Dorothy McCoy once popularly said “Manipulation is a contagious disease. Much more dangerous than the flu because it can endure for a lifetime”. This quote embodies the fact that all it takes is 1 lie, 1 exaggeration, or 1 myth to ruin a person’s life-or-many lives in the case of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this play, one lie turned into a complete disaster with people being accused of witchcraft left and right leaving no one spared. Some of the accused chose to “confess” to their sorcery in order to save their lives while others upheld their integrity and died in the process. Although lying may seem like the better move, sticking with the truth is the righteous option because it will not harm the future generation and discredit the witchcraft …show more content…
You will forever be associated with the words such as “witch”, “evil” and even “the devil” which is what Proctor realized in Act 4, hence, refusing to sign a confession paper and pleading “How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 143)! Proctor realized that if he confessed to witchery, then he and his family’s name would be tainted and plummet. Additionally, his kids would have to live with the fact that their father is vile. He did not want to curse his children with this life and decided to make the selfless sacrifice for the sake of his family’s reputation and futures. By not making a public confession, he died as an innocent man with integrity, having no relations to witchcraft whatsoever in the public view. But, this decision to speak the truth is not solely a matter of saving your family; it is about saving the other people of Salem as well. So many innocent people were prosecuted during the trials because of other’s false confessions. At one point even Rebecca Nurse was accused of these sins, which was shocking for many as she was a respected figure in the