John Proctor And David Merrill example essay topic

There are times in one's life when a person must make great sacrifices in order to do that which is morally just. John Proctor, from the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and David Merrill, from the movie "Guilty by Suspicion", which was directed by Irwin Winkler, both choose to make the morally correct decisions, and they both suffered the consequences for doing so in an era of mass hysteria. During the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, described in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, his wife, Elizabeth and many of his friends and neighbor in Salem were falsely accused of witchcraft. Elizabeth was the first of the Proctors to be accused of witchcraft.

As the husband of Elizabeth, John Proctor naturally went to court to defend his wife from the accusations of the young girls, who claimed to have been "attacked" by the accused witches. John brought Mary Warren, formerly one of the accusing girls, to the court and he tells Judge Danforth that Mary is prepared to testify that the accusations "were pretense" (89) and reverse the conviction of his wife. This directly threatens the reputation of Judge Danforth, so in attempt to save face, Judge Danforth say's "this morning your wife send me a claim in which she states that she is pregnant now... if she begin to show her natural signs, you shall have her living yet another year until she is delivered- you say your only purpose is to save your wife... Will you drop this charge?" (92). John could have made the easy choice, and simply saved his wife and walked away, but because John Proctor was a virtuous person he decided to fight to save all of the wrongly accused, and in the end he makes the ultimate sacrifice for his friends.

John tries everything to get Judge Danforth to believe the afflicted girls are lying, but to no avail. John eventually reveals his deepest secret. He explains to the court that Abigail Williams, one of the leading accusers "is a Whore!" and "she thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted" (110).

In this action, as John exclaims later "I have rung the doom of my good name" (111) and he sacrifices his honor in an attempt to save his wife. Unfortunately, all this accomplishes is to cause John's name to be added to the list of accused witches. When the day came for the execution of John Proctor, Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse, Rev Parris and Rev Hale began to try to get John Proctor to confess to witchcraft. Rev. Hale tried to get Proctor to confess simple to save his life "Life is god's most precious gift; no principle justifies the taking of it" (132). Rev Paris and Judge Danforth tried to get John Proctor to confess to save face and cast a shadow of doubt on the impeccable character of Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey, Paris said "it is a weighty name; it will strike the village that Proctor confesses" (141).

Proctor originally agreed to confess to witchcraft, but when he realized that he would hurt the image of his friends, he decided to make the hard decision and to hang for his beliefs, "I have three children- how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I have sold my friends?" (143). John Proctor hoped that his decision to hang with Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey would turn public sentiment against the trials and end the grave injustice. During the red scare of the 1950's, David Merrill and many of his friends and associates were accused of being communists and forced to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In the beginning of the movie David Merrill returns from abroad to film a movie for Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox. Before he can begin to work however, Merrill is asked to meet a lawyer named Graff. Graff explains how everything can be handled behind closed doors.

All Merrill has to do is name some names, to "cooperate", if he does not there will be no Fox project. The committee wants Merrill to finger his friend Bunny Baxter as a communist. Since Bunny is Merrill's best friend, he cannot call him a communist and betray their friendship. By refusing this appeal, Merrill loses his job at Fox and cannot get any other jobs in the film industry, but his conscience is appeased because he did the right thing. Finally, the day comes when Merrill has to face HUA C in public hearings. The long period of no work in the film industry had begun to break Merrill down.

The film industry was Merrill's entire life and separation from the industry causes him to say, "What the hell, maybe I'll talk. I'm tired of not working". However, when at the hearing, David Merrill decides to take the higher moral ground saying, "I will answer any and all questions about my actions, but I will not talk about the actions of others". This was a hard choice to make for Merrill resulting in being blacklisted, and getting no employment in the film industry for nearly 20 years. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and the movie "Guilty by Suspicion", which was directed by Irwin Winkler, both John Proctor and David Merrill made morally correct decisions by refusing to take any action (naming names) that would harm their friends. Regrettably, both men suffered the consequences for taking this bold action in a highly charged atmosphere, where irrational fear ruled over common sense.