An Eye for an Eye
¨An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.¨ The speaker of this quote, Mahatma Gandhi, was trying to express how evil revenge can be. When someone feels as if they have been wronged, they will stop at nothing to get their way and prove they’re not someone to mess with. The situation can only get worse because everyone has been blinded by their hatred. Actions can irritate someone even if they weren’t intended to. There are an infinite number of reasons someone would seek revenge. The characters Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, and Thomas Putnam all seek revenge for various reasons in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. First, Abigail Williams becomes vengeful toward Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of her former lover John Proctor. Abigail believes Elizabeth “...is blackening my name in the village...is telling lies about me!” (Act I) She blames Elizabeth for lying, because Abby has a few secrets of her own. Elizabeth had previously fired Abby from her job as
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The narrator of the play states “Thomas Putnam felt that his own name and the honor of his family had been smirched by the village, and he meant to right matters any way he could.” (Act I) The Nurses were involved with Thomas’s brother-in-law not becoming minister of Salem. He also sides with his wife Ann after she accuses Rebecca Nurse. The families aren’t exactly the best of friends. Mr. Putnam is extremely greedy, and accuses people of witchcraft so he can buy their land later. By only looking out for himself and his money, he’s constantly seeking revenge. To sum up, the characters in The Crucible have different reasons for plotting revenge. They embody spiteful people who think they deserve something, whether it be love, land, or a sense of justice. Even so, they don’t benefit from this. They prove Gandhi was right about revenge being ineffective. Revenge is sweet; righteousness is