The Consequences Of Lying In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Lying is something that all humans do. Whether you lie for good or for bad, it is in our human nature to do so. People lie for many reasons, a lie can be big or small. For example in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, it shows the consequences of lying. The characters, Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams, Samuel Parris, and Thomas Putnam all lie for different reasons. Some characters like Elizabeth Proctor lie to protect someone while the other characters did so to benefit themselves. These lies ultimately lead to many problems in the story to arise, including the unjust imprisonment and deaths of many innocent people.
The first lie in the book begins with a teenage girl, Abigail Williams, her lies spark the rumors of witchcraft and
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Once the people of Salem start to believe Abigail’s lies, the Salem witch trial start. The trials are held to prove if somebody is innocent of witchcraft or not. More and more innocent people are being accused of witchcraft. Since many of the townspeople believes in witches and other supernaturals, it makes the court extremely biased toward the accusers. The court believes in everything the girls say. The convicted are being found guilty with no proof at all. Using this to his advantage, Thomas Putnam makes his daughter, Ruth Putnam, falsely accuse his neighbor, John Jacobs of witchcraft. Giles Corey who is a well respected man, finds out about this. He tells the judge, Thomas Danforth. He claims that Putnam made his daughter lie so he can take all of Jacob's property after he's been accused and hanged. When the judge asks Putnam of this, he simply replies, “It is a lie” (Miller 182). This lie ultimately leads to Giles Corey being killed later on. The judges do not believe Giles. They say he has no evidence so they convict him of perjury, which is lying to the court and he gets put into jail. Giles is then tortured until he answers their questions about witchcraft. If Giles admits to doing witchcraft, he will be jailed but if he does not, he will be hanged. He knows that his land would be taken if he was jailed or hanged so he refuses to answer, wanting to pass his land to his kids. They torture him by crushing him with rocks until he finally

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