"The Crucible" Act I

"The Crucible" was published by Arthur Miller in 1953.  The recent stories and excerpts we have read have been from centuries ago.  For example, William Bradford started his journal “Of Plymouth Plantation" in the 1600s.  That was over three hundred years ago.  That is a wide span of time for new ideas to arise.  The thing is, is that Miller's writing is similar to that of the Puritans'.  As we have conversed in past class periods, the Puritans' writing style consists of: straight forward, tends to be less descriptive, which leads to shortness and A LOT about God.  The main thing with God is that they do not want to put any emotion that will make God seem less than he is.  The Puritans' are scared that if they draw attention to themselves that God will punish them and send them to Hell.  

From what I just said, you probably think that "The Crucible" is just like all the rest of the Puritans' works of art.  Well you are wrong!  Arthur Miller's play talks highly of God and that he should always be put first, but it also shows how the Puritans' beliefs start to spiral into a downfall.  First off, I would like to share with you a little bit about what I read in Act I.  "The Crucible" is a play about the Salem Witch Trials.  These trials took place in Massachusetts in the late 1600s, 1692 to be exact.  The Salem Witch Trials were composed of nineteen men and women, who were accused of witchcraft and were either killed for their wrongdoing or sent to jail.  Many of the accused sat in jail without ever even having a trial.  As big of an issue it was at the time, it ended just as quickly as it started.  Anyways, the story line is that Reverend Parris' daughter, Betty is in a coma and they believe that it is because of witchcraft.  He had seen his daughter along with a couple of other girls dancing around a fire with the family's slave, Tituba.  

On the first page of "The Crucible," Arthur Miller states, "to win people and God to his side."  Just from this fragment of sentence, you are able to see that Reverend Parris wants to be on God's good side but also to be liked by the people in his town.  The government of Salem is a theocracy.  "The people of Salem developed a theocracy a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies" (Miller 7).  This right here also shows that God is important even when making decisions for the government.  

The author shows how the Puritans' writing style is starting to beak away from its normal format.  "He was the kind of man, powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led" (Miller 20).  this right here seems like normal descriptions to us, but with the Puritans', this is way too descriptive.  Usually they are very blunt and scarcely give details.  This quote shows how the writing style is starting to become different and not the same as it used to be.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.