The Role Of Puritans In The Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the townsfolk of Salem, Massachusetts are used to illustrate the religious beliefs and morals derived from the heavily practiced Puritanism. Puritanism centralizes on the belief that God and His worshippers have formed a sacred covenant, therefore, Puritans must always serve God justly to ensure His protection. Authors throughout history have inscribed various accounts of Puritans upholding their covenants with God, which include: encouraging separation between the rich and the poor, establishing dominance over easy targets, and exiling or correcting sinners. John Winthrop delves celebrates into the accepted inequality between Puritans in A Model Of Christian Clarity, William Bradford considers the Native Americans solely as instruments of God in The History of Plymouth Plantation, and witchcraft accusations fly Cotton Mather’s description of the want to remove the devil from New England inin Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World. Like all ofSimilar to these authors, Arthur MMiller showsprovides, through multiple characters, insight on the length in which Puritans will go to convince themselves they are honoring their Covenant with God, even if they hurt others in the

Arthur Miller characterizes tThe Puritans in The Crucible as vindictive, and hostile , and radicalextremists people who use their religion as an excuse to diminish others, which is a theme commonly interpreted throughout Puritan literatureredundant through the works of Bradford, Mather, and