Monday, September 12, 2011

Reflection #5

     Throughout all of The Crucible, human nature has been pretty evident. Some of the human nature is positive in a sense, but there is also some negative human nature flaws. Humans are really interesting to me. I love psychology because I get to learn a lot about the way human brains work. Throughout the witch trials, the husbands are all trying to defend their wives (Miller III). That is human nature. You protect what is yours and what you love. That would be considered positive human nature, in my opinion, because you are trying to help someone. Also in Act III, Proctor defends himself (Miller 117). That could go along with the protection that I mentioned previously. Proctor was defending himself because that is just what us humans do. When someone wrongly accuses you, you tend to defend yourself. I think if you do not defend yourself, then you are probably just a coward. But in the case of some of the women in The Crucible, they started to believe that they were actually possessed by the devil (Miller 79). That is also human nature. When you hear something so much, you start to believe it. Even though you may have initially flat-out denied it, once it is said so much, it makes you question yourself. Human nature that we think of today is essentially the positive kind, and that makes sense. We do not fault ourselves, so going along with human nature, we do not think that we do any wrong.
     Although we think of the more positive side of human nature, there are definitely plenty of negatives. In The Crucible, Abigail is the definition of negative human nature. She is only trying to save her butt, but in doing that, she has to lie. She has accused so many innocent women of doing wrong that there is no way she could take it back (Miller 48). That is definitely negative human nature. Once you are in so deep, it is hard to turn back the right way. Mary Warren also shows some negative human nature qualities. She became an honest person and confessed that she and the rest of the girls had been lying about everything that they saw (Miller 102). That shows positive human nature because it shows that you have a conscience, and that it sometimes gets the best of you. But when very few people believe her and Abigail keeps denying the whole thing, Mary becomes so overwhelmed. She lowers herself to the rest of the girls, and she accuses Proctor of being of the devil (Miller 118). Throughout all of The Crucible, negative human nature is prominent.
     Overall, human nature is human nature. That is the best way to put it. Everyone is a human being and with being that comes human nature. It is what we do. We use our instincts. Human nature is both negative and positive in a sense, although most people do not really recognize the negative side of it. Human nature is in everyone, even if they do not think it is.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: a Play in Four Acts. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1976. Print.    

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