"More
Weight"
With the words "more weight" Giles
Corey, from The Crucible by Arthur Miller,
becomes a true
hero. Throughout the play, Corey changes
from a foolish old man, into a
hero who
courageously dies for his family's well-being and honor. With just those two
words, the
character of Giles Corey is defined.
Before the with trials begin, Giles Corey is
just a silly old man, courageous but not
very smart. Although 83 years old, he is ridiculed and
blamed for things that go wrong.
When the
suspicion of witches begins, Corey unthinkingly says something about his wife
reading books,
and hiding them from him, which was somehow disrupting his prayers. "It
discomfits
me! Last night--mark this--I tried and
tried and could not say my prayers. And
then she close
her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly--mark this--I could pray
again!" (p.
40) The explanation for this was very
simple: Giles was not a churchgoing
man. But, not realizing what he had done, Giles
Corey had just sentenced his wife to be
hanged.
The hysteria over witches continues to grow,
and Corey's wife is tried as a witch.
When he realizes
what he has caused to happen, Giles is overcome by guilt and grief. He
begs for his wife
to be released. Furthermore, when Giles
offers evidence that Putnam
falsely accused a
man as a witch in order to get his land, and the judge asks Corey to give
the name of the
man who heard Putnam's conversation as evidence, Giles refuses to give
the name so to
protect him, while he himself would have to hang, an act of honor and
courage: "I will not give you no name. I mentioned my wife's name once and I'll burn
in
hell long enough
for that. I stand mute." (p. 97)
Giles Corey finally becomes a true hero when he
is tortured to death for remaining
silent. Instead of giving the court a name, exactly
what they wanted from him, which
would free
himself while causing another man to hang, Giles mutters only "more
weight"
as he is crushed
to death by heavy stones. By escaping
hanging, Corey's land would still
be in the family,
his family's honor would remain intact, and Giles Corey would be
remembered later
as the hero of the Salem Witch trials, the only man who was not hanged
as a witch but
instead endured terrible pain so that others might not have to.
Giles Corey showed courage and respect for his
wife, his fellow man, and his
family. He turned from a comical hero into a true and
honorable one, a man who stood up
against hysteria
of the infamous Salem Witch Trials.
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