Essays
The Crucible Forgiveness
The Healing Power Of Forgiveness – The Gift of Reconciliation
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
—Mahatma Gandhi
Forgiveness is a process of inner healing. For most of the people in The Crucible, they did not need to necessarily forgive others; but forgive themselves. The Crucible is a story of mass hysteria in a period of time in which men dominated women.
However, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Procter as two women with drastic roles to play. John Procter is a man who has great influence over the people of Salem. They speak to him because he is a man of truth and integrity. There are many other characters in the novel although these three stuck out in my mind the most. I have definitely forgiven people in my life; but as a Christian I know I cannot forget.
Arthur Miller portrayed forgiveness in The Crucible in a way I had never thought possible.
There were many characters in the novel, but the three that appeared to be most important were John Procter, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Procter. John Procter was a farmer in his mid 30’s who was married to Elizabeth Procter. The Procter’s lived in the outskirts of town and were, for the most part, good Christians. John was a very proud man, who was considered a leader by many of the townspeople. John Procter’s one mistake was having an affair with their servant Abigail Williams. Although John confessed the affair to his wife, she never fully forgave him.
Abigail Williams was around 17 years old and was a very misleading girl. She was the leader of a group of girls in falsely accusing many innocent people of witchcraft. In all actuality, Abigail just wanted Elizabeth dead because she wanted John. Another reason that she wanted Elizabeth dead is because she had been fired from being the Procter’s servant for so long. Abigail knew that Elizabeth had been catching on that she loved John and the only way she could have John was if Elizabeth was dead. If Elizabeth had just forgiven John of his lechery with Abigail and then moved away, none of the Salem Witch Trials would have ever happened.
That event had sparked the following events that were soon going to occur.
My personal reflection of forgiveness is when you forget about the past, no longer wanting to hurt those who hurt us, and moving on. In my life, I have experienced many instances in which I have had to forgive but not forget. For instance, sometimes my friends are dumb and they do low things but I know that they are my friends and I have to forgive them. Once, my two best friends and I were having a fight over a guy. We all liked him and it turned out he liked me.
So, my friends all started to hate me because he liked me! I couldn’t do anything but tell the guy, “You know what, I can’t do this to my friends.” My friends forgave me and I think I was the biggest person in this whole situation because I could have easily gone out with the guy and left my friends behind, but I didn’t, I left him and was friends with my friends again. God wants us to remember, to learn from our hurts, to grow in wisdom. To forgive is to forget, but only in the sense of not remembering to “get even,” of not harboring a grudge, of not continually bringing up the past hurt. Our life experiences are not to be forgotten but remembered, and used as the basis for the decisions we make. Forgiveness to me is very important and is essential in my family, friends, and other relationships.
The Crucible is a novel of mass hysteria and Arthur Miller demonstrates this very well with all his characters. Each one is very distinct in its own way and he also distinguishes each one very well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and it showed forgiveness in people in ways I have never seen .
