Examples Of Injustice In The Crucible

A Successful or Crumbling Community Infrastructure?

Written in 1791, the Bill of Rights was adopted into American law with 10 key commandments that served as the framework for America’s future government. The First Amendment covers freedom of speech, and in the face of an injustice, one could utilize this right to either speak up or plead the 5th and not say anything if their statement would affect them or others in a negative way. Ultimately, this weighs in how responsible a person feels towards the situation. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he highlights the injustice faced by those accused of conspiring with the devil and practicing magic in the Salem Witch Trials in the late 17th century, through unfair trials and biased court decisions. Using the example of a close-knit town, Miller emphasizes the obligation each citizen has to stand up against an injustice being suffered by the town and

how some choose to uphold their obligation while others choose to neglect it. He introduces two conflicting characters that have differing perspectives on their duty towards their community in the face of an injustice.

An individual's inclement to uphold his or her responsibility to his or her community depends greatly on society’s treatment towards their own self, changing them to become selfish or selfless towards their peers. Abigail Williams, who has been neglected by someone she loves, can feels an insatiable hunger for vengeance towards her community, whereas John Proctor, who live a respected lifestyle, is encouraged to consider the value of the loss of innocent lives compared to the loss of his own.

Through Miller’s depiction of Abigail Williams, readers can view an example of how someone who has been cast away by society believes that she owes no responsibility towards the rest of her community. Abigail is a character who has suffered many unfortunate losses throughout her life in Salem. As a young child, her parents were killed by Native Americans, and she was forced to reside with her uncle, Reverend Parris. She is cast out by the man she loves, John Proctor, and is driven by vengeance to accuse innocents of witchcraft

to ruin the community and earn back his love. Abigail maintains the control of a group of girls in the town using violent threats when the girls threaten to come clean with Abigail’s attempts of witchcraft and murder. She terrorizes them by saying, “Let either of you break a word...and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night, and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder [them]...I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and...I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” (Miller 26). From the beginning of the novel, readers can sense Abigail’s ravenous hunger for revenge. If betrayed by the girls, she promises to “bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” and makes it so they wish that they never seen the sun go down, since she promises to come hidden in the black of night with forms of seemingly horrendous torture. Abby backs up her claim with the suffering that she learned through enduring the murder of her parents. Her knowledge on the brutality of the world is clearly portrayed in her death threats, and her awareness forces Abigail to overlook her obligation towards her community in order to fulfill her overwhelming desire to inflict pain on others. Using her false accusations of witchcraft towards the innocent and her startling ability to act faint, Abigail manages to control the whole court with just her words. John Proctor sees through her act and cries out that “vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (82). “Crazy children” refers to Abby and her band of girl followers who are “jangling the keys of the kingdom” just by crying out witch. Miller uses a metaphor of jangling the keys of the kingdom to show how like something as important like the kingdom, where royalty lives, is now in the hands of a group of common servant girls. All of the terror is fueled by Abigail’s thirst for vengeance against seemingly the whole town, as she pretends to accuse nearly everyone for practicing witchcraft and sentencing many of those accused to death or long-term imprisonment. Due to her embodiment of evil and attempts to eradicate all who are in the way of the man she loves, Abigail’s craving for vengeance brings only chaos and destruction on others in her community.
On the other hand, Miller demonstrates through John Proctor how someone who has been smiled upon in the community feels a moral obligation to repay their respect. He owns a sustainable amount of property and has a loving family to keep him company. Through John Proctor’s internal conflict of whether or not he should sign the confession of witchcraft, the value of his life is revealed. His main argument against signing it is that his confession may cost the lives of many others. He refuses to sign even if it means sacrificing his own life for the lives of other townsfolk. He demands that the corrupt judges “will not use me! It is no part of salvation that you should use me!...Beguile me not! I blacken all of [the accused] when [my confession] is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!” (144). He realizes that his confession would not be used for his own salvation, but rather to “blacken all of the accused” and endorse the fact that the innocent civilians accused are considered guilty in the eyes of the community. Upholding his moral responsibility towards his fellow townsfolk, he refuses to sign his confession in order to prevent him from confirming their status as a follower of Satan. In turn, he manages to forgive himself of all the sins he committed in the past. Relieved, he states that “there’s your first marvel, that I can [hang]...for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs” (145). He refers to the fraudulent court as dogs and believes that by hanging himself, he is protecting his fellow accused from the sharp accusations of the dogs. His eyes are opened to the goodness inside himself and is proud of himself for sacrificing his life for such a noble cause. John Proctor can die in peace, for he has repaid his debt and upheld his responsibility towards his community by standing up to an injustice he experiences.
To conclude, as shown through Miller’s characters in The Crucible, a person's responsibility towards the community depends on the mutual treatment between the two entities, changing the members of society to become selfish or selfless towards their peers. John Proctor, who manages to live a privileged lifestyle, is obligated to consider what is best for the rest of the community, and he manages to die a peaceful and satisfied death. However, Abigail, who has been neglected by those she loves in society, feels an unquenchable thirst for vengeance that ultimately ends in destruction of her home environment. Miller emphasizes through his character development of John Proctor how important it is within a community to uphold one’s duty towards the rest of their peers by standing up against injustices. Whether they choose to plead the fifth or use their voice for something better, as a person in a functioning and collaborative society, it is important to keep the wellness of others in mind and not have vengeance drive their decision making process, in order to avoid the dismembering of a community.