The subject of human nature is a very prevalent motif throughout "The Crucible". One reason for this attribution is that the story takes place in Massachusetts, where everybody has to be Puritan or they are most likely exiled (Divine). The people are even questioned about their allegiance to the religion, and it is usually taken too far. In Act Two Proctor is interrogated about his knowledge of the Ten Commandments (Miller). He is clearly religious man in the first place, but he has a bit of trouble. It then comes to the last commandment which is actually ironic and brings up the first example of human nature. The last commandment was adultery, and his wife had to fill it in for him. The ironic part of this is that Proctor broke this commandment. It is also somewhat human nature to break this one. This also leads to another illustration of human nature. As Abigail is brought into the court in Act Three Proctor says that he did commit adultery with her and his wife is aware, but Abigail denies it. They call in his wife to ask her about this. Because of Abigail’s human nature she denies that her husband did anything to protect his reputation. She does not want anything bad to happen to her husband, so she lies to protect him. Of course Proctor wanted her to tell the truth, so now something that could have been resolved is now turned against him. All he has left his Mary Warren, but she soon turns against him. Abigail starts to say that Mary is using her spirit to make a bird attack her. Everyone except for Proctor and Hale seems to believe it. Eventually Mary has to give in and play along or something horrible could happen to her, so she claims that Proctor was working with the Devil to put her under his spell. Of course all of this falls under human nature including what Abigail is doing. Abigail wants to protect herself, but she also seems to almost be having a little fun with it. She is getting too powerful which makes Mary give in and join her side. Abigail is getting almost everybody on her side because she is a charming young girl, and people are more likely to believe someone like that. Parris sides with her because she is his niece, and usually people are prone to protect their family members. The next bit of human nature comes from Danforth. He is a man of the court, so he has to be impartial. He shows that it is human nature to attribute something that cannot be explained by logic or reason as something supernatural (Miller). This is an overbearing theme throughout history because people have always been using God or gods to explain things that they do not understand. People who did not understand the sun declared that it was some sort of otherworldly being. If the people did not understand how thunder came then they would say it was a god. Basically people have been using godly beings to explain the unexplainable forever. Human nature will preside over man forever unless we can find some unfathomable way to conquer it.
Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.
Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.
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