The Puritans were a very orderly put together society; However, they had very little freedom. They believed that social order and organization was much more important than individual rights. In America for example, we have freedom of religion, speech, and the right to equal justice. The Puritans had none of these. After reading about the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible I noticed that they especially lacked the right to equal justice. There lives were very limited and structured. They did not read a lot of books meaning they could not gain a lot of knowledge. The Puritans did not celebrate any holidays such as Christmas, for example. In Miller’s essay, it says that kids must be treated as adults. They had no rights and they were only allowed to speak when spoken to. Another example is that they forbid any “vain enjoyment” or theater which basically means that they could not have any fun or do anything besides work. …show more content…
They could confess and be imprisoned, or they could deny it and face death. The Puritans did not have the chance to explain or voice their opinions. It was very unfair and many of them were imprisoned or killed for no reason. Although many of them were falsely accused, they still could not do anything about it. Another example from the play is when John Proctor tries to tell the truth in order to get his wife Elizabeth out of prison. The judges did not want to hear the truth and they accused him of trying to “overthrow the court”. Instead of accepting the truth and doing something about it, they wanted to maintain the social order in the