Lie and Live

Still on The Crucible…

Well, I finally finished the movie on my laptop. The Crucible was based on a witch-hunt that happened in a certain village called Salem in Massachusetts. It had as lead characters a fellow called John Proctor and a young girl, Abigail Williams. Abby and some other girls, led by a lady from Barbados, Tituba, went into the woods to playfully cast charms that would make the boys of their dreams fall in love with them. (Interesting!) Of course, they had no true powers; they were just fooling around! This play however turned into something serious when the Priest of the village snuck up on them. The girls fled, not wanting to be seen, but two of the youngest of them went into shock, such that they were unconscious, or as the villagers later called it, “couldn’t wake.” All the girls were frightened, thinking that it was their “devil religion” that had caused it. Soon the villagers had the word “witchcraft” on their lips. The priest tried to quench that suggestion because Abby was his niece and so was one of the girls in shock. However, they soon sent for a witch-hunter and that was where the whole problem began.

After some pressure, the girls confessed to the witch hunter that they had been in the forest casting spells. The punishment for witchcraft then was death, but a witch that confessed and “came back to Jesus” was set free. But another pre-requisite to being free was to mention someone you had “seen with the devil” when he came to you. So, began the madness. Led by Abby, all the girls started mentioning the names of their rivals and enemies, including the wives of the men they wanted to fall in love with them.

So, this is where the dilemma comes in again: accused witches had the option of denying being a witch and been hanged, or confessing to being a witch and tainting their image, and being set free. So what would you have done: lied against yourself to save your life, or remain with the truth and hang?

Many times in our lives we come across situations similar to this. At great cost, we are compelled to either tell a lie to escape some consequence, or stick with the truth and face that consequence. And such things are usually life changing. It happened to a friend of mine, George, some years ago while he was in Primary Three, barely ten years old.

During a class on rainy morning, a messenger from the headmaster came into the class and announced that George was needed by the headmaster. Summons by the headmaster only meant one thing: trouble. Big trouble. His trouble was even bigger than he had imagined. The headmaster took him straight, without saying a word, to the school proprietor’s office. His heart quaked as much as his legs shook.

When he entered the office, he saw his mother. What was she doing here, he asked himself. He had left her at home just some few hours before. Seated on the other chair was another woman whose back was stiff in her chair. She glanced at him, and the look in her eyes was so stony that he wondered if he had ever offended her. The proprietor was quite grim; his spectacles rested on his nose and he avoided looking directly at him, only at a spot on his chest. In the middle of the room stood a little girl, a little shorter than he was. She was wearing the same school uniform and evidently a student of his school. He had never seen her before though.

The principal closed the door and took his place, standing. Nobody spoke for a long while. The proprietor broke the silence.

Well, not to lengthen a traumatizing short story, the mother narrated how she was washing her daughter’s panties the night before, only to discover blood on it. She pressed on the girl and demanded to know what had happened to her. Immediately, she started screaming, “It was George! It was George.” George couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had never even seen this girl before. To clarify, the headmaster asked her to point at the George she was talking about. She pointed firmly at George and said, “It’s him.” George denied it vehemently. His mum asked him to tell the truth and still he maintained his “I didn’t do it!” The proprietor made the last move to find the truth. He told the headmaster to fetch George’s file, that he was going to be expelled unless he told the truth. The mentioning of expulsion kicked something inside George. He remembered his father and how he was going to kill him if he got expelled. He imagined the shame of everyone hearing that George was expelled for so-and-so reason. When the headmaster returned with George’s file and George saw it, he broke down. And he lied. Against himself. He said he had used his finger, the middle one. The file went back. His mom pleaded with the other mother with tears in her eyes, and it was all forgotten. George didn’t go back to class that day; he went home with his mom for the worst punishment he had ever had. It was even more painful because he hadn’t done it.

Yet, he lied and saved himself. And the lie has remained with him. Eventually, in The Crucible, John Proctor’s wife was accused by Abby. Abby was in love with John and wanted his wife out of the way. The wife maintained her innocence. John himself was later called the devil’s man, and accused of witchcraft, when he angrily pronounced, “God is dead.”

John Proctor, an innocent man, was hanged because he did not lie against himself to save himself. All he would have done was just to say that he was ready to repent, and he would go free. Yet he maintained his integrity. George was not as brave. He lied to save himself.

What would you have done?