Children's False Hatred In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

I believe it was the court’s disbelief in hard evidence and total trust in children’s false accusations that led to the Salem Witch Trials. While some could say that it was because of the children giving these false accusations, I think that the grown adults could have (and should have) recognized that they could not base hundreds of condemnations on the whims of children and their antics. Arthur Miller takes us through the time when children could tear down a person’s entire life and reputation by putting on a show in this story The Crucible. Through the lack of common sense and belief in children’s antics, the court affected the problem more than the outside influences ever could.

First of all, the court was influenced by outside factors.

On page 936, Francis Nurse comes in to speak to Danforth. “Excellency, we have proof for your eyes; God forbid you shut them to it. The girls, sir, the girls are frauds.” This is where Mary Warren becomes involved; John Proctor brings her in for her to confess she never saw any spirits and that she had been pretending- alongside the other girls- the entire time. Danforth, when offered Mary’s deposition, declined it with a quick, “No, no. I accept no depositions.” We can see that the court was more afraid of being overthrown than giving out fair justice to those accused. We see more evidence of this when Proctor is asked if he had given the story out to the village yet. They did not wait to hear what Mary had to say; their first concern was making sure the story had not yet been released. Why? Because the court was set on finding and clearing out any witches based on the accusations of children. I think this is absolute nonsense and I am extremely ashamed that this is part of my nation’s history. We can see in the conversation that follows that Danforth is not ready to accept anything that would overthrow his power nor hurt the court. You would think that because a child of the group of girls that served as their evidence had come forward saying it was pretense, they would at least suspend the proceedings until everything had been sorted out. These adults had no care for anything that

Danforth speaks of how the court proceedings are gone about, saying, “Now, we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims- and the do testify, the children certainly do testify.” Here we can see that they are relying completely on the words of children! They have no other evidence, and Danforth adds to that in his great speech. “But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not?... As for the witches, none will deny that we are most eager for all their confessions. Therefore, what is left for a lawyer to bring out?” They are going through these court proceedings completely unlawfully and aimed to be unfair and against the accused no matter what type of information or alibis they have. I believe that while the children played a big factor in the Salem Witch Trials, the center of it all can be boiled down to the court. On page 937, Danforth speaks to Proctor after he brings in Mary. “Do you know, Mr. Proctor, that the entire contention of the state in these trials is that the voice of heaven is speaking through the children?” They have no other proof, nor any other ways of allowing the accused to plead innocent. If the children saw fit, they would let the court know that the