Guilt In The Crucible Essay

Because John cannot seem to remember his ten commandments while Hale is questioning him, “he is stuck. He counts back on his fingers, knowing one is missing” (67). Proctor is purposely trying to stall because he does not want to state the commandment about committing adultery. Nevertheless, John did have an affair with Abigail, but he does not want Hale to know because he fears he will be seen as a bad man. The seemingly amiable, Christian man does not want to have his honorable reputation taken away.

John Procter wanted to sign his name because he just wanted to end the “war.” but he also did not want to say anyone’s name. He ends up signing his name and when he finishes, he realizes that he no longer cares and he doesn't care if he dies. John ripped the paper in half and that one action resulted in his death.

Arthur Miller makes it clear that having a good name is more important that the truth, Proctor, Parris, and Danforth all decided their name and reputation was more important than the lives of innocent people. Their decisions went deeper and deeper and made things get worse. Having a good name effected how Proctor acted because he doesn 't want to tell the truth about things he knows just to keep his name. Reputation effects Parris because, he doesn 't want to go against the bible and be accused of working with the devil. Lasly a good name affects Judge Danforth 's decisions because he sees that later he has killed innocent people, but does not want to come forward because he 's killed to many innocents and people will look at him different.

A stain in one’s name is a serious dishonor. Rumors, as well as wrongful actions, affect how the world sees us and how we see the world. Thus human beings are victims of their own reputation. To avoid this, one tends to use pride as a shield. However, instead of protecting us, pride hurts us even more by impeding us from solving our issues.

Danforth stated, “You misunderstand, sir; I cannot pardon these when twelve have already been hanged for the same crime. ”(Miller 1156). After he hung twelve people, Danforth thinks that we shouldn’t stop because if they were to stop it, that would say that they were wrong in their judgement. Courageously, they kept it going, thinking that they were right and everyone who opposed them or the girls, were working with the devil. Worried that Hale was wrong, he left and came back, trying to get people to just give in, that living and lying is better than dying.

Now that Mary has accused him as well, he must either confess and live with the whole town thinking such, or he may deny it and be hanged. With the encouragement from Reverend Hale, John decides to confess, but finds out that his name must be publicly written for all to see. When Judge Danforth questions his hesitation on his name going public, John says, "Because it is my name! I cannot have another in my life! How may I live without my name!

What if individuals accept the worse and when offered something better, they believe they don’t deserve it? George’s character is somewhat insinuating this because of his abilities he deserved to be handicapped, and if he does something out of the way he needs more punishment. I chose George because I believed that he depicted what was wrong with the society and how that we let higher ranking people tell us what we deserve. George is a smart individual, and knows that his government is wrong, yet does nothing. In some cases aren’t all individuals

He claimed he did not know anything about Clarisse’s death, but he does mention that he kept a record on her and that, “The poor girl is better off dead.” (Bradbury, 58) If he was keeping such a close record on her, it would be easy for him to find a way to kill her. He did not want her around any more because they were suspicious that she had been reading. It is impossible to know for certain if Beatty was involved in Clarisse’s death, but it is certain that Beatty would not have been able to make the speech to Montag without being intelligent. From what he said, he knows quite a lot about books.

In The Crucible, Miller gradually reveals Reverend Parris’s persona as the play goes on. The definition of power-hungry is basically the gist of Reverend Parris’s character. Parris cares more about himself than others, even his own blood. In this play, one of Reverend Parris’s strongest qualities is being very religious, and religion was extremely strict with the Puritans in the 1600s.

Polyneices was known as a traitor to Thebes and that is why Creon made the law that Polyneices could not be buried. Even though Antigone was aware of this she was not ready to just leave her brother’s carcass unburied and completely open to animals like birds and dogs. The law was not thought through by creon at all, Creon’s son Haimon even tells his dad that him killing Antigone is guaranteed to bring upon more deaths. Creon started to believe that Haimon had turned over to a criminal, his fiance Antigone, but Haimon re assures Creon that he listens to his father and has the most respect for him. Even though Haimon tells this to Creon, Haimon still tells the King Creon that he is wrong and that the people are talking in town, Haimon says “But I, at any rate, can listen; and i have heard them muttering and whispering in the dark about this

Salem is a town that is centered on their religious beliefs. The church is the basis for their morals and ethics, but discovery of the actions of the town’s girls impacts the entire town. Reverend Parris discovers the girls along with Tituba conjuring up spells, singing Barbados songs, and dancing naked. This begins a series of events in The Crucible by Arthur Miller where he uses irony to show that guilt can cause the most upstanding men to act uncharacteristically. Hale is invited to town to prove that there is no witchcraft in the town.

50 minutes Jerry, tells Jan that he does not want him to be involved in the case, because Jan will beat him. “Tell me what you got here so far and I will have a check cut and we will all get on with our lives” This verbal communication

This puts slabanski actions under a different light and revaluates the idea of him being negligent. In the beginning he was trying to take cautious measures and reduce the risks of deaths by suggesting to delay the mission but it was not in his hands to do and that the higher ranked officers will be the ones to blame since they approved of the mission being put forth despite the fact that the greater risks should be discussed before carrying out the mission blindly without reviewing the possible

His guilt is what is driving him to prove himself good. This leads her to decide she is not in a place to judge his actions or control his future, so she says to John, “Do what you will. But let none be your judge. There be no higher judge under Heaven than Proctor is!” (137).

He accepts that the witch trials are not true. He wants to save everyone that is still alive and accused. Since he no longer believes in the witch trials, he tries to get the accused to lie. Hale wants Goody Proctor to convince John Proctor to lie and save his own life. Something else he loses faith in, is the law.