Preview

What Is The Puritan Influence On The Crucible

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
604 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is The Puritan Influence On The Crucible
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a play portraying the life of the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts, during the 1600s. The Puritans were a community that had a far-fetched idea of perfection, and had an unjust church. They believed that everyone had to be pure in order to be perfect. Men had to dress and act the same, women had to dress and act the same, and almost all fun was forbidden and considered witchcraft. The Puritan’s society was strongly influenced by religion. Their importance of religion, combined with the unjust of the church, is what created the injustice in their community.
The Puritans viewed themselves as a very prominent theocracy. A theocracy, is a form of government in which god is the divine ruler. The Puritan’s life

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    ‘The Crucible’ is a novel which was written by Arthur Miller in 1953. It takes place during the times of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. This was a time of much hypocrisy in the people of the town of Salem. Many people believed anything they heard or saw. Although The Crucible is fictitious, the story depicts the historical information of the Salem witch trials, and blends them with fictitious characters to create a very realistic plot and conflict in the story. Miller wrote this play as a response to the political environment in which he lived. The story relates to the McCarthy trials. During the 1950's Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many American leaders of being communists. This lead to many accusations that people were communists. Some people believed him because they had fear of communism. McCarthy was, in effect, conducting "witch hunts". The Red Scare was a witch hunt where the US government was searching for "dangerous communists." Accusations came from left and right, much the same as the characters did for "real witches" in The Crucible. This meant that people were forced to either confess to the crime of witchery or shove the blame towards a different person. As an effect of this bias, the accused were never discharged, but were given the opportunity to confess to the crime of witchcraft to lessen their sentence. With the red scare, the accused were given a chance to give up names of other suspected communists to lessen their sentence as well. In both situations, there were people who confessed even though they had no relation to the crime at all. The majority, however, valued their morals and refused to give into political pressure by lying. This is shown as abuse of power. The puritans were a group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th century. The entire plot of the novel is moulded by the repressive Puritan society. Like many puritan women, Elizabeth Proctor is dutiful and loves her husband dearly. Yet, Elizabeth is hurt by the fact…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of the over 40,000 words brilliantly crafted into a story, only two are able of capturing the meaning of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. Set in Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials, Miller depicts the town and the strong puritan values vested in its people. When accusations of witchcraft run ravage through the streets, such puritan purity is in question. The Crucible is a fitting title for Arthur Miller’s play.The English noun crucible symbolizes Salem, the trials and the resulting changes that occur.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible is a book written by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s. The book describes events of paranoia in the form of witchcraft, and trial. This book was written during the McCarthy Era, which, as defined by http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mccarthyism?s=t, was the government, amongst others, making unsupported claims of people being communist. The Crucible was based on the witch trials of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, in which central european countries would trial, torture, and kill tens of thousands of men and women across the continent.…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts set around the mid to late 1600’s. Inside this peculiar little town most people are very religious and believe in the Puritan religion. For a little background Puritans do not believe or participate in activities like dancing and reading novels. Growing up as a little kid in the Puritan religion could seem like you are being hidden or kept away from activities that would alter your beliefs towards how your religion teaches them.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “I'll tell you what's walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller’s The Crucible Act II, Pg. 77). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play that revolves around the Salem witch hunts, which occurred during the late 17th century. The play opens in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 with a group of girls who are ill, with the symptoms of hallucinations and seizures. These sicknesses were attributed to the devil or his servants in the heavily populated Puritan town. Talk of witchcraft was brought on by this sickness. It did not take long before the people of Salem began to accuse…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible was about the Salem witch trials in the 1600’s. Witchcraft is the practice of black magic, which uses spells and the invocation of evil spirits. A crucible is a metal container used to melt down metals and separate the valuable from the less valuable. It also means a difficult situation where people are severely tested.The title of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is symbolic of both of these words. In act one Abigail Williams was the most responsible for the chaotic situation that occurred in Salem in the 1600’s.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller that tells the story of the Salem Witch Trials, in a time when religion was really important in people’s life and their life basically revolved around it. Throughout this time, there were many trials taking place because of the accusations of people against witchcraft and people involved with witchcraft, specially during the Salem Witch Trials. However, this accusations from time to time were not caused by witchcraft, but because of land disputes. In this play, characters like Mr. Putnam give accusations of people who he wants land from and says that they were seen with the Devil. Together with the likes of Abigail Williams, who is very manipulative, she also accuses people of witchcraft to get what she…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a partially fictitious rendering of the colonial witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. The Puritanical society creates characters of strong moral compasses, but who also take the Devil as seriously as they take God. All sins are severely punished and supernatural reports and behavior are not taken lightly. The play begins with Reverend Parris speaking about his discovery of his niece, daughter, and other village girls dancing in the woods over a fire. His daughter, Betty, has mysteriously fallen ill since the dancing was discovered. This occurrence sparks rumors of witchcraft around the village. Parris’ niece, Abigail, obsessed with her…

    • 2059 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Author Miller in his play The Crucible explores the lives of people who strictly live under the church’s authority in a theocratic society during the 1690s in Salem, Massachusetts. A community of Puritans with their strong beliefs will cause a paranoia in their entire village. The ministers of the church afraid of losing their power will do anything to keep it. Other individuals seek power for their own personal vendetta. With the use of direct characterization, allusion, and irony Miller shows his readers who has the power, who fears it, and who wants in The Crucible.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The puritans has merged church and state together which makes their views biased towards people who do not follow the religions rules. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible written in the 1950s based on what…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller's masterpiece, The Crucible, is a work of art inspired by actual events as a response to political and moral issues. Although the play provides an accurate account of the Salem witch-hunts and trials of 1692, its real achievement lies in the many important issues of Miller's time that it deals with. The Crucible is a searing parable of conformity and the imbalance of power of the 1950s.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the Puritans take part of a government that is based solely on the Bible. The good faith of the townspeople is quickly changed as many of the town’s high-standing citizens are accused of witchcraft, tried, and even hanged. In The Crucible, fear and faith relate very closely with the decisions that are made throughout the course of the trials and hangings of the Salem Witch Trials.…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to (brittanica.com), a theocracy is a system of government where the government is ruled by the members of the clergy. A theocracy government is extremely strict in religion. There were many stern rules and regulations that the Puritans had to follow. The Puritans had a group of members of the clergy that formed their government. In addition, they all had strong beliefs of how the society should run. They believed in purified souls and hard work. Also, there were harsh punishments for those who didn’t follow the rules of the society or committed a sin or crime. As stated by (history.org), harsh punishments included whipping, gagging, or hanging the person that committed the sin. Some Puritans were even punished by being locked up in a…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nearly everyone can agree that the Puritans had some issues. They killed countless innocent people for ridiculous reasons, accused anybody different from them of being a witch, and were extremely strict about religion. Some Puritans even accused people they didn’t like of witchcraft just to get them executed. The Puritans that saw problems with this system were accused of being witches and hanged as well. These actions are shown very clearly in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. In this play, several teenage girls begin to accuse people they don’t like of witchcraft and pretend that they are being afflicted by them. The people of Salem all believe them and almost every person the “afflicted” girls accuse…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play that takes place in 1692 in the small Massachusetts village of Salem. Salem is a Puritan community; they are a very restrictive society with strong beliefs. They believe in hard work and prayer, therefore they consider material and sexual desires unnatural and evil. Abigail Williams, the main character is the reason for the witch trials that begin in Salem. She is dishonest, manipulative and her seductive ways is what makes her the antagonist of this play.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays