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Righteousness In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Decent Essays

You did it, you did it and you did it!
Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" successfully related to its audience and left us with messages that still echo today . In his writing it significantly illustrates human cruelty in the name of righteousness.
Inspired by the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, focuses on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. Miller bases the play on the historical account of the Salem witch trials. Series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 to May 1693. A modern day example that can be recognizably compared to the Salem Witch Trials is Racial profiling that manifested in the 1700’s. Racial profiling is the use of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or national origin by law enforcement agents as a factor in deciding whom to investigate, arrest or detain absent evidence of a specific crime or criminal behavior.
Throughout the play there are numerous instances of human cruelty in the name of righteousness that outline the bases of the salem witch trials.
In both of the stories individuals use their authority to commit hanice interrogation techniques to get what they want from innocent citizens.
"You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!" (Miller 44)
In this quote Reverend Parris is threatening Tituba to confess to the act of witchcraft, he uses his superiority and threats to force her to confess. Showing a considerable deal of human cruelty since whipping her caused her a great deal of pain and anguish just so Parris can get the information he wants.
Black people were subjected to interrogations and harassment and whippings and other physical punishment — even death — if they were determined to have run away. Like modern-day racial profiling, a black person’s skin color, not their actions, made them subject to discriminatory treatment from law enforcement.
In this piece of evidence from an modern day example, it talks about how when black slaves escaped the ones that were caught were interrogated and harmed

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