The famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe, what is true.” There are many problems in life dealing selfish decision and self-deception. According to Webster’s dictionary Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception is so common that it appears in plays and in everyday life. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible and in society, people tend to believe outrageous lies when those lies serve to better their own purpose.
In Miller’s play The Crucible he displays the traits of lying for personal benefits and self-deception through two characters, Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams. Thomas Putnam was a fairly wealthy man in Salem; he also had a lot of authority. When Mr. Putnam heard about the treacherous plots among the girls of Salem, he believed them even though they were irrational. However, he believed them because he could personally benefit from the lies. Mr. Putnam started to participate in the accusations of witchery in Salem. He did this so that he could purchase land and property of the accused.
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Putnam wasn’t the only one who displayed self-deception throughout the play. Abigail Williams was the niece of Reverend Parris; she also started the witch craft chaos among the Salem citizens. She fabricated lies about the participation of witchery in Salem, to get rid of John Proctor’s wife. Ms. Williams began to believe her own lies and started to act as a victim in the play. Her motive in doing all of this was to be with John Proctor, but she knew that he would never leave his