"The Crucible:" A Lesson Learned from Salem 1692
             Does the Salem Witch Trial from 1692 offer any modern day lesson for America?
             Often authors and playwrights use their art to teach lessons to the people who read, view, and
             enjoy their works. Often artists will use a real life event or person as the source of their work in
             order to teach about life and people. Not only do life experiences inspire great literary works,
             but the works can show weaknesses in people and communities. By examining the past,
             lessons can be learned for the benefit of future societies. The Salem Witch Trial from over 400
             years ago does offer a lesson for modern America.
             Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" depicts a fictional account of the Salem Witch Trials
             that occurred in Salem, Massachusettes in 1692. In Miller's account of the Witch Trials,
             teenager Abigail Williams uses a fancy imagination to accuse various people of Salem of
             practicing witchcraft and using their sorcery to bring her and her friends under their spell. After
             a series of trials, many people of Salem found themselves either jailed or executed because of
             the accusations made by Abigail and her friends. As Thomas Danforth, one of the judges, said,
             "Now hear me, and beguile yourselves no more. I will not receive a single plea for pardon or
             postponement. Them that will not confess will hang."
             John Proctor, the hero of "The Crucible," refuses to cooperate with the witch hunt. He
             does not admit guilt nor does he further accuse any of his friends or neighbors as being a witch.
             Instead, John Proctor accepts his death with dignity. Abigail was the source of paranoia and
             fear that swept through the village of Salem in 1692. Abigail's false accusations resulted in
             many innocent people losing their land and their lives. The people of Salem had no choice but to
             either wrongfully confess to prac...