The Crucible Scapegoat Examples

An obsession exists in the world today based solely upon the use of scapegoats. According to the dictionary, a scapegoat consists of a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place. Some of the most influential scapegoats consist of Jesus Christ taking suffering for the sins of civilization, the Jewish population being punished for the problems in Germany, and more recently the U.S. citizens who perished in 9/11 being punished for the sins of America. Scapegoats have come in many forms over time and have been very destructive. The usage of scapegoats in our society, such as in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, has proved to be damaging, and an end must be found in order to find peace.

Scapegoating is the act of blaming another for one's sins and problems, leaving the person under the burden of scrutiny from society. Arthur Miller shows us that this has the power to ruin someone's life. A True Confession shows us that this happens even today. In both the Salem witch trials and “A True Confession”, we see selfish people get ahead, using the fears of others. These people, hungry for power, pick on a convenient scapegoat and use hysteria to fulfill their grudges or improve their standing in society by letting others fall.

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of frenzied zealotry and paranoia, and in such times, most logic seems to go out the window. One fallacy in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is the fallacy of the false alternative. It is exemplified during the witch proceedings when Francis Nurse presents a paper of signatories declaring their good opinion of his wife. Danforth arrests all of the signatories for questioning. At Francis’ objection that he has promised that no hurt would come to these people Danforth replies “No old man, you have not hurt these people if they are of good conscience. But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against this court, there be no road in between.” (Miller 87). The conversation is merely a variation on the classic false alternative, “You’re either with us, or you’re against us.” The trouble with that logic is that Francis was merely trying to defend his wife from almost certain death. He was not trying to attack the court as Parris states, nor was he really for the court. In disproving this logic we can look at Francis as a counterexample: Not against the court, but not supportive of the court’s actions

When we are younger we used to get our brother or sister and pick on another sibling. When mom or dad comes to yell at the person who started it we tend to pin it on someone else or you are the person who gets left with all the punishment. At one point in our lives we were blamed for something we didn't do or we were the person that pushed it onto someone else. Arthur Miller expresses a lot of scapegoating or being the scapegoat in The Crucible.

Many fallacies can be identified in the Crucible, hasty generalizations being one of them; conclusions based on too small of an example that later lead to hysteria of the public. One of these instances is such when Mr. and Mrs. Putnam arrive at Parris’s house and discover that Betty too seems to be acting strangely as their daughter, Ruth. When describing Ruth Mrs. Procter says, “She ails as she must-she never waked this morning, but her eyes open and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat. Her soul is taken surely (1.13.5-7). Mrs. Putnam commits the fallacy of hasty generalizations here.

In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, many characters commit the sin of dishonesty, each with a different motive. The strict Puritan setting of the play often forces the characters to compromise their honesty because they feel as though their only solution is to lie. Even though Abigail and John Proctor did have an affair, Proctor denies the .Everyone will lie to save their life.Abigail,Proctor,and the rest of the girls are some of the people that lie.

Various uses of multiple fallacies throughout The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, help enhance both individual scenes and the overall plot of the play. An example of the Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy is when John Proctor, Reverend John Hale, and Giles Corry discuss the accusations of witchcraft in court. Hale proceeds to accuse Martha Corey, Giles wife, of being a witch. Giles defends his wife; he claimed she was only reading books. Hale questions Giles about the original complaint made on his wife. Giles explains,

Poor Behavior in “The Crucible” Who causes judgement and has a nasty personality? This is The Crucible where you, the reader, would learn about greed, wrath, and pride of the characters and the impact of poor behavior that every character share throughout The Crucible. People in The Crucible fight for land ownership in Salem. One example, for greed on land, is when Giles Corey states that Thomas Putnam is accusing his neighbors of witchcraft. In other words, Thomas Putnam disputes land boundaries with John Proctor.

Dishonest vs Injustices In The Crucible (1953), Arthur Miller tells the story of the witch trials in Salem massachusetts. The Crucible in the Salem witch trials more than 19 men and women were executed for being related to witchcraft. Several young girls were caught dancing naked in the forest, the girls claim that they to have been under a cast spell upon them by another women. Rather than admit and take their punishment the girls accused others for their actions.

Throughout The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses many logical fallacies and pitfalls to describe characters and delve deeper into a character’s motives. One such example is found in hasty generalization, which is present in the play. During the first scene of the play, the community is torn over the cause of a “sickness” that has afflicted two young girls. One of the girls is the daughter of Revered Parris, and the other the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Putnam. Both girls express similar symptoms; they are unresponsive, unable to move out of bed. Part of the town begins to worry that the girls have become overcome by darkness, although others are unwilling to accept this explanation. Revered Parris, who observed a group of girls

Fear of death or punishment pushes individuals to drastic measures that can only redirect the oncoming consequences toward another.abigail has had an affair with John Proctor and has fallen in love, but he was a married man. To get rid of his wife and finaly be with him, Abigail resorts to witchcraft to kill her Elithzbeth. once Abigail"s Uncle, Parris, found out about her activities in the forest, Abigail cried "She made me do it! She made Betty do it" blaming Tituba to save herself from punishment or possible execution (Miller 43). A character scapegoating reveals so much about themelsf and others. Abigail"s action revael what kind of character she has become and hints at further accustsion as well as causes more chaos. from that moment

Scapegoating is defined as the action of blaming an individual or group for wrongdoings, especially to draw/redirect attention or responsibility away from oneself. Individuals might scapegoat in order to enact revenge upon others or to avoid personal responsibility for their actions. Scapegoating is especially prevalent in society when there are terrible socioeconomic circumstances and a high level of fear suggested by the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as well as the Red Scare in the 1960s. Individuals in these circumstances take advantage of the paranoia in the atmosphere and blame or justify their problems on the object of fear. The high level of fear in these communities warps society’s judgement of the feared

Who is to blame the for the Salem Witch Trials? In the story called, ¨The Crucible¨, by Arthur Miller, it tells a story of a small town in Massachusetts name Salem. One of the characters in the story is Rev. Parris. He is part of the reason that the Salem Witch Trials was such a petrifying event. He was one of the major characters in the town at the time of the witch hunt. The events in 1692 were horrific and sad, many lives were taken without any reason, they would have been stopped if Rev. Parris would’ve swallowed his pride and admitted that he was wrong.

Our world is plagued by hosts of social and political problems, from tensions between the races to enmity against the government. Some ire is deserved while other hatreds may be woefully misplaced. It is misplacing the cause of a person or group of people’s woes on another group of people that has historically caused dreadful and disproportionate problems within society and human culture. Riots, racial tensions, coups, wars and all manner of other ills can all be correctly attributed to this. Some may argue that placing responsibility for problems on another person or group of people is a naturally occurring way to revitalize a society and champion one’s own beliefs

In the modern world our society feel threatened in a way so they react in a way of blaming someone else to get them out of what ever trouble our society is in. Margaret Atwood’s idea is that a society under stress will always put blame on a person or a group of people. A clinical psychologist Noel Hunter says in Mad in America, “When people are afraid, they need to feel a sense of control”(1). Control may be come up when blame is given and scapegoats are named. When people get scared they feel the way of gaining control is to start blaming others.