One of the most important life lessons I acquired from my sixteen years on this planet is how dishonesty cannot save all and foolishness never ages when born. While these express my two themes, there happens to be much more to the ides than how the idea is displayed. The themes interact because the consequence of each word can be the same. In addition, they also build because the more foolish present the more dishonesty forms. In this case, do not EVER be dishonest and foolish!!! Why would one consider that an option in life? To sum up the main point, when deceit and stupidity mingle, the aftermath results in sin.
The Crucible may be a well-scripted play, but The Crucible defines a test; the test alludes to the characters, referring to the two themes of the play. First, John Proctor and Abigail Williams exchanged and distributed lies throughout the play. Then, she and the Girls committed licentious, idiotic crimes and actions towards the citizens of Salem and towards themselves, too. Eventually, the play gets crucial around the ending when Proctor determines his prophecy with a suspenseful decision. Who passes the test of conquering dishonesty and foolishness? The answer can be simple to evaluate, yet the answer can be hard if one reading this is both dishonest and foolish.
One theme of The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, shows one how dishonesty cannot save all. In Act I, page 22 of The Crucible, John Proctor, the protagonist of the play, demanded Abigail, “…wipe it out of mind. We never touched…” John Proctor cheated on his wife, Elizabeth, with Abigail Williams; he did not want to go to court for lechery. In fact, Elizabeth was sick and distant from him. To John, she, “…counted [herself] so plain.” (Miller 127) Right after Mr. Proctor told Abby to forget about what they did, she quoted, “aye, but we did.” (Miller 22) At the same time, Proctor quoted, “aye, but we did not.” (Miller 22) Next, on page 94, in Act III of The Crucible, Mary Warren, the servant of John and Elizabeth Proctor, confessed, “[she] did…” when Deputy Governor Danforth asked, “…[she] sat in [his] court, callously lying when [she] knew that people would hang by [her] evidence?...” To point out, Mary Warren did not want to charge murder on Abigail because, “she’ll kill [her] for saying that!” (Miller 76) Meanwhile, Proctor stated, “[he] will bring [her] guts into her mouth…” if she does not defend him in court. (Miller 76) In The Crucible, on Act IV, page 129, Rebecca Nurse, the wife of Francis Nurse, affirmed, “…it is a lie… how many [she] damn [herself?]” After Danforth pleaded “…will you confess yourself, Goody Nurse?” As an illustration, Deputy Governor Danforth pleaded to Mrs. Nurse twice about admitting to taking part of the conspiracy; he knew she kept on lying about the conspiracy so he adduced, “…[she] surely [saw] it profit nothin’ to keep [the] conspiracy any further.” (Miller 129) Proctor acknowledged how he contributed himself to the Devil’s service. When Danforth asked Proctor if he ever saw Rebecca Nurse with the Devil, he said no, lying about Mrs. Nurse seeing the Devil. On balance, Abu Bakr once said, “the greatest truth is honesty, and the greatest falsehood is dishonesty.” Stating that dishonesty cannot save all, look at the outcome of John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Rebecca Nurse.
The other theme of The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, shows one how foolishness never ages when born. In Act I, page 40 and 41 of The Crucible, Abigail Williams, an accuser in the Salem Witch Trials, exclaimed, “[Tituba] made [her] do it! She made Betty do it… She [made] her drink blood... [send] her spirit on [her] in church… [laughed] at prayers… [dreamed] corruptions…” Abigail said, “we danced” to the girls. (Miller 19) Significantly, all of the Girls took part of the fiasco. Henceforth, she told the Girls, “[they] breathed a word, or the edge of a word, about the other thing, [she] [would]…bring a pointy reckoning that would shudder [them].” (Miller 19) Later, Abby unintelligently threatened the Girls because she did not want any other person to know about their actions. When Mrs. Putnam entered with Tituba after Reverend Hale interrogated her, she immediately blamed Tituba for the actions they committed and other activities brought upon Abby herself. Next, on page 70, in Act II of The Crucible, Ezekiel Cheever, a character in the play, uncertainly declared, “why, a poppet --- a poppet may signify--- Now, [Elizabeth] come with me…” John Proctor asked Mr. Cheever “what [signified] a poppet.” (Miller 70) Sooner or later, Cheever started to answer the question, but he intentionally switched topics to save himself from explaining a question he did not know the answer to. Every time he was asked what a poppet was, he would timidly explain what a poppet was. At this instant, Cheever went after Elizabeth for his first excuse. Immediately, he pulled out a needle from the poppet for his second excuse. Since the needle caught everyone’s attention, Cheever did not have to explain what a poppet was, presenting foolishness in front of everybody. In The Crucible, on Act III, page 79, Deputy Governor Danforth, a grave man in his sixties, quoted, “do you take it upon yourself to determine what this court shall believe and what it shall set aside?” As one can see, Danforth said this to Giles Corey. To elaborate on what Danforth quoted, he basically told Giles that the court can believe whoever they want to believe no matter who was innocent, guilty, right, or wrong rather than the person who happened to be innocent, guilty, right, or wrong. Under the circumstances, Mr. Corey was not aware that, “… [Salem General Court] is the highest court of the supreme government of [the] province…” (Miller 79) When Danforth received “disrespect” from Giles Corey, he felt that he had to mention how he belonged in the highest court of the supreme government, hoping that what he stated would intimidate Mr. Corey. Describing daft situations is Danforth because he felt that since he was a “supreme judge,” he had uncontrollable powers, meaning he can take advantage of anybody and any situation possible. As can be seen, Alfred Lord Tennysone once said, “sin is too stupid to see beyond itself.” Specifying how foolishness never ages when born, as soon as foolishness was presented in the play, it never left the play from beginning to end.
One interaction of The Crucible, a play about the Salem Witch Trials, shows one how the consequence of each word can be the same. In Act IV, page 129 of The Crucible, Rebecca Nurse, a well-respected woman in the community, evilly bellowed to Mr. Proctor, “Oh, John--- God send his mercy on you!” Shortly, Proctor admitted to what he did, showing honesty; Nurse kept lying, thinking she could get away with the crime. Certainly, Mrs. Nurse showed stupidity on what she said. God should not send mercy on Proctor’s soul just because he told the truth! On page 17, in Act I of The Crucible, Abigail Williams, one of the main characters in the play, commanded, “No, he’ll be comin’ up. Listen, now; if they be questioning us, tell them we danced--- I told him as much already. By all means, they did not dance! First, the Girls baked a witch cake and fed it to a dog. Second, they made sacrifices and conjured spirits with their base attitudes present, doing more in the woods than anywhere else. Moreover, the calamity committed got them under deeper waters; Abigail claimed to tell Reverend Parris as much as she could. Furthermore, the intimation hinted in her quote exhibited her stupidity. As a result, the more one tells, the more one knows and the closer they get to the truth. Dealing with two different themes like dishonesty and foolishness can compare and contrast. For the most part, the way they are expressed in the play created them to display the same result on every character in the drama.
The other interaction of The Crucible, a play about the Salem Witch Trials, shows one how the more foolishness is present, the more dishonesty forms. In Act I, page 18 of The Crucible, Abigail Williams, a 17-year-old teenage girl, forcefully said, “Betty, you never say that again! You will never---…” In brief, Abby committed witchcraft and other deceitful crimes, affecting the people of the city; she presented stupidity because she knew she committed the crimes, so she lied about the crimes. At that point, Abby lied about drinking blood and not telling Reverend Parris about what happened. Her “foolishness role” went into effect right then and there. In the course of time, dishonesty played a role in the situation she happened to be in with Betty. On page 42, in Act I of The Crucible, Tituba, one of the Girls in the play, blurted, “I don’t compact with no Devil!” Obviously, Reverend Parris knew that she was lying; he threatened to whip her to death if she did not tell the truth. Additionally, Tituba told Reverend Hale that she did not mess with the Devil because he accused her of enlisting children to the Devil, expressing dishonesty to him and herself. During Act IV of the paly, Tituba informed Marshal Herrick how the Devil was a “pleasureman” in Barbados; likewise, he sang and danced there. Correspondingly, the Devil was also known as “a sweet man” to the people in Barbados, too. Forming the theme is dishonesty and foolishness. Given these points, the way the two themes construct among one another creates the play’s atmosphere, making The Crucible a notorious drama.
How do these themes impact the overall drama? All in all, they impact the overall drama by revealing a little bit of the theme among every character in the play. Although a couple of characters strongly represented the two themes, the themes permeated the play via characters in small portions to reach out to all of the characters, containing both dishonesty and foolishness in them. In any event, this impact has been felt throughout history because EVERYBODY has these two thematic characteristics existing in them. In essence, we all have good and bad characteristics in us; clearly, the bad characteristics are statistically lying and stupidity. Therefore, today, we should overcome deceit and stupidity. In conclusion, sin is the product of the combination of deceit and stupidity, emphasizing the negative side of The Crucible. To take into consideration, one should try their best to surmount the disease of dishonesty and foolishness. If this does not illustrate any practice, the future will be an abyss in our lives; consequently, we will have a deep, bottomless chasm of lies, idiots, and sins.
