Crucible Essays (989 words) - Salem Witch Trials, The Crucible

Crucible By Arthur Miller After reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one cannot help but wonder why when given the chance to confess to the accusations and live, did the characters choose to stay firm and die? For people today that question is not easily answered. In the past however, this was not a question at all. The answer was found within the strong religious background that most of the accused were raised on, and the feeling of pride and honor they felt in their hearts. John Proctor exemplifies the importance of a strong name through his actions and choices throughout the play; most significantly the fourth act when he chose death over disgracing his name. Giles Corey's refusal to reveal the name of the informant who accused Putnam of conspiracy also shows the role of justice in these individuals' lives, letting God be the judge of their actions in life and not their peers. Sometimes you have to stand for more. Throughout the play one of the central themes continues to be John Proctor's, Giles Corey's, and Rebecca Nurse's refusal to degrade their souls with lies of confession only to save themselves from the unjust accusations of witchcraft. In this time and era the people living in and around Salem, Massachusetts were from Puritan faith and lived very strict lives. At this point in history there was still no separation between church and state, so the church had a major role in each individual's life. When Reverend Parris came upon the children of Salem dancing and conducting against their religion, they were accused of being in a pact with the devil by many of the town's people in the beginning. Rumors spread, and innocent people were charged of witchcraft. Some of the accused were, in every aspect, a perfect Puritan. Rebecca Nurse was one of these individuals. She was held in high opinion by almost everyone, except for Ann Putnam, who blamed her for the unexplained deaths of her seven children Rebecca had delivered. Ann Putnam claimed that Rebecca sent her "spirit" out on them. At one point there was even a testament signed and proposed in court declaring many people's good opinion of Goody Nurse. Giles Corey was an old, strong-willed man, accused of witchery. After trying to disprove the faulty actions of the court and refusing to give up the name of his informant he was killed. Proctor was accused of witchcraft while trying to defend his wife, and was then later executed when he refused to slander his name. These three proud individuals did not want to confess to the lies they were accused of doing only to save their lives. For what is a name when you have no soul to go with it? That is what these individuals faced. The religious background of these individuals was the cause of their refusal to confess to the accusations toward them. Both Giles Corey and John Proctor believed in letting God be the judge of their faults. When Giles Corey refused to answer to his indictment in order to preserve his land's ownership for his family, he was trusting in a higher power, God, even when death was his punishment. Proctor also felt this way, and when arguing with Danforth about his confession of adultery, he turned to God as his judge when he said, "I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!" (4.132). These two individuals lost hope in the justice system that ruled their lives here on earth, so instead they decided to put their trust in their religious background and their belief in God as the definitive judge. Times have changed since the era in which John, Giles, and Rebecca lived. During the Salem witch trials confessing to a lie to save your life was an option many people chose, others did not out of a sense of pride and honor. John Proctor was the perfect example of this. He had self-respect, particularly for his name. After verbally admitting his sin, Danforth wished for him to sign his name on a document, which would be displayed in public as evidence for his confession. He refused saying, "How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" (4.133). John would rather die then give up his name. He had already given up his"soul"; he refused to

Space Exploration - Past, Present and Future essays

Space Exploration - Past, Present and Future essays Ever since the beginning of time, mankind has been fascinated with wonders of space. Before the mid-1900s, all mankind could do was gaze at the stars from Earth and wonder what it would be like to go into space. Man would look through telescopes and make theories on how the universe worked. During the mid-1900s, mankind finally was able to send a man into space and explore the wonders of space first hand. So why do humans explore space? Well, it is our fascination with the unknown. At first, all mankind did was look up and wonder how things became what they are now. We started to think that all celestial bodies revolved around the Earth, and the Earth was the center of the entire universe. Galileo Galelie later disproved this theory. Even with growing knowledge in the field, it was not until 1957 when the first Earth orbiter, the Soviets Sputnik 1, was sent into space and placed in orbit at an altitude of 1,370 miles and weighed ! 184 pounds. Later in that year, the Soviets sent Sputnik 2 into space with a dog named Laika. Laika was the first animal to venture into space. Then in 1985, the United States successfully sent their very own satellite into space. In 1960, the Soviets launched to dogs into space and successfully returned them to Earth. From this point started the space race. The space race was a challenge between the USSR and the United States to see who could land a man on the moon first. In 1961, the first man in space was cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who was in space for 60 minutes before returning to Earth in Vostok 1 and was sent by the USSR. Astronaut Shepard flew the first manned sub-orbital space-flight by the Americans. The first true American orbital flight was by John Glen and he stayed in space for five hours in Mercury 6 in 1962. Then in 1963, the USSR sent the first woman into space; her name was Valentina Tereshkova-Nikaleva. They also had the first person to take a space-walk in 19 65. In 1968, the...

Positive Impact of Nursing Leadership Research Paper

Positive Impact of Nursing Leadership - Research Paper Example Recent studies had revealed the fact that, some of the leadership components had a greater and positive influence on the psychosocial working environment. This paper will analyze the article, Nursing Leadership Style and Psychosocial Work Environment written by Terry Malloy and Barbara Penprase. This article mainly focuses on the service industry, and a group of nurses are taken as sample group to conduct the research through questionnaires. Among the industrial sectors, the healthcare sector plays a vital role in saving the lives of the people. Next to the physicians, the nurses are considered to be the life savers, as they attend to the patients very keenly and they assist the doctors in proceeding with the proper treatment to the patients. Due to their extensive work, nurses are prone to mental stress, job repetition, boredom, etc., which have a negative impact in their performances. Hence various researches have been conducted to explore the ways, whereby the performance of the n urses can be enhanced, resulting in increased job satisfaction. One such research article would be, Nursing Leadership Style and Psychosocial Work Environment. ... Basically nursing process can be described as a modified version of scientific process. It is mainly utilized in the medical field to assess the needs of the patients and to formulate a course of action whereby the problems of the patients can be addressed and solved respectively. â€Å"Developed by Ida Jean Orlando in 1958, this method is used by nurses to balance out the usage of scientific evidence and personal interpretation when diagnosing and treating.† (â€Å"An In-Depth Look into the Nursing Process†, n. d). Thus, the nursing process includes five major steps namely assessing the problems of the patients, diagnosing the issues, planning the course of action to address the problem, implementing the solution effectively and evaluating the results. From the above sentence, it is obvious that the nursing process involves five major steps in attending to the problems of the patients. However in the article, it has been revealed that there is an effective correlation between the healthy working environment and the nursing process, which also impacts the well being of the patients and their health. Moreover, it is very much apparent from the article that the entire nursing process mainly depends on the various dimensions of the psychosocial environment. Generally, the process of nursing can be described as a cyclic that can come to an end at any of the five stages if the problem is solved. Above all, the nursing process not only focuses on attending the physical needs of the patients but also attend to their social and emotional needs considerably. Hence, the article very well highlights the positive relationship between the contingent reward leadership with that of the psychosocial work