The Crucible - Act III Human Nature

Ah, human nature. This aspect of literature is something I feel as if I grasp very well. Human nature tends to pop up in ultimately every piece of literature we read in school. Studying, analyzing, and applying the knowledge I know is always interesting, because I feel as if I am simply scrutinizing myself. In The Crucible, human nature is most evident throughout the play itself.
When someone is forced to endure a certain situation that is very difficult, their true colors (reference to last blog) tend to show. The characters in Arthur Miller’s play seem to show their true colors when they are pressed constantly about the witchcraft running rampant in the village. When people started to accuse someone of witchcraft, it seemed the cycle never ended. Nobody wanted to be the one’s accused, so to avoid this, people began to blame everyone else to keep themselves safe. This is yet another example of human nature. Humans will go to a very outward extent to protect themselves. In The Crucible, the girls denied on some occasions that they had nothing to do with the witchcraft. Soon, the accusations became too much, and they caved. Now, whether they actually did it or not, human nature is demonstrated to a very high degree at this point. Step 1: blame others to avoid being blamed. Step 2: when being accused in the beginning, save yourself as much as possible. Step 3: when the blame becomes too much, just admit to anything you are accused of so the accusations will go away. These three steps are very common throughout the entire play. Human nature has a way of repeating itself, and this is shown through the characters that end up taking the blame for things that they were more than likely innocent of.
John Proctor ends up confessing to his affair with Abigail, something that in itself was very reputable (Miller 110). Elizabeth attempts to save herself from prosecution by claiming that she is pregnant (Miller 92). Abigail goes on a rampage of names of those who she says were involved with the devil (Miller 48). These are all examples of the “Steps to Human Nature” in The Crucible specifically. It is interesting how Miller demonstrated this throughout the play. I think that the witch trials were merely a result of human nature in itself. People became very gullible, lives were destroyed, and in the end reputation became important.
We as humans have a way of doing things in a similar way, hence the topic of human nature. It is our instinct to save ourselves in situations such as the witch trials in The Crucible. People did what in reality, they thought was best.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.