Human Nature in "The Crucible"

In Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible," human nature is displayed through events and characters in mostly negative ways.  "The Crucible" was published in 1953, which was only fifty-nine years ago.  In the big picture, fifty-nine years really is not that long of a time period.  The sad thing is that even though it was more than half the span of a person's life, some of the same instances still occur today.  The biggest thing in the play that I noticed is lying.  Lying is done by everyone in the world.  When you are in a situation where you may be punished, you want to remove yourself from the spotlight.  Instead of being honest and sharing the truth, they project the problem onto someone else.  This case right here was exactly what happened in "The Crucible."

"The Crucible" shows that the consequence of lying about witchcraft leads to the death of innocent people.  Many people in the town of Salem are blaming and projecting the accusation of being witches onto each other, when the whole thing is just a lie.  "Betty: staring too: I saw George Jacobs with the Devil!  I saw Goody Howe with the Devil" (Miller 48).  This quote shows an example of what I just stated.  When you are being blamed for something, all you want to do is to turn it onto someone else.  Betty and Abigail did just this.  No one was actually a "witch" but because one person thought someone was a witch, everyone thought someone else was.  

Abigail is one of the characters who had the worst habit of lying.  She is privately taking vengeance against Elizabeth Proctor because she wants John Proctor all to herself.   To get her way, she makes up events that will set up Elizabeth into looking like she is guilty.  For example, in Act II, Mary Warrens comes back from the witch trials with a home made present for Elizabeth.  Mary made her a doll with a needle in the middle of it.  Later unbeknownst to her, Abigail was found with a needle in her abdomen.  The marshal accused Mary Warrens of witchcraft and somehow got the needle placed into Abigail's abdomen.  Abigail of course set up the plan along with Mary's help to make Elizabeth look guilty.  This act of lying sent Elizabeth to jail.

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