The Crucible: The Invisible Connection of Justice to Mercy and Forgiveness

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Justice has this invisible string that ties itself with mercy and forgiveness. In The Crucible, there are a lot of innocent people who die due to false accusations that dont receive any justice from the Salem court. They were sentenced to death because of accusations of them being witches and practicing witchcraft. They were killed without having any definite evidence that proves the courts claims. Justice often quarrels between law and peoples rights. Real justice will not occur if theres no mercy. With no mercy, people are going to forget how to be kind and forgiving. As seen with multiple characters, justice is difficult to achieve without having mercy and forgiveness.

Theres a lot of definitions that can fall under the word justice. It can be defined as lawfulness or rightfulness. In The Crucible, justice here focuses more on the lawful side as Danforth, the Deputy Governor of the Province, decides the punishment for peoples actions. When the rumor of witchcraft started to spread around, the towns gone wild. Theyve been putting innocent people in jail without any proven evidence. If those who got taken away don’t confess, the court has the power to hang them. When Giless and Proctors wife get taken away, they try to prove their innocence and ask the governor for real justice. They fail because Danforth wont accept no depositions, which sounds pretty ironic because hes supposed to let people speak, have their perspectives, and listen to what they have to say to the court. This only proves that in the process of attaining justice, with or without having your rights, its hard to question what kind of power the law and having an authority holds since they can pretty much do anything to you and decide for you whether you like it or not.

Justice without mercy equals brutality plus cruelty. It creates conflict and chaos between individuals. In The Crucible, Danforth doesnt show mercy towards the people in jail and those who are trying to free them. Since he has a narrow-mind, people have trouble fighting for justice because he accepts no depositions and judges nothing, which means he likes to stick with his principles and doesnt let others have a chance to speak out their side of the story. Everyone thinks its an injustice not to be able to give a statement to prove their innocence. They find it unfair that Danforth doesnt take any single plea for pardon and postponement. Characters like Giles Corey and John Proctor ended up losing their lives while fighting for justice and truth. People who fight for justice wont win since the government favors the law more than peoples rights. In order for justice to be achieved, mercy must exist.

When mercy and justice fail to correspond with each other, it affects individuals who declare and seek justice. It transforms people and it changes their minds. In The Crucible, an example of this is Danforth thinks that Proctors extravagance in defense of his wife is only a part of his tenderness. However, thats not the case because he is telling the truth and the governor just doesnt wanna believe any of it. Another example is when Proctor and Abigail commit adultery. Even though they both contributed to this deed, only one of them got punished for it. Its discriminatory how Danforth forgives Abigail, but sentences Proctor to death. This shows that having too much pride and power can result in forgetting how to forgive and reconsider other peoples mistakes.

As shown above, theres no doubt that real justice cant possibly happen if it wasnt for mercy and forgiveness. All of them are linked together and work with one another. The world is cruel and unfair, so there will always be some kind of injustice in life. Things might not be in the direction you want them to go; they can either follow a straight path or a curved path. There are times when people dont receive the justice they asked for, but it all happens for a reason. Bad things occur to teach us a lesson and to balance out our life decisions. Even with all these things considered, blessings still come to those who wait.

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