Theme Of Appearance And Reality In The Crucible

Arthur Miller shows us a motif of resentment in his play, The Crucible, primarily by using elements of class distinction, appearance vs. reality, and many characters living an on-edge lifestyle.
The element of appearance vs. reality is effectively shown through the young girls accusing people of being witches, more specifically Abigail. Most people of Salem believe that the girls claiming to be aware of witches are truthful because of their young innocent nature. Abigail is accusing many people she knows and is believed because she appears to be harmless and innocent while in reality she is crazy for accusing innocent people of being witches. This helps provide the play with a motif of resentment because many who know what Abigail is doing and how many lives she is hurting by accusing people of witchcraft, strongly disagree with how the government sees her as innocent and trustworthy when she is actually evil.
In this play, every

In the village of Salem, the church stood at the top of the social hierarchy followed by ministers and last came peasants and slaves. Many women accused by the girls of witchcraft were a part of the lower social classes giving them less power to prove their innocence. Also, the chance of someone being accused of witchcraft got higher the lower their social class was. Women such as Tituba were poor women and had no way of defending themselves in the court because the church is the court and the church is a higher class than them. The young accusing girls targeted vulnerable people of lower classes because of their lack of ability to prove their innocence and their smaller contributions to society. These class distinctions give us a great motif of resentment by showing us how hateful people of Salem are other citizens of Salem. It creates an overall feeling of hate and betrayal and actively presents a motif of