How Is Society Portrayed In The Crucible

William Ellery Channing said “The great hope of society is in individual character.” The fate of society rests in the hands of the people who live in it. There are so many different types of people in the world, and each person impacts the world in a different way. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, was written in the 1900s about events that happened in the 1600s. His purpose was to call out people’s actions and show the reader that hundreds of years later, nothing has changed. Many of the characters only care about themself and their own reputation. They do not care about what is actually going on in the society, as long as they are not looked down upon. It is hard to put other people before yourself, which is why most people do not do this. We criticize the way people acted in The Crucible, yet we act the same way.

The need for a positive self image causes people to do anything they can to make

themself seem better then everyone else.
People lie all the time to protect themselves, not to benefit anyone else. Lying is a major problem and so many people rely on lying to get them out of a tough situation. In The Crucible, Abigail lies to her uncle. After she tells all of these lies, she tells the other girls “All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 468). Abigail lies to Parris about what actually happened in the forest. She does not want to face the consequences for drinking blood to kill Elizabeth.
No one wants to be thought of as a person who goes against what is right. Lying is the easy way out. It makes people feel better about themselves if no one knows the truth. One person lying can end up changing the society because no one knows what to believe. When Abigail tells the girls that she lied, then all of the girls have to also remember what they can and cannot tell anyone. If you do not lie, you do not have to remember what you said.
Abuse can happen in many different forms, but no matter what, it hurts society.

Some people are abused by family members, or the people who they live with. Imagine going home everyday and being scared for your life, knowing that at any moment you could get punished with abuse. In The Crucible, Proctor abuses Mary Warren, who works for him. Proctor “throws her to the floor, where she sobs, ‘I cannot, I cannot’” (Miller 503). Proctor abuses Mary Warren when his wife, Elizabeth is taken to court by pushing her to the ground and grabbing her by the neck. Although it was partially Mary’s fault that Elizabeth was being taken to court, she did not deserve to be abused. It makes Proctor feel better about himself to make someone else feel bad.

People think it is okay to abuse someone who is a slave or in a lower social class. They do not realize that abuse can really hurt someone both physically and mentally. People often turn to abuse when things do not go their way. Some people will do anything to make themselves look better, even if it means hurting someone

else.
Hypocrisy has been present in society for so many years. People will say one thing and then turn around and do something that contradicts that they just said. Hypocrites will say positive things about themselves when they are in front of people, even if their actions go against what they say. It does not matter to them though, as long as they have a solid reputation. The court demonstrates hypocrisy in The Crucible by telling the accused people “You will confess yourself or you will hang” (Miller 523). One of the commandments is that you cannot kill someone. However, the court goes against something that they say they believe in by hanging all people who refuse to confess to something they might not have done. The court is trying to be the group of people who work to change society, but instead they are hypocrites.
Hypocrites will say anything to make it seem like they are a good person, even if they know it is not true. They just want to have a positive self image, and that is all that matters to them. Hypocrisy can end up really changing a society, even if it just seems like a minor problem. In The Crucible, it caused innocent people to die.
Many people will falsely accuse someone of doing something just to put the blame on someone else. False accusations happen all the time, whether they are on purpose or not. Some people will believe anything that someone says, even if they have no evidence. In The Crucible, Proctor is told “Stuck two inches into the flesh of [Abigail’s] belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed. She testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in” (Miller 500). Abigail accuses Elizabeth of pushing a needle into her stomach, even though she knows it was not her. She wants to put the blame on someone else, who she does not like.
By accusing someone else, people feel better about themself because no one expects that they did anything wrong. If no one ever suspects you, it makes you think that you are better then everyone else. If you are always putting the blame on someone else, they you will never have to face consequences and everyone thinks of you as a good person.
Power is very important to a lot of people. When people have more power, they have more control, more people believe them, and they feel better about themself. Power makes people feel more comfortable because people will listen to them. People listen to the person in charge. Abigail tells everyone “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” (Miller 481). Abigail is referring to calling the Devil. When people start to suspect that she might be working with the Devil, she immediately denies it and blames Tituba. Since Tituba is a slave, Abigail knows that everyone will believe her.
She uses her power to save her own reputation. People use their power to benefit themselves only. The entire society is effected by just one person misusing their power.
There are some people in the world who are selfless and will put other people’s needs in front of their own. Helping others is a main goal in their life. These are the people who do not just care about themselves. They will accept consequences and take the blame when they know they did something wrong. They will make mistakes, but they will learn from them and be an even better person because of it.
However, there needs to be more people like this in order for society to actually change. There are not nearly enough good people in the world to actually cause the entire society to change. Even if there are good people, there will always be at least one person who only cares about themself and will do anything to make others look bad. That one person can hurt the whole society.
Society has not changed because people have not changed. People still put their own needs before anyone else. No one wants to be looked down upon. A lot of people will do anything to make others look bad, if it makes them look good. Imagine a world where everyone was kind to everyone. Not because they had to act this way, but because they chose to. If you want the world to change for the better, it is up to you to make that change happen. Try putting other people before yourself. Make someone feel better about themselves and it will even make you feel better about yourself. If everyone did this, your imagination could become a reality.