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Social deterioration in "The Crucible"
The deterioration of Salem's social structure precipitated the murders of
many innocent people. Arthur Miller's depiction of the Salem witch trials,
The Crucible, deals with a community that starts out looking like it is
tightly knit and church loving. It turns out that once Tituba starts
pointing her finger at the witches, the community starts pointing their
fingers at each other. Hysteria and hidden agendas break down the social
structure and then everyone must protect themselves from the people that
they thought were their friends. The church, legal system and the
togetherness of the community died so that children could protect their
families' social status.
Being isolated from any other group of people with different beliefs
created a church led Puritan society that was not able to accept a lot of
change. The church was against the devil, at the same time it was against
such things as dancing and other premature acts. The reputation of the
family was very important to the members of the community. When the girls
were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just themselves
but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil took them
over and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw
members of the town standing with the devil. A community living in a
puritan society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a
difficult time dealing with what they consider to be the largest form of
evil.
Salem's hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs
that they were trying to strictly enforce. The church lost many of its
parishioners because the interest of the town was now on Abigail because
people wanted to know who was going to be named next. When the church was
trying to excommunicate John Proctor, there were not enough people at
church to do it. The people were getting misled so far as to leave a dagger
stuck in the door of their minister's house: Tonight, when I open my door
to leave my house_a dagger clattered to the ground...There is danger for
me.(128) were Parris' exact words. With the conveyer of God fearing for his
life there was no longer anyone but Abigail to lead the community.
The justice system is designed to protect the people that it serves but
during the trials the accused witch had two choices, death or imprisonment.
The punishment of death was given to all people that pleaded not guilty;
the other punishment was to plead guilty and go to jail. John Proctor gave
his view of the justice system when he said I like not the smell of this
`authority' (29). And do you know that near to four hundred are in the
jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?(85) said Danforth,
describing the number of people that were in jail on charges of witchcraft.
There were so many people executed that Hale commented there are orphans
wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads,
the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere...(130) Salem was turning into
a ghost town. With Abigail controlling the community, the church no longer
getting the whole town to prayer, and an unjust legal system, it is natural
that the people were in a state of total chaos.
The unexplained was caused by the devil, so some members of Salem used the
unexplained to their advantage. Mrs. Putnam told the truth when she said,
There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!(26)
Mrs. Putnam did her share of spreading rumors after she heard that the
girls were flying, so she asked Parris How high did she (Abigail) fly, how
high?(11). These rumors happened because people did not want any blame put
on to themselves. This `passing the buck' made people start fighting with
one another such as Corey charging Putnam of having his daughter accuse a
resident of witchcraft in order to get Corey's land. Abigail used her power
of getting people to listen to her to her advantage when she charged
Proctor's spouse with being a witch so Abigail could live with John. This
again proves that Abigail had control of the town and the unexplained
turned neighbor against neighbor.
The social breakdown in Salem was the major factor in the tragedy that took
the lives of many innocent people. There was more than one tragedy in The
Crucible. The first was the murdering of many innocent people, and the
second was that a community that was once very close had been broken apart.
It appeared that the people of Salem were like a family but isolation
actually made them unable to adapt to a troublesome situation. If the
community could have had a greater influence from another group of people
then the social structure would have been able to adaptTragedy: The
Deterioration of Salem During the Witch TrialsThe Crucible by Arthur
MillerJohn Hudson
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