Scapegoating is a better way to experience success. Margaret Atwood speaks the truth when she states “When societies come under stress these kinds of things happen. People start looking around for essentially human sacrifices. They start looking around for somebody to blame.” In “Half- Hanged Mary” by ……. they used Mary as a scapegoat by blaming everything on her which lead to her hanging. Therefore I defend Margaret Atwood that a world under stress will eventually lead to people being demolished so they can feel better about themselves. Scapegoating is really a thing because for example in the “Crucible” by…..when Reverend Parris went into to woods and walked up on Mary Warren and the girls dancing around a fire then finds Mary Warren …show more content…
In Jw.org it states that thousands of people in European colonies died and millions of others suffered from torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear. Also there was well over seventy percent of the people accused of witchcraft was women especially the poor, and or elderly. Therefore no one was safe not even the men, rich or poor. In the case of being accused of being a witch it state that if you are going to be blessed which means to be thrown into deep water that if you were to float then you were to be hanged on the spot but if you sunk then you were deemed as innocent so you do not get hung you get pulled out. Also another way to be deemed as a witch is to look for the devils mark which consist of a complete inspection of the body. Therefore modern day witchcraft did exist all over the world and thousands of people were accused of witchcraft and thousands also lost their lives due to scapegoating. In conclusion to the defending of Margaret Atwood scapegoating really is not the right way to experience success because you should not make someone else take the blame for what you have done you should take your punishment and move on with your life. Therefore in the “Crucible” and “Half-Hanged Mary” there happened to be a lot of scapegoating going on so that others could stay out of trouble which made people that did not do what they got scapegoated for to have to take the blame and get someone else's
In The Crucible many people were judged unfairly. It happens to everyone, but in the time of The Crucible people were falsely accused of being a witch, and of doing other crazy things. In Act 2 Elizabeth Proctor was accused by Cheever of stabbing Abigail. Cheever found a poppet with a needle in the stomach at the Proctor house, and it just so happened that Abigail got hurt by a stabbing feeling she felt in her stomach that night. Cheever accused Elizabeth of this even though he has no proof. Elizabeth was judged unfairly which was wrong. No one has a right to judge someone, or jump to conclusion without having proof, or knowing the full story. Elizabeth Proctor was judged Unfairly in Act 2 of The Crucible.
An obsession exists in the world today based solely upon the use of scapegoats. According to the dictionary, a scapegoat consists of a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place. Some of the most influential scapegoats consist of Jesus Christ taking suffering for the sins of civilization, the Jewish population being punished for the problems in Germany, and more recently the U.S. citizens who perished in 9/11 being punished for the sins of America. Scapegoats have come in many forms over time and have been very destructive. The usage of scapegoats in our society, such as in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, has proved to be damaging, and an end must be found in order to find peace.
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
In Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, a dramatic story unfolds about hatred and deception among the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692. During this time, people were being accused of practicing witchcraft and conjuring with the devil. Once accused, all one could do was deny the practice and hang for it or confess and be condemned to prison. Many took advantage of this, including a young girl by the name Abigail Williams who is the main character in the play. Who is to be blamed for the death of the innocently accused? Many can argue and say that other characters in the story share blame in the Salem Witch Trials. Though, the ultimate responsibility belongs to Abigail for the deaths of many innocent people during this time.
December 7, 1941 was a military accomplishment for Japan. Japanese Bomber planes had flown over the island of Hawaii and bombed the American naval base Pearl Harbor. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans believed that the Japanese Americans, were disloyal and were sabotaging the United States Government. There were rumors that most Japanese Americans exchanged military information and had hidden connections with Japanese military. None of these claims were ever proven to be true but believed by many at the time. The United States Government became concerned about National Security and demanded action. On Thursday, February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066, which called for an evacuation of Japanese Americans on the west coast with the excuse of a “military necessity.” The government’s enforcement of Executive Order 9066 in reaction to the public resulted in the creation of internment camps.
One of the best examples of scapegoating occurred in act three in the Salem courthouse. The protagonist, John Proctor, confronts the court for his wife’s freedom and by doing this inadvertently confronts the honesty of the accusers, the girls that danced in the woods. He brought one of the girls that danced in the woods, Mary Warren, with him to testify against the other girls that danced. When she began to testify, the other girls, led by Abigail Williams, pretended to be attacked by Mary Warren’s spirit to scare her and to save themselves. Mary Warren, scared by the possibility of being hanged, said that John Proctor made her testify to try to overthrow the court. This is one of the most critical and influential examples of scapegoating in The Crucible. Mary Warren embodies and follows the scapegoat cycle perfectly. First, she was accused of sending her spirit to attack the other girls. Second, she thought of someone else to blame. Lastly, she accused John Proctor of trying to overthrow the court in order to save herself. Her decision to lie for her survival changed the end of the play and caused the death of several innocent
One of the most prominent themes in Arthur Miller’s 1953 drama, The Crucible, is the use of role reversals within race and gender boundaries, social status, and superficial power. In the not-so-sleepy town of Salem, Massachusetts, the rumor of witches among the community runs rampant as various characters work to accuse their fellow citizens of witchery or defend their neighbors from the gallows. Driven by jealously and pure hatred, those who have minor roles within the community lust after a more notable place in society by accusing the more distinguished members to rid them of their land, wealth, or reputation – and even their life. Those wrongfully accused are driven by fear as they either admit their guilt to save their own lives or find someone else to blame for the supposed crime. In turn, this causes the well-known citizens to be reduced to their salt and the minor townsfolk to gain a certain type of fame or air about themselves. The turn of tables proves to benefit certain female characters with minor roles and damage the more notable male characters within the community.
The crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem witch trials and how people react to hysteria created from the fear of witches. In the play, after hysteria breaks out, the Salem government starts persecute and hang people it believes are witches. This prompts people to start to accusing people of witchcraft. Some people who accuse others of committing witchcraft are Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam. They do not accuse people of witchcraft to stop witchcraft, but for personal gain or to hurt others. Thomas Putnam, one of the many characters who takes advantage of the witch trials, is able to use the fear of witches to bend the court to his will. Hysteria causes people to believe claims that are clearly false. This allows Putnam to persecute his enemies. He and many other are able to get away with this because hysteria driven persecutions are not run like regular courts and the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime allows evidence to be made up. The theme of The Crucible is when any persecution is driven by fear and people can and will manipulate the system so they can gain and hurt another.
Unlike the Scarlet letter the Crucible was more of a dramatic book. In this book it showed how many people can “rub” off on others. This causes people to act like one another. In The Crucible, there was a lonely Black woman who thought she could talk to ghosts. A couple girls fell into this trap and eventually got caught. Instead of the girls admitting to what they had done, they lied and started a whole town issue. This caused many people to get in trouble and even die. Instead of taking the consequences the girls pawned the blame on other people, in today’s society we have a major problem with this. This happens everyday due to people not wanting to be adults and own up to what they have done. After the girls were found guilty to lying about everything the town went back to normal and no one ever talked about it again. Society errors are the worst things to fall
Earlier experiences and peoples beliefs around witchcraft set the stage for the witch trial of 1692. Lots of precedence was already established. In 1642, witchcraft was one of twelve capitol crimes punishable by death. Laws were written and governed to take literal biblical passages as divinity. One such passage is Leviticus 20:27 “A man also or women that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death”.
In every conflict there always seems to be at least one person to blame. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many problems arise that deal with live and death. Many innocent people in this play were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there are many people that may be blamed. In The Crucible, one may find Abigail Williams, The Putnams, and Mary Warren to blame. Abigail was manipulative, The Putnams were very jealous, and Mary Warren was weak-willed.
In the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare there is many people to blame for the downfall of Macbeth. There is an argument that there are more individuals at fault then just Macbeth. Though Macbeth was the one who followed through with all the decisions, it clearly descripts in the play that Lady Macbeth and the witches play major roles that helps lead up to Macbeths downfall. It shows that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a strong ambition and greed to be king and queen. But, there is a case that all Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches all have blame as to what happened.
A good example of a scapegoat is Marie Antoinette, Queen of Louis XVI of France, whom the French people called L’Autre-chienne—a pun playing on Autrichienne (Austrian woman) and Autre chienne (other bitch)—and accused of being profligate and promiscuous. When Marie Antoinette came
“The execution of economically marginal women on witchcraft charges consti- tutes a major example of public scapegoating in England. René Girard has argued that, for scapegoating to function, the projection of criminal guilt onto the innocent is essential;6 this misdirection of blame appears in maleficium cases, as it is not the yeomen farmers who refuse charity to the impoverished, and thus transgress traditional community standards, who are punished, but the women who request charity” (34)
For example, Peter Lanza could be blamed for not doing as much as possible to reach out to his son during the worst part of Adam’s life. Adam’s mental disabilities and the fact that he received little to no mental help could be blamed. One could even blame the school designers for not building the doors with double-sided locks. If the locks were double sided, the teachers could have prevented some of the students from being harmed. It all depends on how one chooses to look at it. Some people even think that Sandy Hook was a hoax and was staged by actors paid by the government to help enforce strong gun control laws