Pressure and Morals in The Crucible Essay

Q.1) Pressure and morals in Crucible?

A.1) Crucible- a severe test, a hard trial or also could be define as a pot for melting metals. A severe trail could be as other then a physical it also could be mentally a severe trial like person verses self. In The Crucible, Miller reflects the theme that pressure can force people from there can force their morals. The characters in The Crucible have morals that they must up hold to be accepted into the town and church. It is a struggle to keep these values when there are moral hazards like desires, greed, hate, and obsession.

Morals are conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior. In The Crucible most characters believed in morals. Salem is mostly run on what the church's morals are. Each character must abide by these rights and wrongs in order to be accepted into the church and town. During the time that this play has taken place the church and court were inseparable. So if the judges did not think you were right in "God's eyes" then you were proven guilty. And with dynamic characters such as John Proctor who strongly believe in his own morals may find it easy to have his life affected by this rule. Then there are our more characters like Mary Warren, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Paris, and Reverend John Hale who base their morals on the church and town they are more accepted or in "their place".

When pressure is pushed onto somebody they can be forced further from there morals and this can lead them from their truths. One character that is a victim of pressure is Mary Warren. Mary Warren has many pressures from her peers and her peers are a big influence to her because she is a teenager. Mary Warren wouldn't have been in the trails as a huge problem but she was drag when Abigail framed her with a "voodoo" doll for Elizabeth Proctor. Mary Warren really gets dragged in the controversy, when the girls were in the courtroom and were acting as if an evil spirit cast out by Mary warren posed them, by repeating every thing she had said (Miller 115). Through out of this play Mary Warren had tried to keep her morals in tacked, but when that kind of pressure was put on her she broke just her morals.

John proctor seemed to have the most pressure to keep his morals intact because of his pride; he had showed the strongest amount of will power to preserve them. Right from when readers first meet proctor Miller shows him as the troublemaker or rebel of the play. John Proctor in the past has already committed adultery with Abigail, which is not acceptable in the Bible and in the town of Salem. When Proctor and Mrs. Proctor was in at the court already cracked his morals by confessing that he and Abigail had had relations, but this would not stop Proctor because his pride would not let him stop here. Proctor has will power this is some thing that Mary Warren lacked in. John Proctor showed he the amount of will power when he ripped up his confession paper. But when his morals were broken he kept his pride and showed that he had and told why he could not the paper pinned on the church doors when he cried, "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" (Miller 143) This powerful statement also shows that he had broken his morals by lying. Proctor would not let that paper get posted outside of the church doors because Proctor wants to keep the Honor of his name and the honor of his family. He did not what his wife and children growing older getting mocked.

With all of these problems and confusion one thing could happen: Chaos. In The Crucible there is one form of chaos that most people over look, and that chaos that the town is in. As the town gets pulled into the witch trails, and as a result more and more accusations that people are witches, accusing the innocent for normal this that people do everyday and just noticing today because the belief of witches in one town. For example, when Giles Corey who says to hale that cannot pray when his wife is around and when she is gone he can pray again. "It discomforts me! Last night - mark this - I tried and tired and could not say my prayers. And then she closes her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly - mark this - I could pray again!"(Miller 40). This causes an innocent woman to be brought to a pointless trail. This is type of chaos is the result of all of the Pressure.

As some of the critics believe there are some different parts of pressure. "Pressure lead Proctor from being against evil to being the cause."(Bhatia 254) The start of this pressure came from Mary Warren who was receiving it from Abigail. Abigail had framed Mary Warren when she saw her leave a needle in a poppet that he was going to give to Elizabeth Proctor and had said that it was a `Voodoo' doll. Then when Mary was put on trial and she had all the pressure on her she had to turn it to someone Else so she switches it to next person, Proctor. This makes all the pressure turn to proctor and the force gets to the point were Proctor can't handle it and he panics and gives in to the accusations. These were the sequences of things that led proctor to take that chance.

What had happened in the crucible could have happened in the world today main in the younger people mainly the teenagers. Teenagers are the must gullible to get stuck in the depths of peer pressure. And not just peer pressure, any pressure. For example most high school students consider that the most important thing are clothes, television, looks, and music. With all of these thing come pressure of teenagers wondering of they are fitting in, wondering if they are in the right club, of they are talking to the right people. Most of these things are the same things that Mary Warren is faced with in The Crucible. This is why most of the teenaged readers may understand what these characters are feeling. Because teenagers are more exposed to pressure.

Also in John Proctor's case teens may also see eye to eye with him because the way he fights back is the way he would fights back with the town and court is the same way a teenager would rebel against a parent or teacher if wrongly accused.