People have a tendency to fight for themselves and for what they believe in no matter what the cost. This is shown in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible when people in a village, named Salem, try kill their neighbors by blaming them for witchcraft. With characters such as John Proctor, he tries to bring justice to the town of Salem with all the false accusations with Reverend Hale. However with Judge Hawthorne, Abigail, Parris, Putnam, and the townspeople standing in their way, Proctor and Hale must fight through to bring justice. However in the end, 20 innocent people died because of people’s vengeance, hatred, and greed. By carefully analyzing Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, it becomes clear that selfishness, honesty, and the corruption of the court in Salem enabled to the witchcraft hysteria to spiral out of control. With people being accused of witchcraft to gain more power, the people of Salem clearly are selfish. Citizens of Salem are looked as pure and kind however deep inside, they are greedy people who want money and …show more content…
By telling the truth that they were not witches, the court and townspeople would punish them. The only two options the person who being accused had was lying that they were a witch and then telling the names of others, or telling the truth of not being a witch and die. As a result, John Proctor thinks about telling a lie and confess because there is no point in throwing his life away when he has already committed many sins. “I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man...My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before...Let them that never lied die now to keep their souls. It is pretense for me, a vanity that will not blind God nor keep my children out of the wind...” As you can see by telling the truth and being honest, it caused the witchcraft hysteria in