Act 3 also continues to describe the little intelligence most
of the community has. The court no longer wants evidence because it has already
decided that witchcraft exists in Salem. Courts are supposed to rely on evidence,
not on how others have made the accused look by forcing false confessions out
of them or by having them blame others. The judges are too oblivious to understand
this common knowledge. Because their society is built on social order, and any
deviation implies that you’re against that order, people are judged on how they
seem instead of who they really are. This shows how important reputation is in Salem
because all the attacks on the accused are to their reputations. Today,
politics work the same way. We are seeing many commercials on TV at the moment because
of the elections coming up. But no matter whom the commercial is about, or what
position in congress the person is running for, every commercial has one thing
in common: one candidate making the other look bad. By ruining their opponent’s
reputation, the candidate is able to influence the less politically educated voters
and win the election because the other candidate’s reputation is so badly
damaged it can’t be fixed. The only way to gain back their respect is the same
way as Proctor did. He had to sacrifice his reputation to prove that Abigail was
lying and regained his integrity. This proves that their court is as corrupt as
politics, and just like in the Crucible, no one is interested in the actual evidence
or logic anymore.
Word count: 263
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