When considering the coined phrase: "Survival of the Fittest" and its definition of:
"the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring"(dictionary.com).
Explain where this theory is evident in the play. You may want to refer to a character's actions and their intentions solely for survival.
Were the incidents from The Crucible an act of Survival of the Fittest"? (Be sure to refer to the definition above to stay focused)
In the Play, the Crucible, the theory Survival of the fittest, is almost disproved. Martha, Rebecca, and John, were considered the three most influential people in the village, and in many ways considered the fittest of the village. Yet these three, among others such as Gilles, who was crushed to death because he refused to say a name, and many others were hanged.
ReplyDeleteIf he fittest were the ones destined to survive, why do they seem to die? Who chooses the definition of the fit? Abigail, and the rest of the girls, whose ages ranged from ten to nineteen, why were they given the gavel?
Maybe it’s because, once the chaos called civilization was created, the gap between the fit and unfit shortened. People who once would of died due to weakness, stupidity, or arrogance, could survive off of others, and learned quickly how to twist the system to get what they wanted.
The real question to be asked, is if, after this was all over, was the people left in Salem the fittest, and if the one holding the gavel is unfit, wouldn’t others have to adapt to being unfit, and in the end, was Salem really better off than it was?
ARoss
The theory of Survival of the Fittest is evident in The Crucible in Act 1. In Act 1, Tituba was accused of working with the devil after a group of young girls were caught dancing in the woods. To save herself from being hung, Tituba confessed that she did not work for the devil but she can see who does work for him. Abigail and the rest of the girls quickly did the “jump on the wagon” and began shouting out names the said to see working aside the devil. Without a confession, Tituba would have been hung and the girls would be seen as witches.
ReplyDelete@ARoss: Everything was God this and God that. The girls claimed that that they could see who works aside the devil. With that being said, all the village wanted to do was disregard those who rejected God.Don't you think that the girls were handed given all that power because of how religious he village was?
ReplyDelete@JNelson-Malone
ReplyDeleteThat doesn’t necessarily disprove my point. Religion has been around since humanity first wondered why something did something, but couldn’t figure out how it was done. Once civilization, such as Salem, was started, religion went from explain the unexplainable, but to controlling people and guidelines to how a person lives their life.
In this play, the girls got power because of religion, and yes did in fact manage to adapt to the situation, but it shows more how the unfit manage to keep living despite the odds thanks to the systems in place around them, in this case the church.
An example to how this shows in modern times could be how theirs people who live off of welfare, without trying to get a job and support themselves. They take advantage of a system that’s in place to help people, and misuse it.
ARoss
Ps. Merry Christmas Eve everybody.
I get your point ARoss, but you somewhat contradict yourself in that you stated that the it was "...more how the unfit manage to keep living despite the odds thanks to the systems in place around them, in this case the church." and the formal definition of social darwinism/ survival of the fittest reflects that those who "...better adapted to their environment tend to survive..." and in this case, unfortunately, those who should have survived, those most noble, pure and intelligent, were John, Martha, Rebecca and so on, did not. But, because of religion, all was distorted and in order for a villager to survive, he knew he needed to "adapt to the environment..." even if he didn't agree with it. I believe it all comes down to our basic human instincts, that we will do what we have to in order to survive. Scary thought.. Doesn't it make you wonder what what kind of villager we would be in such a situation?
ReplyDeleteSo, J-Nelson, you are basically stating that Tituba was an example of somehow who "adapted to the environment" in order to save herself.. Correct?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that it really shows up in this story this much, it was more a case similar to Mccarthyism. The girls basically grabbed everyone in and could have said or done anything they wanted and since people were already prosecuted it would have been a horrible look for the judges. They didn't want the community to know what they found out in the end basically and that was that the girls were lying and they all just had so much unlawful blood upon their hands. This is what made Abby and the girls "the fittest", they couldn't be touched because the prosecution couldn't renege on what they have already done.
ReplyDeleteConsider all those were hung? Maybe it is more of a "survival of the most evil or hypocritical?" Only the evil shall survive and the good shall perish?
ReplyDelete