In the play The Crucible, deceit is often present but what motivated Arthur Miller to include it that much? The Crucible is a story full of lies and accusations, what effect does this have on the play? By including deceit, it adds a certain twist to the story that can be acquired in no other way.The book has accusations that really shine light on who a person is on the inside rather than what they are showing on the outside. Lying really shows a person’s dignity and self pride. Through lying they show they are more concerned about their own image rather than being truthful. The constant fear is lurking around the lies causes people to make these rash decisions to in attempts to not show who they really are. In The Crucible there are accusations, false truths such as lies, and fear of getting caught in these the lies that have been told. These themes are seen very frequently in the story, and have a strong impact on the story.
Accusations are seen very quite often in The Crucible. Arthur Miller includes accusation to show the type of character that a person is on the inside not just the outside. Abigail is a character that is quite frequently seen accusing others of witchcraft. In one scene she accuses Tituba of making her summon the devil and perform witchcraft even though she did it willingly. She is trying to get out of the lie she has trapped herself in and in order to do that she accuses Tituba and says “ She sends her spirits on me! She makes me laugh at prayer!”(Miller 1154). Abigail sees that she can make it out of this situation without getting in trouble by blaming others and being “God’s Servant”. In the same act, she blames more people in order to have them forget what she has done and focus on anyone but herself. Abigail is starting to throw out random names that pop into her head like, “ I saw Martha Bellows with the devil!”( The Crucible 1157). She is confessing of her sins and comes clean even though she is showing her true self.
Lying is seen frequently in the crucible. The author included lying and false truths because it shows a person’s dignity and self esteem. It shows that they can choose to lie but be an honest and truthful person or they can lie and better their own lives but destroy others. Abigail sees that if she lies and says that she knows who the other witches are, it will take the blame off of her but destroy others. Abigail lies and says “ I want to open myself! I want the light of god! I danced with the devil, I saw sarah good with the devil!”(Miller 1156). Abigail is lying about this statement, because people like her service she can find the other witches but in reality she is blaming random people. Abigail tells numerous lies that don’t sound real such as, “ I don’t know sir the devil has his numerous witches.”(Miller 1155). She is spouting nonsense to keep her self image.
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Fear is the emotion following false accusations and lying. People are afraid that they will get caught in their lie and be punished for lying. When people fear getting caught they often lie more to cover it up a little bit more like when Abigail fears that they know that she danced with the devil willingly so she comes up with reasons as to how Tituba made her do it. In one scene she is so afraid that she starts to threaten others in order to not get caught. She is seen saying, “ Now look all of you we danced! And Tituba conjured Ruth putnams dead sister and that is all!”(Miller 1137). She is threatening the other girls that want to confess in fear that the punishment will be death. How horrible is it that someone would rather ruin another’s life rather than just confess their own wrongdoings. In another scene Abigail is being pressed about her dancing in the woods with the rat in the pot and its blood in the pot, and out of fear of being prosecuted she says “ That jumped in! We never put that in!”(Miller 1152). She is afraid of how bad that looks and the evidence they have against her so she makes up lies to get her out of that trouble.
Deceit in The Crucible was added to show characters in a different light, some would say even their true selves. The accusations, lies, and fear of being prosecuted was all put into the plot of the crucible in order to help give the story a twist for one and to show character differently then we see them. The author included deceit to show today’s society also and how we learn from our mistakes but history repeats itself. Like today, people are worried about self image and our portrayal towards others, when in reality it’s the way people see themselves.
