The Crucible-Human Nature

What is human nature?  I honestly have heard the word a million time, but I reall do not know what the true meaning of human-nature is.  So what did I do?  I looked it up online.  Human nature is the psychological and social qualities that characterize humankind, especially in contrast with other living things. For dummies like me, I still did not fully comprehend it, but the best explanation in simple terms is how we (I believe our mind, but I will just say we) react to certain situations.  It is like what we do on an everyday basis and how we react to comments good or bad that are thrown at us.
A major human nature "thing" is when something happens and the blame is put on you.  What is the first thing you do when something like this happen.  You try and find a way to put the blame on something or somebody else.  You always do it, you may not say it, but you always think of ways to get the blame off of you.  It is human nature to do that sort of thing, because nobody wants to get in trouble or to be at fault.
The first thing that pops up into my head was how people seemed to blame everything on witch craft.  It could have been the smallest thing, but people were always trying to find a way to put the blame on something else, in this case, it happens to be witch craft.  The first example of this was when the reader found out the news of Betty and how she is now ill.  "I'd not call it sick; the Devil's touch is heavier than sick.  It's death, y'know, it's death drivin' into them, forked and hoofed." (Miller 13).  Right away Mr. Putnam believes that it is witch craft that she is affected by.  It literally takes all but a few quotes from him to find out what he blames the situation on.  Going along with this, but in the other way is how Parris feels. "Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft.  I know that you-you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me.  We cannot leap to witchcraft.  They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house." (Miller 14).  The first thing that I believe Parris thinks, is that he does not want his daughter to have this topic called upon her.  Then he realizes that his name will be affected by Betty, if indeed she is infected with witch craft.  It is like a parent watching over their kid.  A parent will do anything to protect their children.  Parris is a little selfish when he thinks about himself instead of Betty, but they watch out for their children.
Another instance, was when the doll had the needle stuck in the chest.  People did not know the facts, but were quick to jump on the situation, that they blamed on witch craft right away, and it seemed like everybody was going crazy (Miller 115-120).  People have tendencies to do this, which if you think about it, is pretty awful, but it is human nature.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>.