The Crucible Essay: Topic Six
Have you ever been in a situation that you been blamed for something you never did? You were
Innocent all along? Well back in the days many people would get blamed for rights and their religious views.
Back in the old times, McCarthyism was involved and still is used. McCarthyism is being communist and
being accused of something others did. In our class we watched the movie called "The Crucible" by Arthur
Miller. Heportrays the prejudice that existed in the seventeenth hundreds against witches or people who
thought that they were witches were put on trial and sentenced to death. They were being lynched,hanged
and everyone would see.
In the Crucible they were many main characters. In the beginning there were a pair of girls that
were caught in the forest dancing. They thought they were involved with witchcraft. So they had to lie that
there was witchcraft involved in Salem, the village that everyone lived in. The lie grew bigger and bigger,
since everyone thought that there was really witchcraft involved. People were forced to say that they were
part of witchcraft,but once they admitted to something that wasn't even true, right away they got lynched.
There was a protagonist named Abigail Williams she was involved with the "witchcraft" going
around Salem. She was the one that started all of this lie, because now everyone thinks that there really is a
devil going around Salem. She was always in love with a guy named John Proctor. She knew he was taken,
and she would do anything to get with him. So one day she decided to lie, saying that John Proctor's wife
Elizabeth Proctor had stab her with a needle. Since there was another girl named Mary Warren had knitted a
doll for Elizabeth, and she had put a needle into the doll. Making it seem as if Elizabeth had done such a cruel
thing. Making everyone believe Elizabeth had done such a thing, they had put her on trial and sentenced to
death, but since she was pregnant they didn't do anything to her.
In the movie they got John Proctor to go on trial, they have given him a chance to sign a paper
saying that he was part of witchcraft even though he was innocent. He signed it, but didn't give it over to Dan
forth the minister of the church and the one in control of the trials. Dan forth asked him, "then are you denying
this confession?" and John responded, "I mean to deny nothing!" then Dan forth tried to prove him guilty by
telling him something that way he can be like oh yeah, your right. But he responded " Because it is my name!
Because i cannot have another in my life! Because i lie and sign myself to lies! Because i am not worth the
dust on the feet of them that hang! How may i live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave my
name! (pg.240.) He told Dan forth to leave him alone, but all along they knew he was innocent. Either way
they didn't care, and all of this happened because of a lie that a girl named Abigail Williams started. After all
she had done she regretted it, because now the person she loved was about to get hanged. She tried to make
him escape, getting him the keys out the cage he was put in, but John Proctor refused to leave. They finally
hanged John Proctor as well as the rest of the others that were accused of witchcraft and all along they were
innocent. Elizabeth Proctor stood alone, in the world. As well as Abigail Williams, she got nowhere far.
So at the end, why is lying so good? If after everything you do, will get back at you. You wont
get far. This still happens now, not here in LA. but in other places that people believe in witchcraft, and
believe that anyone that is involved with it, should be sentenced to death. What did you learn all out of all
this? I learned that you shouldn't lie, because everything is going to get bigger and bigger, and at the end
people are going to pay consequences for nothing they haven't done. I believe that they're should be proof
when it comes to filing trials on people and being put on death. I believe that they should hang people for no
reason.Nothing will be worth it at the end.
citations.
Book Title: Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Publisher: McDougal Littell Copyright © 2006 by McDougal Littell
Inc. All Rights Reserved
1st Period.
