By nature, humans have certain traits and qualities that we cannot ignore. In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible several examples of these qualities are shown, and misunderstood by the characters. In the play, the society of Salem underestimates the degree to which people can lie, and conversely can be honest, which brings about the unnecessary deaths of innocent people; in contemporary America society overlooks the desire for self-reliance, and people abuse honesty and twist it to revert to humanity's nature of lying, resulting in entrapment in their own lie.
The society of Salem is unaware of the degree to which people will lie to protect their interests. The principal lies in The Crucible are crafted by the young woman Abigail Williams, who is taking out private vengeance against Elizabeth Proctor. She is doing this because Elizabeth is married to John Proctor, whom Abigail is in love with. These lies in effect sentence innocent people to their deaths. Although in other cases the reasons for lying may vary from person to person, the fact that people lie to protect their self interests is a trait of human nature. The court and the Salemites are fooled by Abigail's lies; they had not realized that someone could lie to such an extent, especially when using the name of the Lord. When Mary Warren testifies in court that she and the girls were pretending, and that they never saw any spirits, Mr. Danforth first replies, "with great alarm and surprise, to Mary: Never saw no spirits?", then says later, "wide-eyed Indeed. Pause. He is baffled by this." The stage directions show us Mr. Danforth's reaction, that he is alarmed and baffled.
The court members wanted to believe that Abigail and the other girls were telling the truth. Mr. Danforth says, ".Do you know Mr. Proctor, that the entire contention of the state in these trials is that the voice of Heaven is speaking through the children?" The children were lying and using God's name for their false accusations.