Puritans In The Crucible

“Where aspirations outstrip opportunities, law-abiding society becomes the victim. Attitudes of contempt toward the law are forged in this crucible and form the inner core of the beliefs of organized adult crime”(Robert Kennedy). The Puritan society of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s lived in a crucible. The Puritans were people who were against entertainment and focused their life around their work and prayer. Being hypocritical and behaving as if they were better than everyone else, they tried to keep outsiders away from their community and disliked change and differences. During this time the Puritans were going through hardships with the revolution and chaos happening in New England and blamed the dark forces of witches and Lucifer. Those …show more content…
The forest is looked down upon and feared by the Puritans because that is where the Natives roamed at night. The natives were said to have killed family members of people in town including the parents of Abigail. These four girls and a few others that were accused of being there at the time had to go into the woods to complete a ritual that is made to believe that was a conjuring of the dark and evil souls of the dead. Miller pointed out several different clues in the play as to what had been going on. It was made to believe that the women had made a fire and danced around it while Tituba sang in her native tongue the song of the dead. A song that was to conjure evil spirits back to earth. This along with a couple of other minor events led to the beginning of The Salem Witch Trials. The people were so afraid of Lucifer and what was happening around them that they started blindingly accusing everyone of witchery. To Puritans anyone that had ever done anything the slightest bit out of place had signed Lucifer’s book. Those who didn’t admit to the crime of dealing with the devil were immediately …show more content…
The hangings and jailings started after she made everyone fear Betty and convinced people all the girls had signed the book of Lucifer. The people of Salem fear witchcraft and the darkness and she had girls openly admitting demonic actions all while hiding her true intentions. The only reason the girls did the ritual and Betty fell sick was because Abigail wanted to have John Proctor all to herself. Also if Abigail would have admitted what was going on from the start the situation wouldn’t have escalated so badly and it might have been easier for the people to understand. Since people are often frightened by what they do not understand a little truth from Abigail’s part might have been useful in keeping the situation under