The Crucible: Act Three

Human nature is a funny thing. As humans, we all react to situations differently because no two people are exactly alike and think exactly alike. That is what makes us humans. At the same time, however, there a few major reactions and observations that people make and generalize to create something called human nature. Maybe it is the lust for money or power, the will to survive in a threatening situation or even the lust for air, but all of those things are grouped and associated with human nature. Sometimes things that are in our nature are not good things, such as some of the events that are occurring in The Crucible.

One of the darker elements of human nature is the fact that we never want to get into trouble. If you think back to when you were a child, there was probably a time where you did something that was wrong. What did you do? Probably, like most kids, you tried to push the blame off onto someone else. That is what every human would do. Being in trouble is not fun, so we do everything we can to avoid it. That exact example is what is going on in the story in Act 3. All of the blaming is going around because no one wants to be convicted guilty of being a witch. In the courtroom, Mary Warren tried to confess to the truth. It seems so funny that even though the truth is the only thing that will set a person free, they never seem to just tell the truth. After she tries to tell the truth, the other girls turn on her, including Abigail. Proctor seems to be the only smart person of the group because he finally decides that after all of the hiding he had been trying to do, he told the truth about his affair with Abigail. That would also help to prove that she could not be trusted. In a way, he acted in a way that was opposite human nature. He confessed to his wrongdoings, and it helped him as a person, but not really in the trial. It actually backfired on him. It was decided that Elizabeth would be the absolute authority on the subject, so they brought her into the court room to decided who was lying, Abigail or Proctor. Elizabeth did not want to get her husband into trouble, so thinking that she was helping her, she lied and said that he never cheated on her. Actually, all she did was make Proctor look like a liar, and since she lied, she made an even bigger mess. The moral of this is that lying will get you nowhere, even though it is a huge part of human nature. Escaping trouble is sometimes more important to a person than  telling the truth. The scene in the court room is a perfect example of how an innocent person can be taken down by a person lying, even if they are trying to make things right.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.