Truth in the Crucible
Truth In The Crucible
The play “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller contains many underlying truths about human behavior and thought. One of these truths that seems particularly relevant to the play reads, “To explain the unexplainable, the human mind reaches into a supernatural domain.” This statement is one that explains much of the dilemma that occurs in the play and in the real town of Salem Massachusetts.
The aforementioned truth is exemplified even in the very earliest stages of the play. In the beginning, it comes only as an explanation to the mysterious behavior of one small child. This first example occurs when a young girl in Salem named Berry is found to be unable to speak or walk, and the doctors cannot find any known medicine for her condition. This prompts other characters almost immediately begin to assume something else is occurring. Their inability to comprehend the true nature of the situation leads them to deduce that the true cause of their woes were something that nobody could control, the supernatural, and more specifically, witchcraft. They picked this supernatural cause to blame for their problem, and eventually managed to use it in order to hold the minds of the entire town in a common fear of the supernatural. Personally I believe that the girls, led by Abby, were merely using the supernatural explanation to give themselves power and drive them up among the ranks of the town. I would imagine that they did not truly believe that they were being attacked by spirits of others.
The next instance of using the supernatural to explain the unexplainable in Salem came during the court proceedings. In these proceedings, all of the girls who instigated the witch trials would pretend to faint and get cold whenever they were trying to accuse someone of being a witch. Again, since the coldness could not be easily explained by the logic or science of the day, the townspeople, and more importantly, judges, naturally assumed that it must be caused
The play “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller contains many underlying truths about human behavior and thought. One of these truths that seems particularly relevant to the play reads, “To explain the unexplainable, the human mind reaches into a supernatural domain.” This statement is one that explains much of the dilemma that occurs in the play and in the real town of Salem Massachusetts.
The aforementioned truth is exemplified even in the very earliest stages of the play. In the beginning, it comes only as an explanation to the mysterious behavior of one small child. This first example occurs when a young girl in Salem named Berry is found to be unable to speak or walk, and the doctors cannot find any known medicine for her condition. This prompts other characters almost immediately begin to assume something else is occurring. Their inability to comprehend the true nature of the situation leads them to deduce that the true cause of their woes were something that nobody could control, the supernatural, and more specifically, witchcraft. They picked this supernatural cause to blame for their problem, and eventually managed to use it in order to hold the minds of the entire town in a common fear of the supernatural. Personally I believe that the girls, led by Abby, were merely using the supernatural explanation to give themselves power and drive them up among the ranks of the town. I would imagine that they did not truly believe that they were being attacked by spirits of others.
The next instance of using the supernatural to explain the unexplainable in Salem came during the court proceedings. In these proceedings, all of the girls who instigated the witch trials would pretend to faint and get cold whenever they were trying to accuse someone of being a witch. Again, since the coldness could not be easily explained by the logic or science of the day, the townspeople, and more importantly, judges, naturally assumed that it must be caused