FREE ESSAY ON THE CRUCIBLE

THE CRUCIBLE

The Crucible
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is a play that takes place in the sixteen nineties
during the famous but tragic witch trials. The entire community is in pandemonium yet
certain characters are also fighting internal conflicts of their own. Miller uses three
characters who manifest this internal battle ever so clearly. Such as Mary Warren who
whole personality turns upside down, John Proctor who contemplates between the
importance of his family and his own name and Reverend Hale who battles with himself
wether to carry out his job requirements or do what he knows is right. Mary Warren is a
girl who is forced with this inner turmoil throughout this play. At the outset of the
play
she is perceived to be a very shy girl who will never speak her mind as shown when
Proctor sends her home and she responds with  I'm just going home (21). As the play
continues and as she is influenced by Abigail, Mary begins to break this self induced
mold and does what she wants. Mary Warren, along with many other girls gets caught up
in the hype of getting all the attention and exercising power via initiating and
adamantly
continuing these witch trials. Finally John Proctor, the rationalist, shows that when
people like Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor who are the saintliest of people are
accused of being witches, something must be wrong. Mary Warren has a difficult
decision to make. She has realized that her whole way of life has been based on
injustice.
However, how can she extricate herself from Abigail and her friends, not to mention her
new feelings of confidence. Mary decides to speak out against Abigail and the others for
their false accusations and said that she  tried to kill me numerous times(57). Yet as
she
does this heroic act of overcoming her old reality, Abigail pretends that Mary is also a
witch using the poppets against her(73). Mary is now faced with yet another grueling
internal conflict: to do what she knows is right and probably die for it, or to return to
her
old ways. Mary succumbs to Abigails hypnosis  and accuses John Proctor of forcing her
to lie. Clearly the battle which Mary faced from the very beginning was enormous. John
Proctor a farmer and village commoner similarly is faced with an inner turmoil. He has
committed adultery and had absolutely no intentions of joining in the witch trials
unless
hi pregnant wife were to also get involved. After his wife got involved and eventually
was set free due to the fact that she was pregnant feels that he can't accept this.
Proctor is
a good and noble man and because of this he believes at first he can't be hanged and die
a
martyr when he has this sin blooming over him every waking moment . John later says to
Elizabeth that  My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by
giving them this lie that were not rotten long before(136) and rather confess then die
for
something he flat out didn't do. However, as John confesses, he can not allow Danforth
to
make it officially documented. As Danforth asks him why John answers with a cry 
because it is my name. Because I cannot have another in my life . . . How may I live
without my name? Have given you my soul; leave me my name(143). John feels strongly
about having a good name and not dying with a bad one. Proctor weighs both sides of his
internal conflict and realizes that he must not make another mistake. He therefore,
prescribes himself to death, not for his own sake, but rather for the sake of the others.
As
John dies Liz weeps saying  He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it away(145).
Another internal conflict is evident in Reverend Hale who initiates these problems. At
first Reverend Hale is sure about his belief that there are witches and feels that he is
carrying out the desires of G-D himself. Yet as the play moves on and Hale sees all
these
honest and good people being sentenced and executed he too sees an inner conflict. He
contemplates whether to do what he is sent to do, listen to Danforth, or does he listen
to
his own conscience and denounce these proceedings as unjust and wrong. Hale decides to
help out all the people wrongly accused by encouraging them to confess and save
themselves from these false proceedings. Hale attempting to repent his own sins by tying
to make people confess states I come to do the devils work. I come to counsel Christians
they should belie themselves . . . can you not see the blood on mt head(131). Hale
overcomes his turmoil by following the truth he knew in his heart of hearts. Yet he is
counseling people to  prevail upon your husband and confess  and says  God damns a
liar less than he that throws his life away for pride  and convinces people to lie which
is
against his religion and considered a moral sin. But he decides that earthly life is a
greater gift than eternal life. Everybody throughout their lives are faced with inner
conflicts. One must make a decision based on what they think is right and true. These
three characters probably just faced the most important decision of their lives. Whether
right or wrong their went with what they thought was the right decision within their
heart
of hearts.