Over 150 young women involved with USA Gymnastics (USAG) and Michigan State (MSU) recently came out as victims of sexual abuse. The culprit: their well-respected physician, Larry Nassar. The young gymnasts were required to see this physician, and, when a few brave girls tried to report him, they were shut down for being “disrespectful” or “insubordinate.” The organizations who supported Nassar, specifically USAG, MSU, and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), did nothing for these young women because they felt they needed to protect their and Nassar’s reputations as the best of the best. 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.
It is a horrifying to be Since the beginning, Abigail has told lies that are excruciating. Abigail screams out “I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! (Miller.1.1050). With Abigail's careless act, the town is in despair, every time she would create a lie it would turn people against each other. Even when these group of people have been living with each other years, with one action from Abigail they are automatically believing each person is associated with the Devil. Questioningly, Abigail says “Why? Why do you come, yellow bird?” (Miller.3.991). Once again, Abigail uses spectral evidence to get her way. Being accused of lying is very inconsiderate in Abigail's eyes. Each time she talks she creates more lies that the younger girls
In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller tells the story of the Salem witch trials taking place in
In the first Act, Abigail manipulates the girls into helping her lie about the forest “incident” in the beginning of the play. "Now look you, all of you we danced and Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam 's dead sisters, and that is all. Mark this let either of you breathe a word and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you." (Miller I, 20). In this quote, Abigail becomes aware of what she did in the forest along with the girl and threatens them to keep silence if they want to keep their lives. It is in this same intimidating mood that the girls follow her lead in beginning to call out the names of who they "saw" with the Devil at the end of Act I. Her dominance continues as the play advances and the girls are required to attend court and follow Abigail’s order. They all start pretending as if they have a special ability to identify those who are
In the beginning, Mary and her friends danced in the woods, but they are caught by Reverend Parris, and afraid they will get in trouble, two of the girls pretend to be afflicted by a witch. The two seemingly afflicted girls send widespread chaos through the town, and the remaining girls have to figure out what to do to get the attention away from their dance in the woods. Mary is understandably terrified as she is a rule follower and has never broken a rule in her life. Mary knows that “the whole country's talkin witchcraft!” (Miller 1107). Mary desperately wants to tell the truth because she believes their punishment will be less severe if they are truthful. Because of this Abigail threatened her and the other girls, saying they will not tell the truth, so the girls decide to use the two afflicted girls to their advantage and claim witchcraft. Their claim of witchcraft leads to an entire mess of people being falsely accused. John Proctor knows that the girls are lying but doesn't do anything about it until his wife is arrested. Whereupon he forces Mary Warren to tell him the truth and say that she will tell the truth to the court to save all of the innocent people. John gets her to the court and and tells the court that his wife and all of the other people are innocent and leaves Mary Warren to tell the truth. Mary tries her best to tell the truth, she wants so badly to be free of sin,
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. All these characters have what they feel, is a logical reason for lying, but the question why do people lie to others and themselves, is something to ponder while reading the play. People lie to themselves to make them feel better about their own lives and people lie to others to cover up something they may be ashamed of.
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.
By looking at The Crucible by Arthur Miller one can see that the characterization of John Proctor reveals the theme of reputation and integrity, which is important because refusing to tell lies to protect his reputation and stop delirium from spreading throughout Salem.John Proctor states that the woman of Salem who have been locked up for witchcraft:”Excellency, does it not strike upon you that so many of these women have lived so long with such upright reputation”(3.1.305-309). Proctor represents reputation because he would rather die than have his reputation downed to a victimizer. Protecting his reputation motivates John Proctor to deny that witchcraft exists in the village. All he hears is crying out of screams and wailing which is a cause of the Devil 's work: “What 's she doing? Girl what ails you? Girl what ails you? Stop that wailing!” (1.1 620-621). John Proctor is saying that Abigail is crying out in nonsense to protect her by making people think she was cast over by witches rather people finding out about the adultery that she committed . Proctor motivates to learn how the truth can still not matter if it is not what the court wants to hear causing people to be killed and put in jail.
Telling the truth may seem like the right path to take, but in the Puritans’ society it leads to nothing but consequences. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, reasoning and logic play a huge role in the society’s fear and paranoia. Proctor, Hale, and Giles are the main characters who have reasonable explanations for the chaos that has occurred.
Lying is the most committed sin. Everyday people lie whether small or big. Every human knows that lying should not be exercised, but sometimes, in certain situations, lying is necessary due to the consequences of telling the truth.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller has many lessons to learn from. One of The major lesson I thought that is important is honesty. The accusations throughout the story were built on lies from those trying to protect their own name, and putting the town into confusion. Nobody in Salem, Massachusetts felt like they could trust anymore, after all of the false allegations made. If Three characters in the story would have been honest from the beginning, the town would not have been in such confusion. If Abigail, John, and Elizabeth would have been honest to begin with then many innocent people would not have lost their lives and left the town in despair.
One’s identity can make or break you. This is being demonstrated in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, “Half- Hanged Mary” written by Margret Atwood and “The Lessons of Salem” by Laura Shapiro. The play The Crucible is about how reputation impacts the puritan and Salem society, while “Half-Hanged Mary” is a woman who is accused of witchcraft when innocent and is hanged but does not die. “The Lessons of Salem” is about the Salem witch trials through Americans history that has to do with the inequalities of the people when these texts are examined together they indicate that reputation is the most important thing a person can have in life.
Does your word mean anything to you? Does what you stand for as a person mean anything even when someone tries to take it away from you? A word John Proctor lived by, integrity, which stands for honest and moral. The religious background adds to more for their moral compass so they will go to heaven and not be sinful. The author of this play Therefore, to die for the truth is better than to live a lie.
In The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, John Proctor demonstrates courage by speaking out for what he believes in while knowing his consequences, admitting his wrong doings with Abigail to save Elizabeth’s life, and choosing to be hanged over having his name posted on the church door because the second his signed confession is posted, his and his loved ones reputations will be ruined.
Mom, this is your son hector and I hope you one day read this so you can hear about my adventures of being kept in a horrible camp for bad boys. Here it isn 't even the work they force us to do that upsets me the most, it 's the emotion they put you through. The kids call me names like idiot, worm, mole, and other saddening things. There is one ince friend here and he tried teaching me how to read, but these people think digging is more important than Learning words that I used to make this! So, they completely shut us down, that moment triggered something in me! So,i beat mr. pendanski with a shovel and ran, Off to freedom, off to safety!