Examples Of Justice In The Crucible

The Crucible’s justice system has been severely warped by the societies theology, and Arthur Miller systematically reminds the reader of this fact by creating sympathy for the innocent victims with rhetorical devices such as emotional appeal and . The injustice within The Crucible would be one resulting from the society’s theocratic government. They had no separation between church and state; consequently, their judgement was constantly clouded by their necessity to act on behalf of God and their fear of Hell. The biggest tool they used to decide who was involved in witchcraft was Abigail and the girls, as they claimed to be ‘purged’ previously from their ‘interactions with the Devil’. Thus, they were the only people Reverend John Hale believed would tell the truth. This was consequently the only confirmation they needed, never looking for validation or proof that

Proctor repeatedly brought this issue up in Act III, attempting to make the judges realize that when their decision is one based solely on a group of possibly corrupt girls, justice is one thing Salem would never see. Miller was aware of the injustice that took place in 1692 Salem, thus he made certain writing decisions to encourage readers to relate and sympathize for the victims. Among the most notable of these would be the emotional appeal present when Abigail accused Tituba of forcing her to participate in witchcraft. Despite Tituba’s obvious concern for Betty in Act I, once Abigail points her finger at Tituba immediately she is a witch until confession. Miller periodically added concerned phrases from Tituba, such as the first words of the play spoken by the slave herself “My betty be hearty soon?” (8). These quotes were incorporated in order to form a background knowledge that Tituba and Betty were close and thus she would never want to harm the child. Consequently, the audience could feel and hear Tituba’s cries when it is implicated that she’s been “witchin’ these children” (p