Human nature is the word that
describes our reactions to events, our own inner struggles, and our interaction
with others. It is something every human has in common. There are some things
that every human on this earth will do in their life, because all of us have
the same basic thought process as the rest. The Crucible has a lot to
say about human nature. The characters in The Crucible are faced with horrific problems, and the
entire town is haunted and plagued by the idea that the Devil is among them in
the form of witches. This book shows the
characters reaction to terrible situations and proves that all people cling to
certain natures and thought processes under pressure. Some of which are, lying, blaming others out of fear,
believing the majority over minority,
and attempting to atone for sins.
Lying and blaming others out of fear came up a
lot throughout The Crucible. Blaming someone else for your own wrong doing
is an immediate and instinctive reaction to the fear most people feel of getting
in trouble. The characters of The Crucible rely a lot on the blame game
to get them out of hard situations, and fear is their number one motivator. For
example, in the very beginning of The Crucible, Betty and Abigail have many suspicions surrounding
them, and in order to direct the townspeople’s wrath away from themselves, they
begin to call out names of women in the town whom they claim were in cahoots with the devil (Miller 48). They flat out blame and lie about some women in the
town out of fear, and after that,
everyone is distracted from them, and is consumed with the idea of putting the ‘witches’
away. This way, Abigail and Betty escape their fate. Another example of blame
is when Abigail accuses Mary Warren of witchcraft to direct attention away from
herself, and then Mary Warren accuses Proctor of witchcraft to direct attention
from herself ( Miller 114-118). Both Abigail and Mary are terrified of getting
put into jail and killed, so they push witchcraft on each other, and in the
end, Proctor is the one who gets punished. He denies it, but by that time it is
too late. The court believes the children over him. What Mary and Abigail did
was terrible, but it just goes to show you how human nature really is. It’s
human nature to avoid conflict at all costs, and Abigail and Mary did this by
the blaming technique.
Another
thing I noticed was that it is human nature to believe the majority over a minority.
If, for example, Sally tells Jimmy that Mr. Fido is a witch, and then Jimmy and
Sally both tell Josh and Jacob that same story, then that is four people who
now believe it. If Mr. Fido claims he isn’t a witch at all, then everyone else
will have to decide for themselves who they will believe. That is four people
against one. Four people with the same opinion is seen as more reliable than
one. This concept of believing the majority over minority is seen a lot in The Crucible. Abigail and her band of young girls use their
power of youth and majority over the whole town. For example, they all use it
against Mary when she’s accusing Abigail of being a liar( Miller 114-120). They
act out and claim that she’s bewitching them, all at the same time, and Danforth
can’t help but believe them. In fact, this majority over minority occurs in
more than one place. Once everyone in Salem believes that there is witches among
them and begins to accuse people, everyone joins in because EVERY one things
EVERY one is seeing witches. The court believes the majority of people over the
minority of the people who think it’s wrong. Sometimes the minority is the good
side. But it’s human nature to believe in the majority opinion.
It
is also human nature to atone for past sins. When you do something bad, and you
can’t take back what you did, you try to make it up to the person in a
different way. Two characters do this in The Crucible. One example is
John Proctor. When his wife caught him cheating on her, he tried to atone for
it by getting her out of jail by proving her accuser (Abigail) dishonest (Miller
110). He ruined his reputation and gave himself away doing this, but he tried his best.
Mary Warren also tries to atone for her wrongdoings to Elizabeth and John Proctor.
Proctor convinces her to tell the court the truth, and she does, (Miller 107),
but in the end it isn’t enough and she ends up blaming him.
Overall,
The Crucible really gives readers a good idea about what human nature
is. Like I said previously, people act similarly in different situations,
especially under extreme pressure. The people in The Crucible blamed
others to avoid conflict, believed the majority over the minority, and some
tried to atone for past sins . All of these are examples of human nature, and
The Crucible really made them come out because the characters are very intense.
It shows what the true side of people really looks like, and that people will
sometimes do anything in pressing situations.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY:
Penguin, 1996. Print.
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