The Crucibe Essays

The Crucibe Essays The Crucibe Essay The Crucibe Essay The Crucible â€Å"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity† -Robert A. Heinlein. The The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about witchcraft hunts in Salem, Massachusetts where many where accused, many innocent victims were faced with a cruel decision. They could either confess that they were guilty and would get punished or deny any relationship with the devil and get hang. Arthur miller was inspired to write the play in response to events that were going on in America at the time. Many people including Arthur Miller were accused of being in the Communist Party, and were told to give names of other Communist. Arthur Miller compared these events to those of the Salem Witch Trials, and he wrote The Crucible with that as the underlying theme. The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is not only a dramatization of witchcraft, but also shows through many series of events that it’s a mirror of human weakness, hypocrisy, and jealousy. In The Crucible there is many times where the human weakness is shown. The human weakness is shown when all the people in the story that were accused of witchcraft admitted to being a witch or having relationships with the devil instead of being secured and denying the fact that they were not witches. An example of human weakness is the beginning of the play where Tituba was accused of witchcraft by Abigail Williams; she denied it â€Å"I don’t compact with no Devil! † (Miller 44). Then Mr. Putman says â€Å"This woman must be hanged† (Miller 44). Then Tituba showing her human weakness falls to her knees saying in a terrified voice â€Å"No, no don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir† (Miller 44). This is the most commonly used human weakness in The Crucible. Another example is when Abigail notices that by Tituba confessing that she was a witch she now had power to make accusations. So when her human weakness gave in she also confessed â€Å"I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus† (Miller 48). Even though Abigail knew that it would be wrong to lie and say she had a relationship with devil she did it any ways because of human weakness. She had fear that she would be hung or punished and only way for her to get out of it was to accuse others of what they want to accuse her of. One of the characters in The Crucible that is very hypocrisy is Judge Danforth. So when Rev. Hale attempts to help the people that were being accused, Danforth says â€Å"I will not receive a single plea for pardon or postponement. Them that will not confess will hang. Twelve are already executed†(Miller 129). Danforth sees himself as one of the â€Å"elected† and thinks that he has the power to do what he thinks has to be done. Judge Danforth believes that he is helping the community but instead he is taking the lives of the innocent people that had the strong will of denying witchcraft. Danforth believes that he is better than everyone else and that God has gave him powers to give justice to the community, but instead he is forcing innocent people to lie about their confession in order to save their lives and that is unjustly. The main causes why Danforth is so hypocrite is his pride and his belief that he is doing the right things. Rev. Parris is supposed to be a leader of Salem and is supposed to live a simple life taking care of his parish. Instead of him being someone that the town could look up to he is a hypocritical man. He preaches about money and golden candlesticks rather than God. The others argue with Rev. Parris about his pay and that he is not doing what he is expected to do as a minister. Parris complains â€Å"I am paid little enough† (Miller 29). He is complaining about his salary rather than trying to live a simple life and be responsible for his town. Then when Betty is blamed of being a witch, Rev. Parris is more concern about his reputations and his job than he is about Betty. â€Å"Jealousy is a nasty emotion, causing nice people to act mean, calm people to act rash, and even the steadiest of tempers to rise†-unknown. Abigail, one of the main characters is motivated by jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor because she wants to be married to John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband. Abigail wants to have Elizabeth dead when she says to John â€Å"Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-† (Miller 23). Abigail is having a conversation with John Proctor about her wanting to be with him. John tells her â€Å"I never gave you hope to wait for me† (Miller 22). This just gets Abigail even more jealous and angry at Elizabeth. Later in the story Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft so she could be hung and then she could finally be with John.