Good and Evil in "The Crucible"
Good and Evil in "The Crucible"
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible John Proctor, the main character, struggles with guilt. Arthur Miller has contributed many scenarios of good versus evil, as well as the characters that generally possess these feelings and intentions (Bigsby 48). Each character has either a good or bad intention in the play often switching from good to evil (Bigsby 48).
Mary denying any witchcraft then saying that John Proctor was the devil himself or people seeing Elisabeth Proctor as a good woman, then evil because they think she made a compact with the devil (Alter 60). The town sees the girls (who actually dance, chant and get caught running naked in the woods at the start) as good, not evil for doing so (61). This could because they are deflecting their punishment for dancing by convicting many women and saying they are witches, except they are only convicting the women they do not like (61). John Proctor, his wife and others convicted of witchcraft are seen as the evil people by the public and punished if they do not confess to compacting with the devil (61). So if they confessed to compacting with the devil, they would be lying. Instead they were hung for saying they were innocent to witchcraft charges (62).
In the above case the people who are good and people who are evil have switched identities evil is seen as good and good seen as evil. In the play, the center of evil is Abigail Williams the niece of Parris (Budick 89). She has an affair with John Proctor while working for the Proctors, and also she committed many acts against the Puritan religion. She lies many times and seems to like it when people are sent to hang. From lying she is given power and the more power she gets the more confident she becomes. But when her own friend starts to destroy her control she turns against her. She uses evil actions disguised as good to get attention (90). Therefore, the viewers see Abigail as the evil character in the play but what the characters in the play think is different (92).
Although John Proctor is convicted of compacting with the devil and became a lecher with Abigail, he is seen as the center of all that is good. An innocent man who is trying to stop a load of nonsense...