How Does Arthur Miller Show Obedience In The Crucible

To Obey or Disobey: Does it matter?

Imagine receiving an arrest warrant on allegations that your work implied, very faintly, a hate crime. As preposterous as it sounds, far-reaching claims like this have played a tremendous role shaping and driving legal controversies throughout history. Playwright Arthur Miller’s The Crucible provides a partially fictional narrative on one such event - the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. When several girls are caught apparently dancing in the forest, they fabricate that a conspiracy of witchcraft has taken over the town. Cultivating their newfound power, the girls thrive in the resulting witch hunts and pioneer an era of madness, fear, and betrayal in Salem. The threat of death looms over the accused, causing

Arthur Miller asserts the insignificance of obedience by highlighting the inherent bias in a legal authority and narrating the irony when the witch court suspects even the best of character.

Through his satirization of Deputy Governor Danforth’s character and oxymoronic legal reasonings, Miller demonstrates the uselessness of being obedient in society. As the witchcraft fervor spreads through Salem, many unable to believe that several of the arrested have confessed to working with the devil. Those aware of the ongoings in court, however, dispel beliefs that of the accusations’ veracity, revealing “The Deputy Governor promise hangin’ if they’ll not confess”(58). Danforth presents an ironic loss-loss situation to the accused women. If the women declare themselves as witches, the Puritans recognize them as the antithesis of good, and hang them. However,

In the play’s opening pages, he introduces the key figures of the novel, sharing their background and attitudes. Miller introduces Rebecca with “the general opinion of her character was so high”, and clearly comment on the irony of “ that to explain how anyone dared cry her out for a witch” (32). His word choice, specifically, “how dare”, indicates the utter absurdity of the idea that Rebecca is witch. Moreover, in his diction, Miller places Rebecca’s obedient nature as support for why the suspicion is outrageous. In other words, Rebecca’s obedience and good reputation serve the purpose of preventing harm from coming her way, yet they have failed. As the witchcraft hysteria grows in Salem, the court arrests Rebecca, which stuns many prominent members of the town. Justifiably upset, Francis, her husband and a very pious man, protests her arrest, defending her as “the very brick and mortar of the church”(77). Francis’s description compares Rebecca to the very base, the very foundation and key element in the church. His argument should be even more compelling due to the theocratic system of the Puritans, meaning that Rebecca being a good part of the church makes her a lawful member of the state. Reverend Hale, who has connection to the court, spurns Francis’s dissent, arguing , “Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought