Throughout history there have been many great citizens, from Jesus to Martin Luther King, who have been willing to risk their own lives in the pursuit of liberty for all. These are the people who do not ignorantly submit to an unjust rule and instead follow their own conscience. Giles Corey in The Crucible observed the corruption in Salem society and would play no part in it, which resulted in his death at the hands of the oppressors. When people resist unjust rules, it brings others to the same realization to fight for their moral conscience, and in this resistance it truly can inspire and improve society. Not only is it appropriate to detect unjust rules, but people have an obligation to resist these unjust rules in the interest of the greater
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This concept in clear in Salem based The Crucible, amongst characters such as Giles Corey and Reverend Hale. These are just a few of the courageous members of Salem society who made formal opposition to the unjust accusations and killings due to claims of witchcraft. In Jean Marie Bonnet’s “Society vs. the Individual in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible” she writes, “Confessing a lie is the new institutionalized type of social adjustment as well as a safeguard for life.” This quote explains how these corrupt institutions hold captive the will of their subjects. It is a matter of evoking fear, that people have no choice but to lie in favor of the institution. But those who resist the social adjustment of blindly supporting an unjust rule are the ones that take people out of fearing for their lives. Giles Corey refused to confess the name of a man that had wronged him, because he knew that the man would be hung for it. Elizabeth Proctor explains to John Proctor “Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay” (pg 135). The results of Giles Corey’s death display the Yin and the Yang of resistance. His protest cost him his life, but he also saves the life of another man and increased the drive of others to display the same resistance. There are many people who will lie and thus fuel the torch of whatever social injustice is occurring, but the greater people are those who are willing to lay down themselves to put out that
This concept in clear in Salem based The Crucible, amongst characters such as Giles Corey and Reverend Hale. These are just a few of the courageous members of Salem society who made formal opposition to the unjust accusations and killings due to claims of witchcraft. In Jean Marie Bonnet’s “Society vs. the Individual in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible” she writes, “Confessing a lie is the new institutionalized type of social adjustment as well as a safeguard for life.” This quote explains how these corrupt institutions hold captive the will of their subjects. It is a matter of evoking fear, that people have no choice but to lie in favor of the institution. But those who resist the social adjustment of blindly supporting an unjust rule are the ones that take people out of fearing for their lives. Giles Corey refused to confess the name of a man that had wronged him, because he knew that the man would be hung for it. Elizabeth Proctor explains to John Proctor “Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay” (pg 135). The results of Giles Corey’s death display the Yin and the Yang of resistance. His protest cost him his life, but he also saves the life of another man and increased the drive of others to display the same resistance. There are many people who will lie and thus fuel the torch of whatever social injustice is occurring, but the greater people are those who are willing to lay down themselves to put out that