The Court of Salem in the Crucible

The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller based on the Salem Witch Trials that took place around the late 1600’s. During this time period, in Salem especially, it is very important that the people of the community were holy and lived according to God’s will. For example, you must know your Ten commandments in order to keep bad suspicions off your back. Although, even that will not be enough if you are accused of conjuring the devil. In fact, any word or practice of the devil or witchery is forbidden and taken very “seriously.

” The court is corrupt and ignorant and immediately takes charge after any accusation of witchery without hardly any proof. Therefore, there is a lot of hypocrisy involved in this story. Looking at the Seven Deadly Sins, the most prevalent sin throughout The Crucible is pride. Although, each character struggles and identifies with a specific sin. As previously mentioned, the most prevalent sin throughout The Crucible is pride. Along with pride comes selfishness in obtaining one’s own ways. In this story plot, we are shown a sequence of events that brings the reader to understand how corrupt and unfair the court of Salem operated. For example, there is a group of girls led by Abigail Williams who practiced witchery. However, in order to not get caught they claimed to be the eyes of the devil and were able to see anyone who had been in contact with him. Therefore, these girls were partnering with the court and accusing many innocent people of witchery who were shown no mercy and hung based off of those accusations.

There is a theme of pride in this event because they strongly based their cases on only one side of the story. Abigail used this power to her advantage and accused John Proctor’s wife (who she wanted dead) so she could have a chance to be with him. John Proctor ended up fighting for his wife’s life and eventually for everyone who had been accused. Towards the end, he proved many points that led to the main judge questioning his actions and realizing they were wrong. In fact, the council came to realize all of the tragedies that they had been creating. Unfortunately, by the time they had realized it, it was too late for the people that had already been hanged. However, they still had a chance to save the people who were sentenced and admit they were wrong; but they were much too prideful for that. The part of The Crucible where I see the most pride is not when it is existent but when it is overcome. In the very end of the play, John Proctor was given the choice to either sign a document that he was guilty and be free, or stick to the truth in saying he was innocent to be hung. This is the most powerful event in which pride is manifested. Although, Pride is the most thematic deadly sin throughout The Crucible, each character struggles and identifies with something different. The character that comes to mind right away is Abigail Williams. Abigail was the leader of the group of girls who conjured the devil and pretended to be able see the people who were guilty in order to protect themselves of being executed. The initial reason she turned to witchery was because she wanted to be with John Proctor. The thing that was in her way was John’s wife Elizabeth Proctor. She was willing to do anything to get her way including starting the rampage of the salem witch trials. And she did it all without ever facing consequences.

On that account, Abigail struggled very vigorously with lust, envy, anger, pride, and gluttony. Furthermore, although most characters struggle with these deadly sins there are quite a few that are able to overcome them. To elaborate, John Proctor was initially the tragic hero because he overcame all evil and did what was right and truly according to God’s will. When he gave up his life to do what was right in the very end of the play, it very much resembled when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. In conclusion, I believe The Crucible is a reflection of what our present world is facing. At every corner that we turn, we are faced with the injustice and the evilness that comes from people who are condemn innocently because of someone’s own selfish pride. Out of the most Seven Deadly Sins, pride continues to be the most prevalent of these sins as history has shown us in the political events that have taken place in our present society.. Take for example, the present political system that we are presently facing, the constitutional right to a fair and equal justice for all to live a human dignified life. Overall, The Crucible is not much different to our world today and we are at one point or another living THE CRUCIBLE. Annotations

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