Similarities Between The Lottery And The Crucible

A common phrase used in courts is that someone is “innocent until proven guilty.” Through the plot’s of “The Lottery” and The Crucible, this idea of people being innocent until guilty is shown, however, the part of this phrase about proving that guilt is conveniently left out. Of course, both stories took place in a time in which the villagers felt no need for there to be any kind of trial or reasoning for someone’s death. Rather, the persecutions that occured in these stories took place to ensure that barbaric tendencies did not spread among the people within their villages. This idea of keeping people from being barbaric or evil enforces the idea that perhaps people truly think that the people who choose the marked paper are really deserving

of death, as they are the thing keeping the village from being perfect. All of these persecuted people were judged on one thing about them and one thing only. In The Crucible, the accused were either judged on their appearance, accusations about them, or other aspects about them. This is similar to how Tessie and the other previous victims of the lottery were only judged and killed because of the single mark on the piece of paper they chose, rather than who they were as people. One simple thing about a character that cannot be changed becomes the entirety of who that person is and they simply become like a stray mark on a piece of paper - ugly and in need of being erased.
This persecution of people just goes to show how corrupt and evil society is for this. Although people do may nothing “wrong” their innocence also means nothing when others know they are safe. People in “The Lottery” will do anything to hold onto their tradition and as long as it it not them being killed, the lottery is a perfectly fair, uncorrupt system of keeping people from being barbaric. People in Salem were willing to accuse and kill others for their own personal gain or enjoyment. And even though the characters killed or accused in both stories were innocent and had done nothing extraordinarily bad that deemed them worthy of execution, all of the memories of the people’s characters were pushed down the drain by other bystanders and all someone could be was a speck of ink in need of extermination.