The Crucible Compared To The Real World Essay

The Crucible Compared to the Real World

Piers Anthony once said, “When one person makes an accusation, check to make sure that he himself is not the guilty one. Sometimes it is those whose case is weak who make the most clamour.” Everybody has been falsely accused at some time in his life. In fact, being blamed for something that one was not guilty of occurs during adulthood just as frequently as it does during childhood. False accusations are not abnormal in today’s society. Furthermore, they’ve been prevalent throughout all of history.

In The Crucible, a well-known play written by Arthur Miller, three girls are accused of practicing witchcraft. The play is based off of the time of the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in 1693. Comparatively, this was a time in history when the belief of witchcraft disseminated expeditiously. Men, women, and children alike were being accused of the practice, one after another. Over two hundred people were implicated to be immersed in witchcraft. Although so many individuals

were accused, only twenty were tried in court and executed because of it. In Miller’s play, the three girls blamed were proven to be guilty of witchcraft. During the arduous process of trying to get the girls to disclose what they had done, Abigail Williams, one of the witches, falsely accused Mary Warren, a servant within John Proctor’s home, several times. Abigail never stopped lying, and sadly, the court believed her and condemned those who were being forthright. In the real world, this happens quite frequently. Individuals get sent to prison regularly for being blamed for things they were not responsible for.
There is an abundant amount of cases where undeserving people are sentenced to jail from the lies of another. One of the most famous cases of false accusation is a situation in which a woman named Bunny Peguero alleged a man of rape. Peguero maliciously framed a man named William McCaffery, who was a construction worker in New York City at the time. Peguero deceitfully informed law enforcement that she was sexually assaulted by three men, only mentioning McCaffery. She then continued by utilizing the bite marks on her body that she received from a night out with her friends to claim that McCaffery had been the cause of them. After being separated from her friends, she asked the three men to give her a ride back to them. McCaffery and the other two men did just that, without touching her. When she returned to her friends, all of them broke out in a ridiculous brawl. Nevertheless, she received the bite marks from her friends. Edicio Martinez of CBS News addressed that, “But upon the returning of her friends the argument that began in the Umbrella Lounge escalated into a full fledged fight. The women punched and bit at each other and when she asked why she was so upset and if ‘those boys raped you,’ she simply agreed, to try and explain her behavior” (Martinez). Peguero was intoxicated at the time, but if she did not intend to be malicious, she wouldn’t have sent McCaffery to jail. Therefore, being under the influence is a repugnant excuse.
After four long years of McCaffery residing in prison, Peguero finally confessed that her story was fabricated, and that it was all a hoax.

Relieved but shaken with anger, McCaffery was set free. Consequently, Peguero was sentenced one to three years in prison.

McCaffery wasted four years of his life sitting in a cold, cement room because of the heartless acts of Peguero. Unfortunately, there are many cases like this. There are also different versions of the case, such as someone getting accused of a murder they did not perpetrate. Furthermore, people are becoming victims to liars.

In the light of this story, the situation that took place in The Crucible could definitely happen in real life, as it has been since the beginning of time. As a matter of fact, most individuals that falsely accuse others are the ones censurable. At any rate, it is tremendously sorrowful that some people find it necessary to ruin the lives of others in order to save their

own.