Religion In The Crucible

The Dalai Lama, religious leader of the Buddhist faith, stated that his “religion is very simple. [His] religion is kindness.” This is the basis for all religions and what society should follow. Wether you are Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, kindness is the forefront of all religious ideals. In The Crucible, however, these ideals are not followed. The play follows a town which is lead into chaos based on the accusations of witchcraft in the town. Many of the townspeople are quite religious and use that to their advantage. They seem quite trustworthy and this leads the townspeople to believe their statements and accusations towards other people are true. This allows the reader to see throughout the play, The Crucible, that the townspeople of Salem use religious ideals and beliefs to assert power and dominance over their fellow man, and use religion to make their society believe in supernatural and mythological beings.

Beneath Puritan goodness lay deep seeded, malevolent thoughts. In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, rumors of witchcraft swarmed, depicted in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. The seemingly perfect society of Salem is laced with nefarious behaviors and ideas. Puritans had to keep the most power in God’s hands. They wanted more land to achieve a higher reputation, and their boredom could not be dealt with any longer; Puritans needed something new and exciting to do. The importance of these issues weighed heavily upon the Puritans and become essential to society. Eventually, greediness with the interference of God’s power, possession of land, and the need for something to do led to the destruction of Salem.

Puritans and reformers of seventeenth century England have been given a bad name for their part in history. This is primarily because they were working against the grain and trying to create change in world that saw change as a threat. The time period was turbulent and there was bound to be resistance in a world that was dominated by Catholics and those that had reformed to abide by their King’s law. The puritans of the time were considered extreme and rubbed people the wrong way because they wanted a world that abided by their morals and ethical codes. For this, they took the blame for the misery that many suffered during this age, but as we see in Fire from Heaven, this is not a fair assessment. The Puritans of this time wanted to improve the lives of the people and society as a whole through morality and purity.

Both texts explore the immense influence of religion on those in society. The town of Eyam relies on religion to guide the community out of the crisis, however the the town could choose their own religion, and the growth of enlightenment meant that science began to affect the views and values of some individuals. Unlike Eyam in Year of Wonders, religion greatly dictated how the town would deal with the crisis in The Crucible. Many individuals in both texts either turn to their religion, or seek out new religions to try and comprehend the crisis. Due to the horror and hysteria present in Year of Wonders, certain members of the community began to question the religion they had always believed, and some became god fearing flagellants.

The Puritans were a widespread and diverse group of people who took a stand in the 16th and 17th century in Europe. Their rise was directly related to the increased knowledge that that came to the common people during the Enlightenment. As people learned to read and write, and as the bible became more accessible to the commoners, many began to read the bible for themselves. The word Puritan first came as a term for those who advocated more purity in the church. “Under siege from church and crown, it sent an offshoot in the 3rd and 4th decades of the seventeenth century to the northern english colonies in the New World- a migration that laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England.”

The Puritans were a group of religious people who believed the Church of England needed to be purified because they were corrupt. They believed that God had formed an agreement with them to live according to the Scriptures. Since the didn’t like the Church of England, they thought they needed to set an example for them.

The main central theme that is shown throughout the entire movie of “The Crucible” is religion. They all live in a Puritan society. Witchcraft is known in their religion as the work of the Devil. The Devil represents all the bad in the universe while God represents all the good. When the girls accuse people of being seen with the Devil in their dreams, those people are seen as bad.

The 17th century Puritans were known to represent a religious group migrating from England to America in order to practice religious freedom. These groups were determined to “purify” churches of England from Catholic practices. Puritans are known for their religious, social, and political influences on early America. Edmund S. Morgan’s novel The Puritan Family highlights a part of history that many would tend to look over upon- that is, the complex structural life of Puritan Families in the 17th century.

Puritans have managed to remain relevant over the course of history in the religious culture. They have weathered the storm of the constantly changing sphere of enlightenment and science. Masses unquestionably follow the words of The Bible, for a multiple of reasons ranging from pure faith, to repetition. The installation of fear tactics has been an extremely effective tool used by Puritans that is prevalent even modern times. The threat of eternal damnation gets desired results that will keep the pews occupied for an infinite amount of time.

The idea of religion has been around for millennials. It has shaped the way humans think and feel in their society. All have different ways of practicing and expressing their religion. This can be seen in the three time periods of Puritans, Deists, and Transcendentalists. Puritans focused on their religion by being heavily involved in the church.

“I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality” (Gandhi). During the McCarthy Era in America, Arthur Miller decided to create a commentary through a play, where he could show the personal and social injustices in society this ended up as being his classic play “The Crucible”. Published in 1953, Miller’s work it’s based on the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Salem. This happened in a small village, where a small community was dedicated to the service of God. In January 1962, a group of young women sows the scandal in that rural community, peaceful but suffocating because of the strict religious norms that governed daily life. Between sobs and spams they affirmed to

Familiar faces of the innocent and the guilty. Falsely accused and falsely trusted. The Puritan faith of 1692 faced questioning due to the evil essence brought upon by the acts of sin. Amongst a Theocratic society, in which the church and state are whole, religion and its contributing factors played a strict role during the existence of the Puritan faith. True Puritans were expected to live by a rigid moral code, scripted through the Bible, to form a covenant with God and predestination to heaven. Throughout the ages of Salem, Massachusetts, the attempt to create a utopian society became a huge focal point. One such group that had that was the Puritans. Dating back a few hundred years ago, Puritans craved utopia for Salem, but discovered a struggle when spiritual confliction arose. Later on, a great portion of the community faced punishment by accusation for consorting with the Devil. Their disbelief in individuality formed them as one entity, concluding the reason for the amount of Puritans punished. The strong belief in the Devil affected the actions of the people in the Puritan society. A series of tragedies in the dramatic-play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, presents how the demonic art of Witchcraft challenged the values of faith and justice through the eyes of Abigail, John Proctor, and Reverend John Hale.

“It will pay us to keep an open mind to the possibilities that we have been seriously mislead regarding the Puritans.” That being said, it is obvious to anyone who has a genuine understanding of the Puritans, to know that they were not a group of individuals who opposed sex, education, and money. In fact, they relied heavily on their individual liberates. Despite the fact that, it is generally accepted by most, that the Puritans were an inundating society. This is merely a hasty generalization. That being said, Leland Ryken does an outstanding job of explaining the Puritan’s true motives during their duration in history. Regardless of how outsiders viewed and treated the Puritans, they accomplished remarkable deeds and did not stray from their

A prevalent theme in The Crucible is that a person’s religion and or beliefs have a powerful effect on how they are perceived by society. The town of Salem was primarily dominated by the Puritan religion and its strict followers. Those who were seen as the purest Puritans, like Reverend Parris, were revered by society. Even Parris was aware that his status in Salem was because of his religious values. In the beginning of the book, Parris believed that by being associated with witches, his religious status, as a minister, would decline and he would no longer be seen as close to God, or as a prominent figure in society. Not only did your religion determine how powerful you were in society, but it affected how unpopular you were in the community as well. Bridget Bishop, a tavern keeper, was one of the first targets of the witch trials because of her religion.

Both Arthur Miller and Geraldine Brooks use the texts to explore and ultimately condemn the role of religion in a changing society. The climactic events in The Crucible and Year of Wonders involve religion playing a large part in advancing the crisis and enhancing the severity of the consequences. In The Crucible the protestant views shared by the town of Salem are criticized by Miller as the townspeople fail to make a distinction between church and state. Their theocratic society is the cause for much of the unhappiness in the play, beginning with its restrictive rules which guide the people of Salem that cause first the desire to rebel from the young girls who go dancing in the forest, then the