Our society is so busy deciding what is or is not just, that no one has taken a second to actually figure out how to define it. Justice is a result that is rightly deserved. It’s a consequence, and like all consequences, it can be good or bad. Justice gives and takes and yet no one can agree on what justice is. The ones who decide what justice means, are the people in power. In his book, The Crucible, Arthur Miller stares power down, assessing his present from a United States far away. In his Salem, Massachusetts, 1690, the judges weren’t the ones dispensing justice, contrary to what they believed. They caused the citizens to need it. The whole Puritan society was built on a foundation of Christianity and the will of God, yet the ones in power acted in exact opposition to their primary Christian value: honesty. …show more content…
A shred of fear and paranoia is shed with every confession. The dark, unknown slices of their society slowly flicker into light, and with it, comes situational irony: the government of Salem hears truth as lies and lies as truth. Do they truly perceive the opposite, or have they already decided what they want to hear? When John Proctor confesses to witchcraft, the court sighs in relief, clearly not wanting to end his life. “Praise to God, man,” Danforth exclaims, “Praise to God; you shall be blessed in Heaven for this” (128). Even though Proctor had spent months standing firm on his statement of denial, the officials hear what they want and so it is true. This twisted logic deepens. John Proctor will die if he does not confess. He had been sentenced for months already and the entire time, the judges seemed eager for his death, assuming he was what he repeatedly denied. Why would they do that? Witchcraft was associated with the devil and the devil is a pretty scary dude. The Puritans will stop at nothing to keep him