Hannah Thekkekara Ms. Pierce APELC; Period 6 1 April 2016
Lying to Survive Why do people resort to lying? Arthur Miller, in his play, shows us a couple of reasons why people lie and what its consequences are. In “The Crucible” we see multiple people lying to different people: Abigail Williams lied to the officials, John Procter lied to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth lied to the court. Each one of these people lied for different reasons; Abigail lied to abuse her power and because she loved Procter, Procter lied because he committed adultery and Elizabeth lied to protect Procter. Not only do these people lie, but we as humans have a tendency to lie out of fear, pride, and also because of the reasons shown to us by Miller like
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As a child, I often would lie to my older brother to cover up for the things that I had borrowed, or taken, and then lost. My brother loved to take things apart and put them back together; He used to do this every day in summer and I would just sit on the ground and watch him pull things apart and fix them, over and over again. At the age of 6 or 7, I had this nasty habit of taking things that my bother placed on the ground and playing with them and taking the things to show my friends how “cool” my brother was. But more than fifty percent of the things that I had taken from him were never returned because I lost it while I was playing or I misplaced them or something along those lines. So each time my brother came to get his things back I would either tell him that one of my friends had it or someone stole it from me or even that I put it back onto his table the day before. I would say all these lies to my brother because one, I was ashamed because I lost more than half the things I took from him and two, I was afraid that he would get mad at me and never talk to me again. Arthur Miller, in “The Crucible” uses humanities instinctive tendencies to lie to
Lying comes naturally because it keeps telling others the truth knowing the relationship between two people may suffer. In The Crucible written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, characters are prone to lie not just to themselves, but also to their own friends. The Salem Witch Trials prosecuted around eighty people to death for suspecting them befriending the devil. Miller shows the major consequence for lying results in death. Characters in The Crucible lie in hopes of saving themselves from mass hysteria and the possibility of death.
In the Crucible, Arthur Miller develops a variety of characters who are extremely attentive about their status among their town, Salem. Like Abigail, John, and Giles, they exemplify how far they are willing to go in order to clear their name. Arthur’s play demonstrates how these set of characters attempt to seek justice, respectability, and worriness. One lie is all it takes to make the biggest error and once there is too much to pile up, people will figure it out and someone’s respect for a single person could be gone. Reputation and status will never be ignored and it’s true because judgement will always be present.
Within The Crucible, it is evident that people are coerced to lie. This involves both kids and adults, and they mainly do this because of Abigail. During the trials, if you were accused nothing could save you. If you denied it, you would be hung. If you admitted it, you would be hung.
During the Salem witch trials, 20 lives were taken, 27 people were convicted, while over 100 were imprisoned. Innocent people were falsely accused and some had to lie against their own will to protect others while a majority tried to protect themselves. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials that resulted from the lies told by the people living in Salem. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that lies will oftentimes have consequences.
No matter what you assert, Abigail will turn the situation around so it seems like she is the victim. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York. The Crucible is a play based during the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts. In the town of Salem, Massachusetts, adolescent girls are deceiving the town. When this untruth goes too far many lives are endangered.
There are not bold enough words that can express the dramatic changes of several, if not all, of the characters in The Crucible. Abigail admits to witchcraft, Proctor admits to lechery, and Elizabeth lies. While other characters have changes in development, Parris has one underlying quality that is his one and only true motivator: his own self preservation. Everyone has some motivation in the way of self preservation. From eating regularly to not driving recklessly, there are certain things people do in order to stay alive.
Honesty Honesty is the best policy, at least that’s what everyone says. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the only way to stay alive to to lie. Everyone is being accused of being a witch and if you did not confess, you would be hanged. First, the whole accusation system was corrupted, because you had no way of knowing if the accuser was innocent. This is how Abigail and her girls were able to accuse multiple people.
In most cases, protecting oneself has and always will be most people’s reasons for the decisions they make behind their false reasons. People would rather others suffer than themselves. In Arthur Miller’s tragic play, The Crucible, several young girls, led by another named Abigail, try to save themselves: the girl's selfish decisions ultimately affect the whole town in Salem and results in many innocent people killed. Most of the characters in Arthur’s play are only there to help themselves in one way or another. The primary motivation behind the tragic events in The Crucible is Self-Preservation; this is revealed by the characters' lust for power, their need to maintain a good reputation, and their willingness to set blame on others.
“I say God is dead!” (Miller 119). What a strong saying coming from a man who lives up to his word, a man who doesn’t believe in lying, a man who is trying to save his honor. In the play ‘The Crucible,’ Arthur Miller shows that there were many trials for Salem residents who got accused of witchcraft. John Proctor is arrested for conspiracy of Witchcraft.
Throughout life, we sometimes don't take the time to think about what comes out of our mouth. We feel the need to tell a falsehood to make ourselves look better or feel better. After all, we don't want to accept the harsh truth of reality that is lives are not perfect. Sometimes we even forget why we're even lying at all. However, we are not alone as human begins it's in our nature to lie.
Stephanie Ericsson begins her explorative essay, “The Ways We Lie,” with a personal anecdote of all the lies she fabricated in one day. She told her bank that a deposit was in the mail when it was not, told a client that the traffic had been bad when she was late for other reasons, told her partner that her day was fine when it was really exhausting, and told her friend she was too busy for lunch when she just was not hungry, all in the course of a day. She shifts from talking about herself to talking about everyone, claiming that all people lie, exaggerate, minimize, keep secrets, and tell other lies. But, like herself, most still consider themselves honest people. She describes a week in which she tried to never tell a lie; it was debilitating, she claims.
All these characters have what they feel, is a logical reason for lying, but the question why do people lie to others and themselves, is something to ponder while reading the play. People lie to themselves to make them feel better about their own lives and people lie to others to cover up something they may be ashamed of. One reason people lie to themselves is to make them feel better about their own life and what they 're going through. Abigail is reprimanding the girls for saying things about witchcraft she doesn 't approve of.
This disgusting behavior seen today is also seen in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is the story of a young Puritan woman in 1692 Massachusetts who made false witchcraft accusations in an attempt to save her life and to end a rival’s life. While her actions are horrific and the cause of numerous deaths, the actions of the adults around her that enabled her lies to cost lives are despicable. Through his dishonest characters, specifically Reverend Parris, Judge Danforth, and John Proctor, Miller exposes the evils of lying to save one’s name and the destruction that inevitably ensues.
A “Good Drama” is a play in which the audience can relate personally. A good drama should have meaning to the audience of different types of generations. Arthur Miller’s, “The Crucible” successfully relates to the audience and left us with messages that is still known to today. The Crucible is considered to be a good drama because Arthur Miller created this scripture that addressed the idea of conformity in the American culture, but it also showed the amount of power that individuals can hold because they define the means by which we all live. People make devisions on issues like what is considered to be right and what is considered to be wrong.
Lies are mentioned for bountiful reasons; lies can be invaluable to others or used for a greedy, egoistical reason. No matter the motive, lies are frequently told everyday. Even in the concentration camps of World War II, there were no exceptions. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel is caught naturally lying to mislead his relative, Stein even though Wiesel has a chance to tell the truth, he decides against it. Even though he lied, I believe that Wiesel's lie was morally right.