"It were another sort that hanged till now. Rebecca Nurse is no Bridget that lived three year with Bishop before she married him. John Proctor is not Isaac Ward that drank his family to ruin."
-The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Act Four, Parris to Hathorne
What is to be considered crime? The simple, five letter word has innumerable meanings. Definitions of crime range from "an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it and for which punishment is imposed upon conviction", to simply "any offense, serious wrongdoing, or sin" ("Dictionary.com", crime definitions). Therefore, how are crimes to be justified? Should punishments be chosen based on the severity of the crime? Are all crimes equal, and should, for that reason, have the same punishment?
It is important to distinguish between two types of crime: something illegal, and something immoral. In The Crucible, the church and court were ultimately the same. Both the Church doctrine and the town’s laws were supposedly based on the Bible. Early in the play, witchcraft was named the source of two young girls’ illness. In reality, there was no witchcraft present in the town. The lie was made by Reverend Parris’s niece, Abigail, whose ulterior motive was to become John Proctor’s wife. Abigail accused many people of doing the Devil’s work. She chose to condemn people who had bad reputations in the town, people that were disliked and looked down upon in society. These innocent people were thrown in jail and later hanged while the rest of the town watched. Hathorne told Parris, “at every execution I have seen naught but high satisfaction in the town” (The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Act Four). However, when Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, two Christian and upright people, were sentenced to death, the town began to question the court’s justice. Because there was no difference between the church and court, illegal and immoral became impossible to tell apart. So, then, does it suddenly become acceptable to stand by while disreputable people like Isaac Ward and Bridget Bishop are killed? If someone has committed an immoral crime, is it alright for them to hang for an illegal crime they did not commit? If we live with this mindset, the questions again arise: is all crime equal? Should we rank crimes by degrees of seriousness? Should punishment be the same for all crime?
How can we effectively deliver justice when we all should be put in jail?
thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteand thanks for spellchecking my blog too.
your blog is short, but to the point.
it left me thinking. it makes me think of the different punishments there are for crime, from life in prison to a few days of community service.
i think crime comes in different degrees.
in The Crucible, crime was punished the only way the people knew how.
i am definately looking forward to reading more from you!
-daisyfriend.