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The Role Of The Puritan Society In The Crucible

999 Words4 Pages

Despite their deeply religious values, the members of the Puritan Society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are equally as sinful as the rest of the world. The Puritans, known for coming to God when given any matter at hand, lay blame on the Devil, regardless of their contradictory values. By putting blame on him for their wrongdoings, the Devil earns power by the Puritans resorting to involving him in a situation whenever any one thing goes wrong. Power is defined by one’s reputation, status, wealth, gender, and age. Although the natural decider of one’s power in the Puritan society is land, the Devil, himself, holds ultimate power; despite the fact that he does not appear as a human figure, he controls the thoughts and actions of the Puritan …show more content…

In order to save herself from extensive consequences when the society had found out about her eating of the chicken blood in the forest, she is forced to blame someone for her wrongdoing. With this, Tituba comes close to her death, as it is intolerable for any Puritan to take play in witchcraft or consult with the Devil. Abigail claims that Tituba always “comes to [her] while [she] sleep[s] [and that] she's always making [her] dream corruptions!” (44). Although this is untrue, the Devil is placed in a situation of crime, which raises his level of power, as he is the one who is known to force people into performing sinful acts when they are under his influence. In addition to causing the people to, it causes people’s personalities to parallel with the Devil. Giles Corey is a man known for having a court record, due to constant attempt to obtain the land of others. John Proctor claims that Giles “cannot say (...) good morning without [clapping] him for defamation”, because “it [is] the Devil’s fault” (31). The Devil claims power in this situation considering that the effect that he has on Giles is one that strips away his morals as a human being. Similarly, but in a contrasting locality, during this time period, it is known that the Devil’s abilities are able to convert even the purest and sinless people away from God. As written by Arthur Miller, “the Devil [works] again (...) just as he [works] within the Slav who is shocked at (...) a woman’s disrobing herself in a burlesque show. Our opposites are always robed in sexual sin, and it is from this unconscious conviction that demonology”. The Devil “gains both its attractive sensuality and its capacity to infuriate and frighten,” which displays the control he holds over the society in that he can lure in a pure soul, but frighten one as well

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