Examples Of Justice In The Crucible

In today’s court system, you are innocent until proven guilty. However, this is not how it always was, and in the times of the Salem witch trials, many innocent people were accused of witchcraft and unjustly punished. This event repeated itself during the “Red Scare” that took place in America due to the cold war. During that time, people were not accused of witchcraft, but rather siding with the communists; an equally heinous crime for the time period. Whether proven guilty or not, the accused people lost their jobs and way of life. Arthur Miller’s work, The Crucible, was written during the “Red Scare” time period, and many themes and ideas regarding both events are presented through a drama based on the Salem witch trials. In this drama, a lack of justice is shown when some jealous, vengeful characters in Salem are willing to use manipulation and deceit, and sacrifice the reputations and integrity of all involved, in order to empower themselves.

He was jealous of the golden candlesticks that other churches had, and in John Proctor’s words, “Parris came, and for twenty week he preach nothin’ but golden candlesticks until he had them”. Parris was greedy as well, at least compared to Salem’s prior ministers. This was mainly shown when he spoke of his wages, as shown when he stated, “I am paid little enough without I spend six pound on firewood”. Later, he showed that he thought he deserved more, by saying, “Mr. Corey, you will look far for a man of my kind at sixty pound a year! I am not used to this poverty”. Another example of Reverend Parris’s greed was seen when John said, “Mr. Parris, you are the first minister ever did demand the deed to this house”. Parris’s jealousy not only caused himself anger but also gave him a bad name with a certain faction. His fear of being overthrown by them partially caused him to ask Reverend Hale to come to Salem, which escalated the problems (Miller, 193,