Miller's Presentation Of Parris In The Crucible

Millers Presentation of Parris is interesting; he uses Parris as a symbol for the theme of power and conflict within the parameters of religion. As an audience, we can see that Miller makes an example of Parris: he is used to demonstrate some of the major flaws of society across the ages. Miller’s presentation of Parris towards other characters is very derogatory as we can infer from his remark to Tituba that he would ‘whip her’. This could be an example of how she was treated by people when she lived in Barbados. We can assume that slaves would have been subject to sexual and violent assault by all men, which she would have expected from Parris. However this behaviour would not be expected from anyone or tolerated never mind a priest. The way Parris acts towards Tituba is very degrading towards her and shows how he tries to falsely use his position in society to abuse her, which we as an audience would clearly find unacceptable. The way Parris uses language throughout the Crucible shows how much of an arrogant character he is, how he constantly interrupts people, and how he deliberately enflames the events of Mass Hysteria to benefit his own position which is completely against what a priest is meant to do. He interrupts Danforth and tells him to ‘Beware’ of
John Proctor when Parris believes he could be on to something which could jeopardise the court procedures and Parris’ reputation. By saying this he is causing trouble, interrupting countless times and causing Danforth to be distracted from the situation.
The patterns of language he uses causes an audience to lack sympathy with his character, because he doesn’t sympathise with or understand children.
He uses lots of biblical language which would be expected from a priest, on the other hand however we would not expect a priest to use lots of exclamatives which is what Parris does. In terms of prosody we can see from the use of exclamatives that Parris likes to think he is in control, and has a lot of power. We know this from when he orders ‘Betty!’ to answer ‘Mr Hale!’ The use of so much exclamation would possibly be intimidating to an audience and because he doesn’t conform to the holy stereotype which would cause a lack of sympathy from an
audience. One would say that Parris is an instrumental character in The Crucible. We know that he has ‘no talent’ with his children which could arguably set up Abi to be cruel later in the play and accuse people of witchcraft because she has had no attention when she was younger, similarly with Betty how she goes ‘wild’ which could possibly be a ploy for attention because she doesn’t have a mother and her father doesn’t understand you. He gives both Betty and Abigail the opportunity to get out of the situation by an answer he offers. For example Abi knows that she has no means of escape; so Parris makes a suggestion and she takes it, and avoids the consequences of the situation. In conclusion one could say that Parris is an integral character in the Crucible and without him, key events wouldn’t happen like the accusations by Abi or the acting by Betty; he is a character with the themes of power and conflict, which are the themes that we can see in the play, he likes to be in control and have the last word. He doesn’t like listening to other people’s opinions which is why people do not sympathise with him.