To Grow
Time has shown that most villains display who they are with what they do. They are not however, defined by these actions. It is a confusing idea to persuade, but it is something that is important to understand: people do things for innumerable reasons, and trying to simplify the situation to understand it yourself will leave you with a bastardized shell of what really happened. There are people who will do grievous actions for reasons that you do not always know. This is the case with three people: Shaka, Hale, and John Proctor. Shaka was a young man when he murdered a man during drug interactions, and he paid the price with nearly 20 years in prison. Hale was a highly religious reverend which caused a horrific string of executions when searching too hard for witches, and nearly lost his mind when he saw the people he signed to he hung fall one by one, pleading innocence. Finally, John Proctor slept with a very young Abigail Williams when his wife was sick during one winter, and it eventually would play a part in getting him executed. What all these people did afterwards, though, is what shows me humanity has the potential to go beyond this havoc we wreak now.
While Shaka was in prison, he learned about atonement, and how your actions do not have to define you. He learned that you did not have to embody the worst of what you've done. With this philosophy, he managed to return from the darkest recesses of his actions, and grow beyond them. Hale realized soon after the witch trials began that there was no real witch amongst them, and it was the court being the true devil; slaughtering people without evidence. He goes about trying to save the people he ignorantly condemned, and saves many. John Proctor is the man that fought to save these people from the demon he helped unleash. He taught Abigail about the true way of things, and without that, she may not have begun her reign of terror. Regardless, he works to fight the monstrous actions taking place, when he is condemned himself for witchcraft, and sentenced to hang. Before this hempen fate, he learns that there should not be suffering for his own gain: that confessing in order to spare himself and damn another will simply blacken his own soul, and kill an innocent person. He may well be one of the only people in the entire village to realize that sometimes sacrifice can be the most powerful thing you can do; and it played part in ending the hysteria, when more and more people follow his example of refusing to say a name simply to live a hollow life.
Paying a price to learn more about yourself is hardly ever a voluntary action; most of the time people unintentionally will choose this path, learning to grow and atone for their darkest actions in an attempt to move beyond them. It is unorthodox, but it is a sign of a greater being underneath. It is a sign of a species that can adapt and comprehend that sometimes they do horrid things, but they don't have to allow it to continue. It is thus that the dream of the future will carry on: nothing can destroy it, for it will simply rise above. The dream never truly dies, because it is an adaptable, acknowledging thing. Something that I believe in.
While Shaka was in prison, he learned about atonement, and how your actions do not have to define you. He learned that you did not have to embody the worst of what you've done. With this philosophy, he managed to return from the darkest recesses of his actions, and grow beyond them. Hale realized soon after the witch trials began that there was no real witch amongst them, and it was the court being the true devil; slaughtering people without evidence. He goes about trying to save the people he ignorantly condemned, and saves many. John Proctor is the man that fought to save these people from the demon he helped unleash. He taught Abigail about the true way of things, and without that, she may not have begun her reign of terror. Regardless, he works to fight the monstrous actions taking place, when he is condemned himself for witchcraft, and sentenced to hang. Before this hempen fate, he learns that there should not be suffering for his own gain: that confessing in order to spare himself and damn another will simply blacken his own soul, and kill an innocent person. He may well be one of the only people in the entire village to realize that sometimes sacrifice can be the most powerful thing you can do; and it played part in ending the hysteria, when more and more people follow his example of refusing to say a name simply to live a hollow life.
Paying a price to learn more about yourself is hardly ever a voluntary action; most of the time people unintentionally will choose this path, learning to grow and atone for their darkest actions in an attempt to move beyond them. It is unorthodox, but it is a sign of a greater being underneath. It is a sign of a species that can adapt and comprehend that sometimes they do horrid things, but they don't have to allow it to continue. It is thus that the dream of the future will carry on: nothing can destroy it, for it will simply rise above. The dream never truly dies, because it is an adaptable, acknowledging thing. Something that I believe in.