The Crucible may be old but it can still relate to our society today. The themes of love, rejection, and guilt are a common theme between The Crucible and society today. My first theme is love. In The Crucible Elizabeth and John Proctor are married. Although John had an affair with Abigail Williams at the end of the play Elizabeth forgave him. At first Elizabeth wouldn’t forgive John. John was angry she wouldn’t forgive him, he said, “Your justice would freeze beer! ” (Proctor 55 ). After Elizabeth forgave John they reaffirm their love.
Abigail Williams was jealous of Elizabeth, so she accused Elizabeth or being a witch because Abigail thought that Jon loved her and didn’t love Elizabeth. The thing that started all the hysteria in Salem was that people saw girls and Tituba dancing in the woods. Tituba was leading the girls in a love spell ritual. In today’s society love in a big theme in everyday life people make movies, books about love. Some movies like Titanic and Braveheart are about people finding love and trying to keep the people they love.
There are also dating sites like Match. om and eHarmony to help people find love. People who are religious express love to a higher being, and they hold that love really close to them. My second theme is rejection. In The Crucible there is a lot of rejection between Abigail Williams and John Proctor. After the affair between them John Proctor didn’t want anything to do with Abigail Williams and rejected her after that. Proctor didn’t just reject Abigail he also rejected Parris. Proctor claimed that he didn’t go to church because he rejected Parris’s preaching. After Proctor confessed to having an affair he stopped rejecting people.
He started to let go a little and although he was still rejected by some people he didn’t just let that bother him. Rejection happens in our world today all the time. People who commit a crime and go to jail are generally rejected by other people in society. People who are trying to become actors and actresses are rejected because other people think that they aren’t good enough. People always reject others when others fall short of their expectations. Bullying and suicide can be a result of rejection. People who get bullied are generally rejected from everyone else because they aren’t exactly like everyone else. My third theme is guilt.
In The Crucible Proctor felt guilty because he had an affair. Eventually he confessed to it but he still felt guilty because he knew that it really hurt his wife. John Hale felt guilty because he was involved with the witch hysteria. He felt guilty that innocent people were dying and he wasn’t doing anything to try and stop it. Many people accused others to being guilty or being a witch but didn’t those people were actually innocent. Guilt happens a lot in today’s world. Our court systems believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty of a crime, and is a way to help prevent the witch trials from happening again.
Attorney’s today don’t seem to carry guilt. They can defend people they know did a crime but still help them get away with it. You never really see attorney’s show guilt. Everyone in the world experiences guilt in their everyday lives. Some people do the exact same thing as John Proctor, and some people just tell a lie and feel guilty. My conclusion is that many themes that are in The Crucible are the same themes that are in our society today. The themes of love, rejection, and guilt are big parts of everyone’s life in the play and everyone’s life in our society.
