Deception In The Crucible

People have a way of seeing what they want to see, which plays a key role in creating the hysteria that exists in Salem in The Crucible and how people today react to false information. In his novel, Arthur Miller describes the Salem Witch Trials from a satirical point of view of McCarthy’s Second Red Scare, however, he does a brilliant job in portraying the thoughts of those afflicted in the time. Within any satire, connections can be made from the literature to current events. In the play, Reverend Parris invites Hale to Salem to investigate the condition of Ruth Putnam. Hale, a proclaimed witchcraft specialist, brings with him the very idea of witchcraft to the town, sparking the attention of the people. Convinced that witchcraft is among them, the court decides to take spectral evidence into account, allowing opportunities for corruption.

If honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure, then why don't people just tell the truth? In 1938, the House Un-American Committee was created by Senator Joseph McCarthy who accused government employees of being Communists. McCarthyism had targeted not only the members of the United States Government but also the entertainers and writers. Author Miller was one of those writers.He wrote “The Crucible” to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trails, who both accused people of being what they weren't.People accused in the McCarthy Trails went through the same tests as people in the Salem Witch Trials.In the play “The Crucible”, the characters Mary Warren, John Proctor and Giles Corey all face a test of honesty, in which they either passed or failed.Mary Warren is unsuccessful in telling the truth, John Proctor cheated on his wife, and Giles Corey gets him and his wife sentenced to death.

In society, we are blind to the lies that are taking place around us every day. Small lies, big lies, lies right in front of our face, and we are oblivious to almost all of it. This is shown really well in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Throughout the play, which takes place during the witch trials that took place in Salem, lies make up a big portion of the plot. Some of these types of lies that are used are described very well in Stephanie Ericsson’s essay The Ways We Lie. These variations of lies amplify the outrage created, through McCarthyism, and the Salem Witch trials that take place in the play The Crucible.

Imagine if today in the law courts, the defendants were always convicted, while all the plaintiffs were always pronounced correct. Many innocent people would be going to prison and serving sentences that they did not deserve! Well that is exactly what went on in Salem, Massachusetts. In The Crucible, there is a large widespread of hysteria due to witchcraft, causing many innocent lives to be taken. All it took was a small group of girls spreading lies about witchcraft to cause chaos throughout Salem, and many other villages. Through multiple characters in this story, Arthur Miller suggests that dishonesty and scapegoating is sometimes more rewarding than honesty.

Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Crucible, uses words to feel and convey the feelings created by characters and events in his novels. Witchcraft was the fulfilling lies of the courtroom authority, and separated the Puritan society. He enhances his message of overwhelming authority with such a plethora of literary devices such as hyperbole, irony, and fallacy to explain and demonstrate the abusing of power throughout The Crucible.

Both texts, the Crucible by Arthur Miller and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, revolve around the main theme of deception. Both pieces of literature go about this theme in varying ways. In the Crucible, one group of people believe that they have the power- this being Danforth and the courts- when in reality they are all being played by the girls- most prominently, Abigail. They let Danforth and the other judges believe that they have the power, when the girls are making all of the decisions. The girls decieve everyone by spinning lies and stories to get everyone to believe them.

In society, we are blind to lies that are taking place around us everyday. Small lies, big lies, lies right in front of our face, and we are oblivious to almost all of it. This is shown really well in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Throughout the play, which takes place during the witch trials that took place in Salem, lies make up a big portion of the plot. Some of these types of lies that are used are described very well in Stephanie Ericsson’s essay The Ways We Lie. These variations of lies amplify the outrage created, through McCarthyism, and the Salem Witch trials that take place in the play The Crucible.

Under the assumption that John Proctor is actively search for something “honest” and noble in him at this point, he is on the course of completely escaping from his nihilism. To continue with John’s progress in this phase, his “honesty”, mentioned in the previous paragraph, can be two things. On the one hand, it would be an acknowledgement of John’s vanity and evilness of character, so avoidance of a saintly death (which would be “a pretense” for him), but confession to a lie “that was not rotten long before”, and thus subsequent punishment for his sins, therefore relief and peace through the shame and besmirching of such a confession. The sense of being finally genuine, after having suffered from the paralyzing notions of being a fraud and

The phrase “honesty is the best policy,” applies to Arthur Miller’s history-based drama, The Crucible, in a variety of ways. The accusations throughout the story build on lie after lie after lie from those trying to protect their own name, thus putting the whole town in a state of confusion and chaos. Nobody in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts knows whom to trust anymore, after all of the false allegations made. There are three characters in particular in the story that, if they had told the truth from the commencement, the town would have been in a state of peace rather than mayhem. If Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor had been honest, many innocent lives could have been spared and Salem would not be in such

People lie all the time such as in the Crucible lying is a very common practice throughout the play as can be seen through the characters of John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Proctor. The Crucible containing many lies throughout the play, intertwining with each other some leading to the death of John Proctor. During the 1950s with McCarthyismm and Joe McCarthy rising to power falsely accusing others of being communists, during the second red scare. Lies that lead to catastrophes as seen in the Crucible; being the cause of people’s deaths and overall run amuck and get out of control.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a prime example of the impact of lies. From a young age, people are told to not lie because lying is wrong. Many lies are harmful to others. For example, Elizabeth Proctor lied about her husband’s crimes, which resulted in her and her husband’s imprisonment. However, as I have gotten older, I have realized that not all lies are bad.

People are often told that lying is the wrong thing to do; it is evil, inhumane, and overall terrible. Despite this fact, lying has been shown to hand people multiple benefits. These benefits can be anything from getting out of doing house chores to looking cool in front of classmates. Because of this, many people use this form of deception to remove themselves from unwanted problems in the community. The Crucible, a play written Arthur Miller, portrays a disrupted society where people are accused of witchcraft for any abnormal activity. The accused witches are either forced to “confess” to their involvement with witchcraft or be executed in the gallows. The characters in the play display to the readers that lying provides protection towards people in different ways.

“While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.” This clear and concise quote was expressed by Sissela Bok, a Swedish-American philosopher and the daughter of two Nobel Prize winners. See deception is a concept that is practically glorified lying to grasp an advantage upon something. In The Crucible we see many depictions of deception. Nearly all coming from Abigail.

In Act I Abigail says to Betty, "I talked to your papa and I told him everything." This line like the many others spoken by Abigail is a lie and is spoken with the intent of manipulating another character into doing something that will somehow benefit her. In his play, "The Crucible," Arthur Miller uses the character of Abigail Williams to exemplify the theme of deceit. This play is set in Salem, Massachusetts, in a time period when villagers were prone to accusing each other of witchcraft in order to save themselves from being hanged. Hence, a major theme in this play is deceit.

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