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Corruption Of Authority In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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What would you do if your authority figures were corrupt and you had no control over it whatsoever? That’s what the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts had to deal with in 1692 with their authority figures calling the hunting of witches and attacking innocent townspeople who were effected by falsified accusations. Author Arthur Miller demonstrates the situation in Salem in his book The Crucible by talking about how the lives of the townspeople are directly affected by the corruption of authority and he also demonstrates how corruption has a serious negative affect on what that authoritative figure has to control. A judge with the names of John Hathorne and his colleagues follows a Christian theocratic style of indictment, and this cause’s unfair …show more content…
Judge Hathorne shows his inability to step back away from Christian theocracy and into common sense by wrongfully accusing townspeople of being witches, by following the possessed girls’ exact words and not justifying those decisions by any other way. This eventually sends fear through everyone in Salem by making them think that there are several witches living in Salem, which was false. The main character in the story is Abigail Williams, and at near at the end of the first act, she and the other girls falsely accuse some women in the town of being with the Devil, which then who the townspeople and judges investigate. Abigail was starting to call out innocent townspeople of …show more content…
This quote sparks the conflict between Abigail and Elizabeth for the fight for John Proctor, and this also leads into the beginning of the false witch accusations against townspeople of Salem, especially Elizabeth whom of which were targeted by Abigail so that she could possibly have a chance with her, which in the end fails, as again he is executed instead of Elizabeth. Since Abigail is using the false witch accusations in her advantage, this shows how corrupt theocratic authority can really be because of the automatic conclusions set on supposed witches by one person, which in turn, by today’s standards, you need solid evidence to indict someone of a crime. It simply doesn’t make sense to indict someone on one accusation by today’s standards of indictment, but would make sense as you are following the rules set by God, as is required in a

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