What sort of world do the people of Salem inhabit?

Authors Avatar

What sort of world do the people of Salem inhabit?

Arthur Miller’s introduction effectively introduces contextual information about the setting of The Crucible. The people of Salem live in a world filled with senseless fear and the tendency to place the blame on the problems in the society on each other as ‘they accused others’ in order to ‘deflect punishment from themselves’. The citizens of Salem were often faced with false accusations as are reflected throughout the play. In the introduction Miller states that ‘they inhabited a world in which witchcraft formed a part of their cosmology’. They had no tolerance whatsoever for people who they believed to be witches. One of the themes of the play is betrayal, and this goes along with the general idea of intolerance.  As Puritanists, the people of Salem were fairly theocratic which caused them to be suspicious of their neighbours and what witchcraft related activites they may be conducting. Because of the suspicions ‘people were being torn apart, their loyalty to one another crushed,’ and ‘the trials took precedence over all other activities.’

Join now!

Reverend Parris, despite being a priest, is not a very well respected man in Salem. His character is driven by his selfishness and insecurities. This can be seen in the beginnings of Act One where he is found praying and crying over his daughter, Betty, as shown in Miller’s stage directions Parris ‘is overcome with sobs’. Although this can be depicted as him showing his worry for his daughter, it is later evident that he is simply worried about the reputation he will hold of having a daugther who could potentially be associated with activities of witchcraft. This is reiterated ...

This is a preview of the whole essay