Justice and the Crucible essays

Justice and the Crucible essays Clarence Darrow once said, "There is no such thing as justicein or out of court." While a reference towards modern forms of law, this quotation is also applicable to The Crucible. Peoples rights are trampled both in the book and in real life. Defendants in every case have rights, but they become moot. Everyone decides what they think and will put forth their own justice, despite what the facts or logic may be. The presence of the rights of the accused and the lack of their enforcement are ideas that hold true not only in the book, but in the present day. In modern courts, defendants have certain definite rights. Examples of such are the right to an unbiased jury, the right to an attorney, and the right not to incriminate ones self. In reading The Crucible, one becomes appalled at how these rights are never even acknowledged. Not only are they not acknowledged, but the exact opposite is a normal expectation by the characters in the book! The jury is made up of the very people accusing the people of witchcraft. Mr. Hale is denied a lawyer because the Judge Danforth does not believe there is anything more that can be brought to light on the situation. The accused are basically given two terrible choices; they may either sign papers incriminating themselves and spend the rest of their life in a living hell, or be hanged. Is this justice? No one in their right mind can bring themselves to even compare it to justice. While the rights of the characters in The Crucible are never even vocalized, our current justice system is supposedly based on the aforesaid rights. We all know what our basic rights are, and seemingly take them for granted. But, even though the government tries to enforce these rights, the media nullifies them. Because of the way news of court hearings is relayed to us, our nation as a social whole has taken on an attitude of guilty until proven innocent. E ...