Examples Of Self Preservation In The Crucible

A Look Into Self Preservation in The Crucible “I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self -indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival” (Lorde Audre). We are forced to make decisions everyday that involve self preservation whether we realize it or not. According to Joe Islam, “self preservation is the first law of nature” ( Islam, Joe) and that it is usually your strongest instinct. In The Crucible, self preservation occurs multiple times throughout the story. It connects to the story because during the Salem Witch Trials confessing to the judge about being a witch and having connections with the devil would preserve you from death. The question that I researched is did self preservation attribute to the Salem Witch Trials?

The idea of self preservation dates back to as far as 1895 in “A Project for a Scientific Psychology. (Freud, 1950)” The use of self preservation is for many different circumstances like instinct, our image and personality. In the case of our image and personality we preserve ourselves because it is who we are and what we are taught to do. According to self-esteem-enhances.com, “Our image is how we are evaluated in life.” This quote helps explain why we use self preservation because most individuals want a good reputation and want to be seen by others in a positive way and if we use self preservation, then it can help our image in most cases. Another reason for preserving our self is from instinct. “The desire to stay alive is an instinctive one, built into the psyche of the organism. (Taflinger, Richard)” This quote explains how the instinct of an individual is to provide for themselves and are usually grown into doing

The first connection that occurs in the book is on page 42 when Tituba says, “I do believe somebody else be witchin’ these children. I don’t know sir, but the devil got him numerous witches.” In this part of the story we can see how Tituba confesses to Reverend Hale so she will not be hung for committing witchcraft. The second connection in The Crucible is on page 48 when Abigail and Betty are shouting, “I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil! I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil! I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!” When the two girls are crying out the names of these others girls to Reverend Hale it shows that they are preserving themselves once again by confessing who they saw with the devil so they would not accused of witchcraft. The final connection in the book is throughout the whole story with Reverend Parris. On pages 97 and 98 it shows in his discussion with Proctor and Danforth when he says, “I can only say sir, that I never found any of them naked, and this man is-. I do not, sir, but I never saw any of them naked.” These quotes from Parris show him using self preservation to strengthen his authority by lying to the court about what he actually