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The Crucible Lying

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Have you ever been accused of something you didn't do but you could not prove your innocence so you ended up confessing anyway? During the Salem witch Trials more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were hanged. The Crucible is a play written about these trials and everything that happened. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the claim by John Proctor, “There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang” is correctly shown in the book, and the Salem Witch Trials because in both, many people confessed to things that they didn’t do so they would get out of trouble (Hale 69).
In the Salem Witch Trials, the claim that people will swear to anything before they’ll hang is supported because during the trials many people …show more content…

In Act III Mary Warren is forced by John Proctor to go to the court and admit she was lying. She turns on him and tells the court he is “The Devil’s man!” (Miller 110). When Mary first went to the court to tell everyone that her and the girls were lying she realizes that either way she will get in a lot of trouble because she lied. Not only would she be in trouble with the law but Abigail and the other girls were very mad at her. She realizes that she can lie and say that Proctor was working with the devil. She confesses that she was forced by Proctor to do things for the Devil and she got out of trouble. This shows how people will lie and confess to things they didn’t do to protect themselves. In the end of the first act, Abigail gets in trouble for doing witchcraft in the woods. She is already facing rumors from Goody Proctor that she was soiled and working with the devil. When she sees Tituba confess and get out of trouble she exclaims “I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book” (Miller 45). After Abigail confesses to working for the devil she then goes on to accuse many other people in the town. Tituba, Abigail, and all the other girls make these false confessions and accusations to save themselves and completely get out of trouble. It works for them as none of them get any punishment. To summarize, throughout this book, many people confess to doing something that they did not do to get out of

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But to what extent are people willing to go under herd mentality? In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials to demonstrate how social pressure can influence innocent people to the extent of confessing lies in order to protect themselves from punishments or death. In the play, it has said that large number of accused have confessed in order to save themselves from execution; however , confession only prevented execution, not time served in jail (A. Miller). Most the the people confess before the court and are freed from execution; those are the majority of the survivors (Brater). However, there is one exception, John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor.

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Abigail was able to influence the people around her which allowed her to be saved from death and she put the lives of other innocent civilians at risk. After the word traveled around how Reverend Parris’ had caught her niece, Abigail Williams, and daughter, Betty Parris, doing something along the lines of witchcraft and Abigail explained part of what had happened. Abigail had said that she admits to dancing in the woods with her friends while Tituba sang her Barbados songs and she also said that Tituba tried to conjure a spirit. As a result, she had blamed someone for her actions and began the witchcraft hysteria because she withheld information. Next, the character that is portrayed as manipulative and self-preserved, Abigail, knew that her omission wouldn’t save her for long which was why she threatened her friends that were with her that night.

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In the Crucible during the wicked witch trials out of panic and fear of making confessions some of the people started accusing others. For example when one of the main characters Abigail gets pressured into saying all of these names of people who she saw did witchcraft. (Abigail: I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil;I saw him;I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand.

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A.Holmes 27 January 2023 CCR ENGLISH III Block 2 The theme of the Crucible is false accusations. It talks about how Abigail Williams accused John and Innocent people. The girls of Salem also went along with Abigail’s lies. They were scared of her

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Like Abigail utterly told liars about how Elizabeth spirit had stabbed her at the dinner table but actually Abigail framed Goody Proctor with the doll Mary Warren had made as evidence to stable herself. Also Abigail accused Mary Warren for working with the devil in the setting of act three in the courtroom. The girls in courtroom acted as if Mary spirit was attacking them ,to scare her back to their side. Giles Corey also accused Thomas Putnam for being gluttonous for more land and therefore accusing his neighbors for it.

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This is one example of Mary Warren’s cowardly nature. She contradicts herself throughout the play with a lack of structural values that the audience, or even other characters, can rely on her for. Her weak nature becomes a source of frustration on several occasions, such as at the end of Act II, when after a long struggle between herself and everyone else in the court, Mary turns completely against John Proctor and proclaims that he is, “...the Devil‘s man!” This is a much different claim than the one she made when first arriving in the court, and when speaking to John himself. This shows why Mary Warren is a character most notable for her weakness and

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She knows fully well that Mary Warren isn't a witch, but she doesn't care. The main goal of the witch trials for her is to get revenge on Elizabeth. Mary-Warren is only a pawn in her plan. As a result of these actions, Mary-Warren is forced to conform to the crimes she didn't commit to save her skin, redo the cycle over again, and blame someone else. Mary Warren states, "pointing at Proctor: You're the devil's man…

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As seen in The Crucible, the selfishness, paranoia, and guilt of Salem citizens leads to the hangings of many- most likely innocent- human beings. In many cases, the fear of losing their lives drove confessions out of the accused. For instance, Judge Danforth says to Mary Warren, “You will confess yourself or you will hang!” and Mary, after more screaming and accusations from the other girls, breaks down and claims Proctor is “the Devil’s man! ... I’ll

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In Arthur Miller’s the Crucible, the lies told by the characters are human acts of self-preservation, sometimes told at the risk of other, and sometimes told to try and assist others, which begs the question, is it ever exceptional to lie? Miller’s play begins in Act I by presenting all characters whom instigate the Salem Witch Trails. The main protagonist and the character that can be mostly accredited for the lies and accusations which cause the uproar would be Abigail. Abigail’s character is static because her actions always appear malicious and she shows great will for self-preservation.

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This starts a spree of lying and blaming which causes multiple innocent people to be hanged for being accused of witchcraft. One lie started a moment in history people today call crazy, unacceptable, and unrepeatable. “The Crucible” is a play that explains, through a crazy but remarkable story, why lying is a sin. In the present, lying could occur more frequently that truth is told.

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”(Miller 100). At that point in time Mary Warren and John Proctor both tried to prove Abigail Williams and the other girls of faking it until, act 4 when she backstabbed John Proctor and made her own claim that John Proctor was satan. ”You’re the devil’s man.” (Miller 110). Mary knows what Abigail was always a threat and being on her side was an advantage, John Proctor was foolish for thinking Mary would keep her word and tell on the girls.

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Abigail finally sees the outturn of her lies she has made for what she wants. Proctor is hanged which she didn’t attend to do, but now pays the price. She also found out what lying can do “They’re pretending, Mr. Danforth... Mary, please don’t hurt me!.”(miller 120-121). Lying has made her corrupt and is used to persuade to make harm with.

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller has many lessons to learn from. One of The major lesson I thought that is important is honesty. The accusations throughout the story were built on lies from those trying to protect their own name, and putting the town into confusion. Nobody in Salem, Massachusetts felt like they could trust anymore, after all of the false allegations made. If Three characters in the story would have been honest from the beginning, the town would not have been in such confusion.

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People lie for many reasons. Sometimes it’s to themselves, sometimes it’s to others. No matter who they are lying to, it always affects others around you. In the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller, lying is a very common theme. Many characters lie, which include John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and many others.

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After continuous pressuring Mary Warren replies with ‘I cannot, they’ll turn on me— “showing us the mob has driven fear into people and how Marry is afraid to tell the truth in the case everyone will turn on her and blame her. Mary’s feeble attempt to recompense backfires, so when Abigail uses the poppet to blame it on Elizabeth, making Mary feel even worse thus she agrees to go with proctor to testify against Abigail in court. Later after agreeing to go to court to support Proctor Mary is asked who is at fault and in fear replies pointing to proctor “You’re the devil’s man!” (act three, page 119). This demonstrates how the fear of the mob and the overwhelming pressure from the Abigail makes her turn from the truth.

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