Act IV of the Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, society members who accused of witchcraft were killed by being hanged (Beau, 2016). Harthone, the Judge revealed he was cheered by the crowds as he hanged the witches, who were less respected in the society. But when it came to reputable members of the society like John Proctor, the same crowd was very bitter. Reverend Hale tried to intervene by telling Proctor’s wife Elizabeth to convince him to confess to witchcraft and save her family. Proctor already knew if he confessed God would forgive him because “life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it”.

Many religions and laws consider the “thou shalt not kill’ commandment in some way.  The commandment in the bible allow people to protect each other’s life instead of taking it. Nevertheless, the same law also states some circumstances where killing may be justified (Young et al., 2013). Killing an enemy is one of them. Soldiers are allowed to kill the enemy when they feel like their life is threated. Additionally, some countries justify killing as a consequence of crime. Crimes such as murder, idolatry homosexuality, incest are punishable by death.

However, in many nations, there is still heated public debates on the subject of abortion, and euthanasia. In Roman catholic doctrine, abortion is forbidden as it is contrary to the human dignity (Young et al., 2013), even though some though justify abortion when the mother is in danger too. For euthanasia, different countries have different rules on the same. Even though the intention is normally to end life so as to relieve pain and suffering, some see it as murder and prohibits it.

References

Beau, L. (2016). The Story of the Salem Witch Trials - Bryan F. Le Beau - Google Books. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Ugo3DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=,+whose+guilt+seems+obvious+thanks+to+her+sudden+escape+from+town+and+theft+of+Parris%27+savings.+However,+even+with+these+revelations+casting+further+doubt+on+the+validity+of+Abi

Young, O. A., Willer, R., & Keltner, D. (2013). “Thou shalt not kill”: Religious fundamentalism, conservatism, and rule-based moral processing. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(2), 110–115. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032262