Theme Of Guilt In The Crucible

As human beings, we each display specific traits and qualities that define our character and shape our personalities. The way in which we carry ourselves establishes our reputations, as well as how others identify us. We are each prone to making mistakes, and unfortunately, the mistakes we make can affect the way people see us as well. The struggle to regain a good name can be difficult and uncertain once someone’s reputation is tarnished. In Arthur Miller’s timeless play, The Crucible, a well-respected man named John Proctor betrays his wife and struggles to gain her forgiveness and his good name in the village of Salem. Although John Proctor betrays his wife, he

He commits adultery by cheating on his wife with Abigail. Although this may be true, he atones for his sin by sacrificing his own reputation, something he highly values to save his wife. In addition, he stays true to himself and does not confess, so that the same sacrifice others had made would not be in vain. In addition, he shows a crucial emotion that is needed for redemption. The emotion he shows throughout the play is guilt. Guilt displays remorse, and remorse is only felt when the afflicted acknowledge their wrongdoing and feel the need to redeem themselves. Those who do not regret their actions do not feel guilt. Because John Proctor is an admirable character, he becomes trapped in his own cage of guilt, determined to save his wife and atone for his sin, even when he knew he would be executed for

John Proctor has a dark secret, He possesses a major flaw he has had an affair with Abigail Williams, and eventually he realizes what he has done to Elizabeth, He has committed adultery against his wife. Due to the fact that Proctor has committed adultery against Elizabeth, he becomes a tragic hero, and Abigail Williams shows that when she says “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near” (Act I, lines 423-425). John broke his marriage vows, but even though he regrets he has become a tragic hero. It’s too late to regret he has sinned, he has ruined his marriage with Elizabeth and now she is not pleased with him. Due to the fact that he has cheated on Elizabeth, his outlook in life is negative, when He tells her “I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you” (Act II, lines 159-161). The affair also caused Elizabeth to distrust John, who for seven months was trying to get into her good graces and is tired of her suspicion. Because of John's inability to control his desire and resist temptation, his life is being turned upside down by the jealousy and need for revenge of Abigail, marking the beginning of his downfall and path to becoming a tragic hero. As a result, the need for revenge of Abigail marks the beginning of John downfall.

He does this with the intention of exposing Abigail’s spiteful character and her main desire to replace his wife. John Proctor says “I beg you sir, I beg you -see her what she is…She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave. And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance and you must see it. I set myself entirely in your hands. I know you must see it now” (110) John Proctor exposes not only Abigail’s sins, but also the fact that he was infatuated with Abigail. He knows that by doing this he would dishonor his name, but he deems it as the only solution because people were falling into Abigail’s manipulation., John Proctor also fights for everyone not just his wife. John Proctor continues his attempt to voice out the truth even though his wife was exempted from being punished because she was pregnant. He defends other people because he knows their innocence. “The people signing it declare their good opinion of Rebecca, and my wife and Martha Corey...these are all landholding farmers, members of the church, sir- they’ve known the women many years and never saw no sign they had dealing with the Devil” (93) John Proctor protects everyone’s names because he recognizes that they have no reason to be jailed, thus showing his kindness and consideration.

Proctor 's decision to tell the court about his affair ironically demonstrates his goodness. He also spoke up for the innocent girls that had their names branded. He willingly sacrifices his good name in order to protect his wife and others who are wrongly accused. Only through his public acknowledgment of the affair does Proctor regain his wife 's trust. At the end of the play, Proctor refuses to slander himself by allowing the court to make him make a false confession. The court told him to lie, and that if he lies that he would not be sent to the gallows. He did the right decision by telling the truth about his affair with Abigail. He honestly told the truth about the affair, and that he was not part of the witchcraft. His response further exemplifies Proctor 's integrity. But John was not guilty. He had nothing to do with witchcraft, he admitted to his own mistakes. Proctor knows that if he confesses that he will be damned himself, yet again, if he agrees to confess, he will also be free from the torment from the demon inside him and set others free too. This realization, along with Elizabeth 's forgiveness, enables Proctor to forgive himself and finally regain his good name and self-respect. As the court

The Theme of Justice in The Crucible The crucible was set in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is based on true facts about events that actually took place. It is about a small secluded town that relies strongly on their religion to keep them feeling safe. Their enemy is the devil and they are always scared of the devil and constantly looking for signs that the devil is there.

In the play, The Crucible, MIller allows the reader to learn something about the world by showing us that the sins that we have committed will keep weighing us down, until we confess them. John Proctor commits adultery with Abigail Williams, and keeps this affair a secret from Elizabeth. Proctor starts to feel guilty, and mad at himself. He attempts to pretend that the affair never happened. “But I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind, we never touched, Abby…..Proctor, angered--at himself as well: You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!” (24) This piece of textual evidence proves that Proctor is unable to forgive himself for what he has done to Elizabeth, and what he has done to himself to lose his goodness.

Guilt is often one of the hardest emotions for a person to overcome. Guilt is one of the few emotions that can hurt someone long after their integrity was damaged. Lying about something or someone, majority of the time makes a person ask themselves “ Did I make the right choice.” However, guilt can be a blessing and a curse. Guilt can show someone the truth behind their actions and make them act upon it. In contrast of that sporadically it makes situations worse. For example in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible one of the main characters John Proctor feels as if he would feel too guilty if he signed his paper confessing his satanic works.He refuses to have this paper hanged on the church door, his emotions overtake him and he rips the document into two halves. Contradicting that statement, Abigail Williams a teenage girl, blames her use of witchcraft on a clueless slave named Tituba and she has no disregard for her actions. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller seems to prove that habitually people would rather hold other people accountable for their actions other than themselves.

Have you ever felt so burdened or overlooked that it leads you to deception? How can one readily react to these feelings, and what can be done if we find ourselves submerged in duplicity far beyond any point of return? In order to better answer these questions, one must first look to both literature and history for demonstrations of such conceptions. Just one example of this being that of the well-known play and movie, The Crucible. As first written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, The Crucible is the powerful production and retelling of the erratic events which took place in the town of Salem during the late 1600’s. The story follows a group of young girls who, after being discovered in the woods dancing, decides it is best to charge the honest as partakers in witchcraft; and instill turmoil and distraction not just within Salem, but the entire region as well. One of the girls guilty of such accusations is that of Mary Warren; the tentative, disingenuous housemaid of John and Elizabeth Proctor, who during the progression of the story, felt ashamed of her actions and took the sand to confess not just her own, but all the girls’ fabricated behavior. However as the confession wore on and testimonies denying her statement true came forward, Mary ultimately gave to the pressure and returned to her previous actions of fraud and deception. Doings which only compliment her many viable flaws of a naive judgement, weak minded demeanor, and inability to stay true to her word; and that

People have many different views of what justice is and how it should be handled. Because of human nature many times attempted justice becomes injustice. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller explores the themes of injustice through an incorrect accusation of witchcraft in the Puritan town of Salem in 1692 and in the famous speech A Plea for Mercy delivered on September 24, 1924 by Clarence Darrow, Darrow pleas for mercy of two boys who are guilty of a heinous crime. Although both have very different circumstances, they both are opposing an oppressive regime because in both works they are fighting against unnecessary bloodshed and how following other people’s example is not necessarily a good thing.

“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself” (Addams). Immorality is a very subjective concept, but sometimes it is undeniable. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail Williams is shown to be the most immoral character through her constant disregard of others throughout the different events of the story, furthering the point that when in fearful situations people will only think about themselves.

Superman once said, “There’s a right and a wrong in the universe and that distinction is not hard to make” (Superman, Kingdom Come). Justice, being pivotal in society often fails to meet its purpose. In an idealistic world, justice has been portrayed as a divine fairness, where the nefarious have been punished and the ethical live a moral life. Pragmatically speaking, justice has constantly been played into the hands of power, suborn and greed. Desperate times call for desperate measures, forcing vulnerable humans to drive to consequential lengths to meet their aspirations. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, comments on the biased view of justice in Salem and how the court models the role of justice as guilty until proved innocent, similar to the case of Giles Corey, which is barbaric.

John Proctor felt so bad for the way he acted and the things he had done in the past and would not give up until they were made up for. John made his sin right by convincing Abigail that their relationship was over and he could no longer have any contact with her because it was such a wrong thing (Miller 22). He was devastated and embarrassed after admitting this situation to the court but begged them for forgiveness because he knew how wrong he was. “A man may think God sleeps, but god sees everything, I know it now” (Miller 110). John himself was way too harsh on his situation, punishing himself far worse than he needed. He told the court he was not worth the dust of the feet on all of those who were hanged because he does not think he deserves as much as others due to his sin (Miller143). Even his wife Elizabeth knew it was not her who needed to forgive him, but it was he himself. “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you” (Miller 55). John carried his sin with him until the very last scene of the play. As a hero, John made up for his bad ways. Towards the end of the play, when John had confessed to seeing the devil, he denied seeing anyone else there with him. John stood his ground, pleading to them that it was only him who was there (Miller 140). John made up his sin to his wife, Elizabeth, by fighting hard for her safety and for the court to let her go. He told them how much of an honest women she was, how their accusations were completely wrong (Miller 92). All of John’s heroic actions were to make up or the sin he knew he committed, which was the only way he could think to forgive himself. As readers could see, John’s self-assessment of himself was very wrong, he never saw how good of a person he really

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the theme “temptation” is displayed throughout the entire play. It is mainly shown through the characters John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Abigail. There is a lot of temptation in the play because of the events that occurred, such as the Salem Witch Trials, and because of how the characters acted and treated one another.

A wise philosopher named  Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honorable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself.” People who are guilty of nothing spend their entire lives trying to uphold an honorable name, but depending on the circumstances they may have to sacrifice their life in order to do so.  In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, people in the town of Salem, Massachusetts are put through severe trials to see if they are guilty of practicing witchcraft. Many people are falsely accused, but decide to confess to something that they never did to save their own lives. By confessing, they are throwing away their name and reputation. John Proctor is among the many who are wrongfully accused. He must make a challenging decision whether to die honorably or to live with a slandered name that would affect his children’s future. John Proctor’s great dilemma changes throughout the course of the play because he faces having to appeal to Abigail, his wife, and the court all while attempting to uphold his respectable reputation.