Cruciable Essay Essay, Research Paper

An idea that I saw circulate throughout the play entitled The Crucible was “acting” and lying. There are also many levels to the acting and lying some of the levels could be as basic as sleeping while others people their life. The lying starts with the little girls “sleeping”. A quote within the time is by Rebecca Nurse she says “I have seen them all through their silly reasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief.” In this quote Rebecca Nurse is talking about how the girls who are “under witch spells” are really just faking it. This lying is very basic and is still done today. It is done today in the sense that some of us can block out other comments aimed towards us. We can also play sick to weasel out of going to school or other sorts. After this basic lying from the girls things can only get worse and worse from here on. The next event that is a big lie but does not kill anyone is John Proctor lying about his love to Abigail Williams by having an affair and not loving her. He lied to her because he led her to believe that their entourage meant something between the two but in reality it didn’t. Because of this incident a whole chain of events happened while they could have been avoided by just no lying at this time. The final BIG lie is with the girl that danced in the beginning of the movie by accusing people of witchcraft this is the final lie and the most influential because many lives are lost. The scene that best illustrates this idea is in the courthouse. Yes, there are the obvious parts like when the girls act about being cold or seeing “death” but there are also some more deep-rooted themes throughout the courthouse scenes. The more deep-rooted scenes are the ones with John Proctor, his wife Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. In the scene John has just confessed to cheating on his wife Elizabeth. He later tries to save his wife’s life by saying that she never lies. The then try to test her to see if she will lie about John cheating on her or not. She fails by lying, and john dies instead of her. This idea, lying resulting in mass death or ruined life, can also be applied to modern times. A good example is the McCarthy era and the blacklisted for being “communist” they would be spared if they told whom else was a communist. Ironically enough Arthur Miller wrote this play during the time of the McCarthy era.