The Crucible Act 3

As humans, we all react to situations differently because no two people are exactly alike and think exactly alike. We call this a fact of human nature. At the same time, however, there a few major reactions and observations that people make and generalize to create something called human nature. There are positive and negative forms of human nature in which people do. Sometimes things that are in our nature are not good things, such as some of the events that are occurring in The Crucible during Act III.

Throughout the witch trials, the husbands are all trying to defend their wives (Miller III). That is human nature. You protect what is yours and what you love. That would be considered positive human nature, in my opinion, because you are trying to help someone. Also in Act III, Proctor defends himself (Miller 117).  Proctor was defending himself because that is just what us humans do. When someone wrongly accuses you, you tend to defend yourself. I think if you do not defend yourself, then you are just a coward. But in the case of some of the women in The Crucible, they started to believe that they were actually possessed by the devil (Miller 79). That is also human nature. When you hear something so much, you start to believe it. Even though you may have initially denied it, once it is said so much, it makes you question it yourself. Human nature that we think of today is essentially the positive kind, and that makes sense. We do not fault ourselves, so going along with human nature, we do not think that we do any wrong.

Although we think of the more positive side of human nature, there are definitely plenty on the negative side too. In The Crucible, Abigail is the definition of negative human nature. She is only trying to save her butt, but in doing that, she has to lie. She has accused so many innocent women of doing wrong that there is no way she could take it back (Miller 48). That is definitely a form of negative human nature. Once you are in so deep, it is hard to turn back the right way. Mary Warren also shows some negative human nature qualities before she became an honest person and confessed that she and the rest of the girls had been lying about everything that they saw (Miller 102).  But when very few people believe her and Abigail keeps denying the whole thing, Mary becomes so overwhelmed. She lowers herself to the rest of the girls, and she accuses Proctor of being of the devil (Miller 118). Throughout all of The Crucible, negative human nature is also prominent.

     Overall, human nature is human nature. That is the best way to put it. Everyone is a human being and with that comes the fact of human nature. It is what we do. We use our instincts, we act the same way given different situations and cannot change that. Human nature is both negative and positive in a sense, although most people do not really recognize the negative side of it. Human nature is in everyone, even if they do not think it is.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: a Play in Four Acts. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1976. Print.