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Corruption and power
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Recommended: Corruption and power
The Crucibles; Corrupt Government
History has its way of repeating itself, regardless of the aftermath that occurs after each similar tragedy. Yet, the traumatic happenings keep coming up. Throughout the years, our ancestors have always managed to find different schemes in which all lead to the same outcome. Multiple historic tragedies are due to the same thing: blindly following leaders. For the duration of history, there have been multiple internationally known afflictions known for the after effects: the Salem Witch Trials, which caused many innocent people (and a dog) to be sentenced to death: McCarthyism and the Red Scare, although it didn’t send innocent people (or dogs) to death, the similarities are scarily similar: and the notorious Holocaust, which nearly wiped out an entire race of people. All of these, due to everyday people following those who are trusted, without foreseeing any of the consequences after the fact.
The Crucible proves this theme. The amount of hypocrisy was almost as wretched as preying on the defenseless. Likewise, it was a frequent occurrence. “[Abigail] danced for the Devil… I go back to Jesus, I kiss his hand…”
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that occurred under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. However, he wasn’t by far the only one in the wrong. Germans all over the country had followed him as well. Which, it started small, outcasting these people, boycotting their businesses, and wrongfully making intimations about their culture, how they acted, and who they were. All three of these historical events are veritably similar. “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” (Levi) Primo Levi also talks of how blind Hitler’s followers were. The lack of individual thinking caused thousands of innocent people to be abused, and
‘The Crucible’ is a great example of morally ambiguous characters. A plethora of characters with blurry ethics exist within the world of ‘The Crucible’, this makes it difficult to distinguish who is truly good and who is evil. Arthur Miller has a fantastic approach to how he displays his characters and their moral standpoints. Adultery, lying, and even the suspicion of witchcraft, within the community brings out the worst in the townspeople. John Proctor is an example of how thin the lines are drawn between a complete saint and a damned sinner.
“On the bandwagon” is a term used to describe people that jump on trends that most people are doing. In The Crucible, when Rev. John Hale was interrogating Tituba, she started accusing two other citizens in hopes that the masses won’t accuse her of undergoing witchcraft/ being a witch. She is seen accusing the people, “there is Goody Good … Aye, sir, and Goody Osburn” (47) which shows Tituba’s characterization as a liar and a deceiver. However, the bandwagon is seen after she has accused the two people in which many of the other young girls also start to accuse others in hopes of not being accused. For example, when Abigail states, “I saw Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, and Bridget Bishop with the devil,” (48) many of the other girls started to accuse
Fatal flaws are personality imperfections found within characters. Tragedy was a common occurrence in The Crucible. Many of these great tragedies happening in The Crucible, were a result of a tragic flaw or flaws like lust and pride embodied by John Proctor during the play.These flaws could also be seen as noble qualities at times, and play a crucial part in his downfall and death.
Have you ever told a lie to protect yourself or someone you love? People lie for their own purposes. Some people lie for themselves or for their close one. They depend on the lies so much that they do not care that their lies might hurt others. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, almost all the characters lie for their own desires and to protect their own interests. Even though lies are forbidden in their religion, some people are blind to understand the punishment of lying. The concept of lying to save oneself is also evident in “Fear Was Reason For Lying About Shooting, Woman Says” by Mary Spicuzza. The article highlights how a woman hid the truth about witnessing a murder just for the sake of her own life. Another article, “The Truth
In conclusion, both of these acts of racial hatred, intolerance, and paranoia affected many people and many generations of people later. It is important that we don't make the same mistakes again; or there may be even worse consequences. This ultimately all comes down to having war be priority number one and basic human rights being forgotten or ignored for the benefit of war. It is because of war that intolerance spread and hatred against certain religions or races spread throughout groups of people and countries. During a hard time, everyone wants somebody else to blame. Although war may be necessary to defend one's country, it has a terrible price to pay. Finally, if war, power, and greed weren't 'number one', would Adolf Hitler have come to power in the first place?
"Power tends to corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - Lord Action. In "The Crucible" composed by Arthur Miller control, power, fear and greed were the main factors that began the Salem witch trails. Power brings out the true nature of a person and we see that happening to Abigail throughout the play. That brings me to my next point fear, Abigail used the fear of accusing people of being witches to gain power and control. It all started with Abigail misunderstanding lust for love. John Proctor thought softly of her and she began dreaming of replacing his wife willing to go to any needs necessary.
A lie can protect the integrity of someone when the truth is nowhere to be found. A lie becomes one 's reality when all hope is lost. Lies can protect bare emotions or embrace one 's false accusations, however once said the truth no longer exists. Spoken with words or depicted by actions, lies evolve from innate feelings within and conspire individuals to act in detrimental ways. The propensity of individuals to lie within the Puritan Society develops from the fear of not fitting within the standards and expectations a Puritan is expected to have. While a lie is a considered a vast sin in the Puritan community, many rely on this sin to covert other ones previously made. In Arthur Miller 's tragic play The Crucible,
I discovered that I had no immediate answer to this facetious dismissal of one of history's most profound tragedies. It was a sweeping and indiscriminate assertion, to be sure, but not one entirely without merit. If general stupidity were not to blame, then why had six million Jews endured such torture? Were none of them in a position to unite in any sort of cohesive resistance? What of the Catholics who were murdered in the concentration camps as well? The blacks? Political dissidents? Members of the press? In fact it seems that the Nazis, over the course of their reign, discriminated against so many professions, creeds, philosophies, and classes that for a person not to belong to at least one must have been a remarkable feat of chance. I could not begin to understand how the National Socialist Party had, with such a miserable and offensive political platform, managed to gain power in Germany, nor how, with such cruel and oppressive practices, they managed to keep it.
Many characters in The Crucible fall under the trap of lying, if not to other people, then to themselves. The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in history, surrounding the Salem witch trials. It takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 and 1693. Additionally, Miller wrote the play as an allegory to mccarthyism, which is the practice of making accusations without evidence. In the play, Arthur Miller develops the theme of lies and deceit by showing Abigail lying for her own benefit, John Proctor committing adultery, and Elizabeth lying to protect her husband.
The play, The Crucible, is a fireball of guilt, evil, and good compiled into one magnification. It is a play with tremendous feelings, with many inside twists hidden in the archives of the true story. It is a play with emotional feelings; feelings of anger, hate, and evil, yet also feelings of goodness, and pureness. Undeniably, The Crucible is a play illustrating good versus evil. The principal characters, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Ann Putnam and Marry Warren all contain within them elements of good and evil.
A crucible is a severe test or trial; at one point in their lives everyone is going to be faced with a crucible. When this severe test comes people are often put under a lot of pressure and do unexpected things. During the 1690's many people were put under a test when they were accused of witchcraft and put on trial for it. The test that some people had to undergo can be demonstrated in, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The characters Paris, Hale and Proctor were all put under pressure and revealed their true colors when they acted under the stress of the situation; Parris entered a power struggle, Proctor stood up for what was right, and Hale’s actions turned into regret.
The desire for power and authority has always been a part of the human nature. Today’s society most often use power to dominate one another and fulfill one’s personal intentions, which can affect other people in many ways. Having power and authority is truly gratifying but it is terrifying if abused and used for selfish acts. The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller is an example to illustrate the consequences of abuse of power. The characters Abigail Williams, Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris use their power over society by manipulating people and using their authority to fulfill their personal intentions, like material gain, vengeance, maintaining social status and reputation, and attention, which eventually lead into a mass hysteria.
History always finds a way of repeating itself. A Tale of Two Cities, depicts the French Revolution and the citizens living through it. Many citizens go along with the leaders want, in order to avoid being executed, this is taking part in mob mentality because although they might not be doing what they want, they are doing what everybody else is doing, so they can fit in. Some people can participate in something so vulgar even when they do not mean to. In “Top 10 Instances of Mob Mentality”, author S.Grant says that, “Looking back on Nazi Germany, it’s difficult to comprehend how ordinary people acted so ruthless and inhumane. Even if you assume the average German citizen didn’t know what was happening in the concentration camps, there were still 24,000 members in the “Death’s Head Unit,” a special section of the Schutzstaffel (SS) that was in charge of the concentration camps. These Death’s Head
¨When societies come under stress these kinds of things happen. People start looking around for essentially human sacrifices. They start looking around for somebody they can blame.” Margaret Atwood proposes this in an interview with Bill Moyers. The kinds of things she is speaking of is exactly what we observe in The Crucible by Arthur Miller which tells the story of the Salem witchcraft trials where many were punished and killed. In Arthur Miller’s ¨Why I Wrote The Crucible¨ we witness innocent people being blacklisted for conspiring with communists. All of these defend what Margaret Atwood declared in her interview. When a society comes under stress, we always find someone to blame.
Having too much conformity causes detrimental repercussions on both the individual causing the issue and innocent bystanders. When facing an overwhelming amount of conformity, pressures from peers and society tend to force individuals to do tasks that go against what they believe and causes them to doubt their actions despite it being moral. When conformity rules over individuality, individuality tends to be pushed out of the equation, where conformers “expect” others to conform with their beliefs, “to shoot an elephant”, even if it means going against the individual’s will (Orwell). An individual’s voice, or identity is muffled and ignored. During the witch trials in The Crucible, victims who were accused had no opportunity or way to prove their innocence. The options they were offered to resolve the accusation was torture or death. Most who were accused of being witches admitted to being them even thou...