I think today, more often than we realize, we give guilt to the innocent. The title of guilty ruins someone's life. Even if they are innocent, if someone is called guilty, they still hold that title and reputation. Much like in the Crucible, people were given a guilty verdict, even though they were not. The false guilt either led to a bad reputation in the eyes of the community and the church along with loss of property, or it lead to hanging or pressed stoning. In modern society false guilt can lead to a bad reputation, distance from family, undeserved jail-time, inability to get a job, or even death.
I read an article that reminded me of the false hangings and accusations in The Crucible. The article was titled Exonerated After Execution: 12 Men (And One Women) Found Innocent After Being Put to Death. The article states that one in twenty death row inmates are later found not guilty. Some of the people the article discusses include Larry Griffin, David Wayne Spence, Leo Jones, and Gary Graham. All of these are examples of modern day witch hunts like in The Crucible. This is because these men were fasily accused, much like the people of Salem. Both accused witches and accused murderers had there lives cut short due to a false conviction.
I think both these men accused of murder and the people of Salem accused of witchcraft are examples of McCarthyism. Both were accused and convicted without proper evidence.
I think a key aspect to The Crucible is that the accused were innocent. It all resulted from a bunch of girls not wanting to get into trouble. This is an example of how not taking responsibility for one's actions can have a chain reaction that affects many people and literally takes lives. What is sad is that The Crucible is based on a actual period of time in which people's actual lives were taken by false accusations.
http://madamenoire.com/73840/exonerated-after-execution-12-men-and-one-woman-found-innocent-after-being-put-to-death/#sthash.i2uBLwrD.dpuf
I feel you are right we accuse people of many things and that we as humans some blame others because they do not want to get in trouble themselves so at the end an innocent person gets punished for something they did not do because someone else is to scared to tell the truth. This happens more often then it should and hopefully more people over time take responsibility of their actions.
ReplyDeleteyou are right, nowadays people are easily being accuse of things that we have little or no prove for. like you said these accusation effect the person in many different ways, not being able to get a job, going to jail for sometime or life and many more. people not taking responsibilities for their actions is certainly a big problem. I have a friend who was falsely accuse of something he didn't do. when to jail for about a year before they found out that he didn't commit the crime being accuse off.
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