy McCoy once popularly said “Manipulation is a contagious disease. Much more dangerous than the flu because it can endure for a lifetime”. This quote embodies the fact that all it takes is 1 lie, 1 exaggeration, or 1 myth to ruin a person’s life-or-many lives in the case of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this play, one lie turned into a complete disaster with people being accused of witchcraft left and right leaving no one spared. Some of the accused chose to “confess” to their sorcery in order to save their lives while others upheld their integrity and died in the process. Although lying may seem like the better move, sticking with the truth is the righteous option because it will not harm the future generation and discredit the witchcraft …show more content…
You will forever be associated with the words such as “witch”, “evil” and even “the devil” which is what Proctor realized in Act 4, hence, refusing to sign a confession paper and pleading “How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 143)! Proctor realized that if he confessed to witchery, then he and his family’s name would be tainted and plummet. Additionally, his kids would have to live with the fact that their father is vile. He did not want to curse his children with this life and decided to make the selfless sacrifice for the sake of his family’s reputation and futures. By not making a public confession, he died as an innocent man with integrity, having no relations to witchcraft whatsoever in the public view. But, this decision to speak the truth is not solely a matter of saving your family; it is about saving the other people of Salem as well. So many innocent people were prosecuted during the trials because of other’s false confessions. At one point even Rebecca Nurse was accused of these sins, which was shocking for many as she was a respected figure in the
J. Blackledge 27 January 2023 CCR English III Block 4 In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, there is an abundance of dishonesty. In a time of deception, there are many characters blind to the truth. Some people were informed of the truth but denied it. One example of this is the judge of Salem.
Sex, Lies, Witches & Executions. That’s just the beginning of this literary masterpiece. The book “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is an amazing piece of literature. It has been adapted in many forms such as Broadway productions, plays, and movies. Although, without a doubt some adaptations are better than others.
Author Arhtur Miller, explores the theme of dishonesty as well as honesty in The Crucible, which takes place in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Where the townspeople and others are accused by others of witchcraft and being taken to court where the victim has more power and truth of JUdge Danforth. Dishonesty is motivated by people trying to save themselves by not being hanged or killed, on the other hand others are dishonest to save others. WHile Honesty has been shown to keep pride and not be shamed by others. Honesty is always the best policy in reality today, but as of the Salem Trials, although if you were honest and didn’t participate in witchcraft but were accused, and didn’t confess, they would be hanged.
“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked… The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on… There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.” ~
The significance of lying only leads to more problems is conflicted in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In a series of events the effects of lying are displayed with their own individual consequences and one problem leading to another and another and eventually to an tragic end. From the beginning of the play, The Crucible, the reader was introduced to the young girl Abigail who initially started the trails of lies that caused the downfall of Salem and its justice.
Everybody lies sometime in their life and in books/plays there is definitely no eception. For example in the Crucible Written by Arthor Miller in 1953 it is difficult to turn a page without finding a lie. But in real life and fiction lying isn't always harmful but it all depends on the situation. For example in the crucible lieing could of saved several lives.for example Giles,Rebecca Nurse and John proctor would have survived had they lied.
In the play “The Crucible,” by Arthur Miller, the town of Salem is dealing with girls dealing with witchcraft and this caused a huge ruckus and basically destroys the town. We learned that the girls were just having fun, and were following Abigail’s lead. Abigail was the master of this plot, the one who started all of this, just over a crush and jealously over a John Proctor and his wife. To the prompt of this, why is Danforth, Harthorne and the other authorities such as Parris, so resistant on believing the claim that Abigail and the other girls are lying? From this paper we should realize why this is such a doing in the play.
The Salem witch trials were a time period when any individual could be accused of witchcraft for numerous reasons. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller focuses on the deviation of the trials and how the town’s most religious and honest members of the community are tried with witchcraft. John Proctor, the town’s most honest man, is accused of being a witch and must decide if he should confess or not. Proctor’s confession will stop the town from rebelling and uphold the reputations of Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris. Hale also wishes for Proctor’s confession so he does not have to feel responsible if Proctor were to be hanged for his witchcraft accusations.
People lie for many reasons. Sometimes it’s to themselves, sometimes it’s to others. No matter who they are lying to, it always affects others around you. In the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller, lying is a very common theme. Many characters lie, which include John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and many others.
Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.
The Crucible was written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, the play delivers many messages and carries many themes throughout. Nearly every character in the play is put to the test to display an act of courage, weakness, or truth. Some characters lack these traits and never learn to have courage or display honesty. However, most characters are very courageous and demonstrate these acts throughout the whole play. Overall the theme of the The Crucible boils down to being about honesty, weakness, and courage.
This disgusting behavior seen today is also seen in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is the story of a young Puritan woman in 1692 Massachusetts who made false witchcraft accusations in an attempt to save her life and to end a rival’s life. While her actions are horrific and the cause of numerous deaths, the actions of the adults around her that enabled her lies to cost lives are despicable. Through his dishonest characters, specifically Reverend Parris, Judge Danforth, and John Proctor, Miller exposes the evils of lying to save one’s name and the destruction that inevitably ensues.
Some may view the death as unuseful when they may live to rebut that they aren’t apart of witchcraft. Hale tries to convince Elizabeth to tell John to live, “... that throws his life away for pride” (4, 358). Although John signing would mean there is witchcraft so all the deaths would’ve been justified to the village. Parris confirms how valuable Proctor’s name is, “It is a weighty name; it will strike the village that Proctor confess” (4, 659). Proctor’s name can convince the village witchcraft is there, but only if he signs.
As seen in The Crucible, the selfishness, paranoia, and guilt of Salem citizens leads to the hangings of many- most likely innocent- human beings. In many cases, the fear of losing their lives drove confessions out of the accused. For instance, Judge Danforth says to Mary Warren, “You will confess yourself or you will hang!” and Mary, after more screaming and accusations from the other girls, breaks down and claims Proctor is “the Devil’s man! ... I’ll
So what this entails is: you either tell the truth and deny that you have anything to do with witchcraft and be hung or tell a lie, which is a sin, and go to jail for an extended period of time. Those accused of witchcraft are put in front of those who have accused them and the judges and do not get to plead a case. But this was not a big problem before a group of girls started to tell