The Misinterpretation Of The Puritans In The Play The Crucible?

A time of death, loss, and fear. A time where neighbors turned on one another and families were torn apart. More importantly, it was a time of complete and utter destruction, which all rested on the hands of a group of young children. Even though the Salem witch trials is a topic that brings much sorrow and shows the mentality of the Puritans, Arthur Miller, along with many others are drawn to it, wanting to know the true reason behind the girls' motives and finding a narrative within the cases. However, in Miller’s play, The Crucible, the narrative resulted in many misinterpretations of the true data. The misrepresentations include wrong relations among the characters, a difference in ages, a misunderstanding in the numbers of accused and …show more content…
In the play, The Crucible, John Proctor is said to be 33 and a farmer. A farmer represents an essential person in a community and symbolizes life. Furthermore, a 33 years old he is more likely to be relevant in the town and is known among the people. By changing just a few simple details about Proctor, Miller has established Proctor as a protagonist in the play. The reader now has a deep appreciation and respects the decisions of Proctors due to these few misinterpretations. However, if Proctor was presented as 60 and a tavern keeper, as he was during the Salem witch trials, the readers would not have been able to understand and appreciate the character. After all, no one would wish to pity an old man who is associated with the uneducated men of society. Arthur Miller not only created a protagonist in the piece of literature using misinterpretations, but also an antagonist. Abigail is portrayed as a 19-year-old in the text, while in reality, she was 12. Contrasting to Proctor, Miller added depth to Abigail's personality by increasing her age. She is now a reliable source, which establishes an explanation for her motives in the text, lust. If Abigail was presented as the historically accurate 12-year old, the reader would pity her and believe …show more content…
Not only did it add depth to the characters, entertainment, and sympathy to the innocent, it also resulted in irony. When finding the reasons for misinterpretations and the reasons behind them, it was evident that there was a reason for keeping some facts historically true. By doing so Miller demonstrated to the reader how outrageous this time period was. It is a situation so unimaginable in today’s world that Miller thought it was important for the world to get a sense of what happened. He exhibited how religion was able to destroy an entire community and the consequences that can come from just a lie and a person’s fear. Finally, through his misinterpretation, Miller presented a fictional reason for why the trials occurred in the first place, while still giving the audience the true say t decide what they really believe happened and to prevent fear of a religion, person, or belief from taking lives ever