Morality In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In The Crucible, the author Arthur Miller creates a motif of resentment through displaying the strict ideas of morality in the Puritan society, the downsides of the darkness of human behavior, and the sense of intrusiveness among the Salem community.
The sense of resentment among the members of the Salem village was in one way a direct derivation from their strict ideas of morality. In Salem, theocracy played a massive role in determining how the people viewed their Puritan religion, and everyone followed the set rules. However, people had different interpretations of the way in which the religion played out in the society. While some had stricter views, others had looser interpretations- which led to disagreements among the members. Miller demonstrates this when Mr. Hale went to the Proctor home, in order to interrogate the couple about the reasons for not keeping up with their faith. While Hale and the rest of Salem had a strict mindset about the ideas of morality, John Proctor was a little more laid back, offering stvalid reasons to explain why he hadn't been to church recently. Both Proctor and Hale disagreed about whether or not the absence from church determined that Proctor is …show more content…
Because Salem had such strict morality ideas, any sin that a person committed was considered unholy and looked down upon in society. This then caused people to bury their sins, which built up guilt in everyone- producing secrecy and tension throughout all of Salem. Arthur Miller examples this in the story when John Proctor had to say the Ten Commandments, and missed the one for adultery. In the stage directions, “As though a secret arrow had pained his heart,” we can see that Proctor’s sin has caused guilt and uncomfort in the Proctor household. The inevitable darkness of human behavior has been multiplied in the Salem society, and feeds into the resentment in the