Examples Of Goodness In The Crucible

In The Crucible, Miller uses the words and actions of the townsfolk of Salem to show how the perception of apparent and real goodness can be dangerous. He warns readers not to adhere to blind acceptance of what society deems as real goodness and rather make their own decisions based on what they believe goodness should be. Through the characters in the play he gives insight into what he believes goodness should be.

Miller uses The Crucible as a way of expressing his own beliefs of real and apparent goodness and this can be seen though the interjections in the play. He gives reasoning in these interjections for why specific characters are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and this also provides the background knowledge the audience requires to give insight

The judges initially were manipulated by Abigail and the rest of the girls into condemning people to hang or getting them to confess believing that they were doing the right or good thing, ridding Salem of witches and the Devil. From the eyes of the audience is it seemingly evident that the judges should not fall for the lies and deceit of Abigail, but considering the time and setting that the play was set, it is probable that they would. From the judges perspective it would seem as if they are enacting on what real goodness is, whereas to the audience it would be perceived as if what they are doing is bad and wrong. This is dangerous to people such as John Proctor, as he can see through the girls pretence. He tries to act upon it, claiming that the girls are trying to mislead the court, enacting upon his belief of what true goodness is but instead gets labelled as someone who is trying to overthrow the court, going against what society generally believes as good. This ultimately leads to his death, sticking to his own personal belief of goodness, rather than confining to societies view of what true goodness is. This position, of believing in your own personal belief of goodness, is not just applicable in Salem 1692, but rather in all societies in all time

Both time eras have a societal view on goodness that you should confine to, and otherwise be labelled as a supporter of the common evil, be it the Devil, Communism, terrorism etc. During the McCarthyist era that Miller lived in, there was a deceptive fear that Communism would be entering American life, and a committee was set up to investigate those sympathising with Communism, further propagating the fear of Communism. People started accusing anyone that didn’t confine to their view of goodness as a communist supporter and is some cases even them trialled as a communist. This is a parallel of 1692 Salem, where the moment ‘witches’ started being exposed and being trialled, true hysteria kicked in and everyone started blaming everyone else to cover themselves from being accused as a witch. Miller was discriminated against for holding his own personal view of what true goodness was and this lead to him being trialled as a communist supported and nearly being put in jail. This fear of the other, who supposedly hold a wrong view of what true goodness is cannot only be observed in today’s society, but through all time eras where two or more sides hold opposing views. These opposing views can be seem on a small scale with individuals having arguments about who has the correct opinion on something, or larger scale with things