The Truth Within the Lies
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,
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The plot of the play is pushed by her lies because of the severe consequences they cause and the hysteria that floods the town’s once pure society. Abigail commits her first lie as she tells her uncle Parris and Reverend Hale of Beverly, “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” (43) Abigail Williams has been questioned by both her Uncle Parris and Hale, a weighty spiritual doctor that has been called into their town, about what she and her friends were doing in the forest when her uncle spotted them. While Abigail knew the conjuring of spirits and casting a spell upon Elizabeth Proctor was not permitted in the Puritan society and could lead to banishment or death of both her and her friends, she decides to give in to the propensity to lie and put the blame elsewhere. Her initial motivation to lie about what she was doing in the forest stemmed from the natural tendency to avoid punishment, however a deeper motivation blooming from this lie comes from her desire to seek vengeance on Elizabeth Proctor and conceal her lonely emotions she has towards Elizabeth’s husband, John Proctor. Abigail and John both commit the sin of adultery, however while John deeply regrets his behaviors with Abigail and condemns himself back to his marriage with Elizabeth, Abigail has not accepted that fact of being alone and forgotten about. When she blames Tituba for being …show more content…
John Proctor is guilty of both spoken lies and lies conveyed from his actions. John Proctor has to deal with the decision to stay true to himself and not let his frustration condemn him to falsify the truth. Accused of conjuring with the devil among many other innocent Puritans in the town, John has to face making the right decision to either be hanged and keep his soul pure or lie to save his life and oblige to the magistrates that he did indeed conjure with devil. The tendency to want to keep your life is within any human being on this Earth, however John is faced with the decision of saving his life or faulting his already remorseful heart by lying. As John Proctor makes the decision to lie and keep his life, he begins to doubt how others will now think of him knowing he conjured with the devil. When asked to sign his name on paper for the entire town to see he refuses and exclaims, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies…” (143) While John passionately speaks this, his immense frustration is finally released and shows his desire to stay true to himself and others in the town. Refusing to sign the paper conveys the lie he initially told and the truth he sought for once realizing the guilt and remorse he would have for the rest of his life. John Proctor’s feeling of frustration
We quickly learn of his adultering behaviour with Abigail Williams. His extramarital activities are well known to his wife and all he can do is to try to justify himself and hope for her understanding. Proctor admits to Elizabeth of his wrongdoings and says “You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think about it. Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore. I have forgot Abigail, and -.” As the play moves forward, Proctor tries to protect his wife and tell the truth that the girls are
Abigail’s mendacity is a driving force throughout the play. It becomes clear early on in Act One that Abigail is hiding something. Her reactions to her uncles questioning of her name and reasons for discharge from Goody Proctors service are curious. The stage directions indicate that she answers “with an edge of resentment,” “with ill concealed resentment” and “in a temper.” She defends herself by slandering Goody Proctor. When she and her friends were together and realized that they could be in serious trouble she told them exactly what to say and threatened them if they did otherwise. When pressed with questions about the night of dancing in the woods and drinking blood, she tells blatant lies about Tituba by saying, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (1154). This is known to be a lie because earlier when the girls were discussing their alibi, it came out that Abigail drank the bloody charm to kill John Proctor’s wife. Tituba says that
They say “Honesty is the best policy”, but that isn’t necessarily true especially for those who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Honesty may have been a good trait for someone to have, but during the witch trials people rethought that. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrayed many people as good puritans. Always loyal and honest throughout their lives, and avoiding any sins that they possibly could. But there were people who had to sin to save their lives or even to save their reputation. Abigail Williams was just an young girl who turned to lying in order to save herself during the Salem Witch Trials. At the same time, Elizabeth Proctor was not agreeing with the witch business that she was accused of. You could tell lies during this time, and no one would think that you were turning too sins because the entire town was becoming obsessed about all those accused of possible witchcraft. While some were being accused, others were avoiding the truth when confessing. Like when Abigail never confessed to drinking blood when she was with Tituba and Betty. In The Crucible, Honesty was portrayed
Lying is a natural human defense that we use for various things. Everyone lies. In The Crucible we get to see exactly what could happen if lies spiral out of control to the point where crying witch is believed at every turn. In the article “Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, she discusses the different types of lying and when they are typically used. Some of these include Facade, White Lies, and Groupthink. These three types of lying are directly relevant and present in The Crucible. The plot is driven by lies, and as they pile on top of eachother is becomes harder and harder to uncover the truth.
By making a false affirmation, John Proctor would be “signing the book of the devil” (Popkin 318). For John Proctor to sign the sheet, he would be assigning himself to the dark acts of witches, which would have been false. By confessing to witchcraft John Proctor would be destroying his family name by associating it with the Devil. John Proctor would rather die a truthful, honest man that his children could look up to than one who lied to save his own skin. This contrasts a man such as Reverend Parris, a church establishment figure, whose only desire is to stay as the head of the local church. John Proctor would take death before he would associate himself with
For John Proctor one of his most notable flaws is his over heightened sense of pride. It hinders him in almost every aspect. Proctor being a man held in high regard to the town he cares deeply about his ‘name’ and reputation. While in court Proctor attempts to defend and free his wife through Mary Warren’s confession. Claiming that the girls and specifically Abigail to be frauds and merely faking their symptoms of witchcraft. He does so without giving up information that would soil his ‘good name’ leaving him without a strong claim on why Abigail is untrustworthy. As a dynamic character in the story however he will change and react to the situations around him. That taken into account John Proctor then reaches a realization that the only way to protect and
John Proctor is, at first, willing to offer up a false confession that his life may be spared. Inevitably, John Proctor possesses that fateful attribute known to fall fatal to many human beings - pride. While he has, indeed, been ashamed of his many sins throughout his life, Proctor's soul still clings to his pride and his good name, however soiled it may have become. On the morning scheduled for his execution, Proctor wrestles with the realization that one more sin so heaped upon the rest in his life will make precious little difference in the end; "I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man.... My honesty is broke... I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie." (126) He attempts to calm his pride by telling himself that the other accused witches who will not give false testimony to save themselves from the gallows have every right to do so; they led lives free of blame. He, however, he tells himself, did no such thing; what right has he to hang among the righteous? "Let them that never lied die now to keep their souls. It is pretense for me, a vanity that will nor blind God nor keep my children out of the wind." (126) Thus the conviction first reached by John Proctor is to save his life rather than to throw it away in mock martyrdom.
In Arthur Miller 's book “The Crucible” there is an inadequacy of honesty which is a very important trait for everyone to learn. In this essay I am writing to prove that the paucity of honesty is negative and was very prevalent in Salem and that very few people remained truthful throughout the Salem Witch Trials. The dishonesty in The Crucible would soon lead to the deaths and imprisonment of many residents in Salem. Those accused would lie and accuse other people to stay out of trouble from the authorities, but this took the life of many innocent victims. In Miller 's book Dishonesty is expressed by almost everyone included in The Crucible such as Abigail, Mary, and Elizabeth.
John Proctor says, “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 me my name!”(4.969). During this scene John Proctor is close to his ultimate tragic fall. He has found goodness in him and he does not want to live by signing his name into a lie. He would rather die, knowing there is goodness in him and forgiving himself for his tragic flaw than live and know he give up his name up in a lie . He dies with honor.
To give this false confession and to sign away his name, John Proctor would be further exacerbating his sins. He wants to live, but he also knows his life would not be worth living if based on a lie. While saving his life would only require him to give a false confession, Proctor would be eternally plagued with a guilt-ridden conscience. He would’ve damned himself for a second time if he were to profess that he had been consorting with the Devil just to evade death
Abigail Williams is motivated to lie about her affair with John Proctor. What motivates her to lie is the thought of getting hung. Another big reason that she could be lying is for vengeance. Abigail loves John Proctor and one night they had an affair and touched. Since then, Abigail has been jealous towards John’s wife, Elizabeth. Abigail goes into the forest with some other young girls and Tituba, who makes a potion to have boys fall in love with them. This is a great example, “ABIGAIL, pulling her away from the window: I told him everything; he knows now, he knows everything we—BETTY: You drank blood, Abby! You didn't tell him that! ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that
Although John Proctor isn’t much of a pious man, he does choose to do the right thing in the end. He doesn’t go down to the level of Danforth, he stays truthful and prideful to himself. Not many people would confess to something if it meant they would be hanged or imprisoned for their actions, John Proctor did. These three personalities of John Proctor prove that he is an overall good man even if he made a few poor choices in his lifetime. He ultimately shows that everyone should be proud of who they are and always tell the truth because if you want to be successful, you must be true to
Before the play takes place, Abigail Williams and John Proctor had an affair while Abigail was working as a servant in their home. Eventually, John confessed and apologized to Elizabeth, pledging his faithfulness to her. Nonetheless, at the time the play takes place, Elizabeth still hasn’t fully forgiven him, and gives him a hard time about it. Abigail confessed the pretense of her accusations to him when they were alone, and now he has no way to prove that she’s lying to the court. But because he was alone with her again, Elizabeth becomes angry with him. She still doubts her husband because she feels that if it were any other girl he had to go testify against, he would not hesitate. But, because it’s Abigail, John feels he has to think harder on making a decision. He doesn’t want his name spoiled by a counter-testimony. John feels he is now justified in becoming angry because for the seven months since his confession, he has done nothing but try to please his wife, and she still approaches him with suspicion and accusatio...
To further complicate matters, John decides not to reveal to the court that Abigail has admitted to him in private that they were just sporting in the woods. Abigail spreads additional accusations and false rumors about her neighbors. These accusations have no basis in truth and their only purpose is for Abigail’s own benefit. Furthermore, Abigail is jealous of John’s wife, Elizabeth, and she schemes to get rid of her in order to take her place. Abigail’s plot is to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.
The first, the importance of personal integrity, is brought to light through John Proctor, who finds himself facing personal conflict when making the decision of whether to lie and 'confess' to the court, saving his own life, or to tell the truth and be condemned by it. Upon first deciding to confess and live, Proctor acknowledges he has given his soul to the devil, but refuses to also tarnish his name by allowing his confession to be stuck to the door of the church.