Crucible Essay Have you ever made a mistake? Of course you have because we all know nobody is perfect. Did you ever wonder how a mistake could deeply affect on how you act in the future? Maybe you have and maybe you haven't. Your probably thinking right now why the way you act now has anything to do with a mistake that you did back then. The truth is it does and in the famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor made a mistake that affected his life in the present. Little mistakes like mine to major mistakes like John Proctor's and how we both made wrong choices. And had it really hurt us at the end.
"A mistake you made in the past prevents you from acting in the correct way in the present or future is one of the themes in Arthur Miller's The Crucible that I have chosen to write my essay with.
Deposition of Abigail Williams v. George Jacobs, S...
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"The witch no. 1" lithographI chose it because I had my own experience involving that particular theme. A character in The Crucible that also was involved with this them was John Proctor but mine was not as serious as his. When you turn sixteen it's a triumph of joy and a feat that you have accomplished. Finally you're a teenager, and only two more years of high school to go, and best of all finally your able to get that most prized possession, the driver's license. I know how excited I was when I turned, to the magical numbers of one and six. I was now eligible for taking the Drivers Test at the DMV. My appointment was scheduled in two months and every chance I can get to drive I took. Yet when I drove I didn't drive according to the DMV I drove like the average driver, which is not very good. Two months seemed to whiz pass so soon and before I knew the Drivers Test were just a couple of days away. Dumbfounded I thought, "I don't need to practice I've been practicing ever since I got my permit." Well, the day of the test came and I lasted only five minutes before rolling back into the DMV parking lot. I failed doing a critical error. My mistake was not as serious as a man named Proctor in the dramatic play The Crucible.
John Proctor is a well respected, even tempered, and not an easily led man in a small town of Salem. Where everyone knows each other pretty well and when an incident happens the whole town knows about it like a fast spreading wildfire. But John Proctor is hiding a deep dark secret only he and whom he conflicted with know and an innocent person hurt by it. "Thou shall not commit adultery" one of the Ten Commandments that are followed obediently by this "Puritan" town. John Proctor has committed adultery with Abigail Williams while he was already married to Elizabeth. A serious crime was unknown to the town but suspicions arose when Elizabeth fired Abigail. But life went on and nobody cared for it until the Salem Witch Trials needed to be put to and end for good. The only way to stop Abigail and the girls was for John to confess that he committed adultery with Abigail. No one wants to blacken their name by such a confession and the embarrassment it will reward and quite frankly, John Proctor does not. But only a few such as John Proctor sense the evil and vengeance of the girls and their rage now with their power infested in them. This quote by John verifies it, "If she innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as cleans as God's fingers? I'll tell you what's walking Salem-vengeance is walking Salem, we are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrant is vengeance!" John Proctor did eventually confesses but was dismissed. Elizabeth knew that her husband had committed adultery but to save him she lied about it and did not say John had an affair with Abigail. Now John has been sentenced to death and according to Puritan law will not be able to enter the gates of heaven. "Let Rebecca go like a saint! For me it's a fraud" meaning that Rebecca has lived a "saintly" life and Proctor did not. All because of Proctor making a mistake in the past and now it hurts him in the present.
After reading this play it made me ponder about how the world can be so cruel and unfair. Although tragedies like the one experienced in The Crucible only happened once in the real world, the fact that it did was ridiculous. I learned that lust, greed, and power could be so destructive. Killing a neighbor for his land? Finding a puppet with a needle gets you sent to jail? Wasn't this little town a Puritan settlement, Puritan standing for pure and trying to be Godlike and yet it is so ironic that this incident had to break out all over Europe and parts of the colonies, it bewilders me. This quote by Proctor reiterates what I have said, "A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud-God damns are kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together". This play also taught me the importance of making right decisions and avoiding mistakes that will cost you in the future. It is impossible not to make mistakes but if you do mistakes that are not right and not correct yourself in time, it will effect the way your life, the way you act, the way you speak, and the way you see people. That is why people say learn by your mistakes and you will be good in the future.
In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible demonstrates human nature and how we make dumb decisions and how it prevents from acting in the future. "Do that which is good an no harm shall come to thee"-John Proctor. Through my examples of John Proctor and myself I am not telling you to live a perfect life but to watch what you do, for how you live in the future reflects on how you live in the past. I have already corrected my mistakes and I took time to reflect on my life and see what I was doing wrong and what to correct. But for Proctor I cannot because his mistake and his actions were too late to repair. In the play The Crucible the author had many secret messages and themes that he had suggested but not through sentences but through different people in dialogue form. It was really never about witches but about greed and how the human acts in such environments.
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