Act Three- Human Nature

In act three the idea of peoples human nature really does come out, and not technically in a good way. The characters are put in a very stressful and hard situation/situations. This causes many upset, frantic, and unexpected behaviors to come from the characters. In act three the character of Giles Corey really begins to show his angry and protective nature. His wife, Martha Corey, is on trial for being a witch, which of course he does not believe to be true. He feels that he has legitimate evidence that his wife is not a witch. His anger comes through when he bursts into the courtroom claiming his wife innocence and makes a huge angry scene as he is drug out of the courtroom. (Miller 84) His protective nature is hidden behind all of the anger that he is giving off. For it really is human nature that when we become very protective of something, we become angry towards those who want to hurt them. For example, when your dog feels that something is threatening to you, it will most like growl, bark, or even snap at whatever it is that is a threat to you because it wants to protect you. Another character known as Mary Warren has a huge part in act three. She is the one person who can really determine Elizabeth Procter's and Martha Corey's innocence. Her human nature of fear plays a huge part in this act. Martha has a terrible fear of the devil, which is expected because her strong faith believes that the devil is all things evil. Her fear of Mr. Procter comes into play when she admits that he forced her to go there and say they were pretending. She also said that Mr. Procter threatened to kill her if she did not do as he said, the fear of him made for the chain of events that happened in act three. (Miller 118-119) Whether Mary was telling the truth, I have not yet decided. If she was not telling the truth, the fear of the court, judge, and possible jail time or hanging could have been what truly scared her into making up lies about Mr. Procter. Mr. Procter shows very similar human traits as Mr. Corey except Mr. Procter adds lying into the mix. Mr. Procter has been lying to all his peers and community about his affair with the young Abigail. He doesn't want his name to be put to shame and telling people would do just that. The truth finally comes out and his protective nature (of himself that is) comes out with a mad furry. (Miller 109-112) These few human traits such as protectiveness, anger, fear, and lying were all displayed fairly bluntly by theses characters in act three. These traits are also things that people today display both bluntly and secretly which makes it human nature to do many of these things. Be them good or be them bad.


Miller, Aurthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Group, 1976. 84-112 Print