Examples Of Puritan Society In The Crucible

The Puritan society in The Crucible The Puritans were English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices. They were also historically known to be hyper-religious and judgmental, believing themselves to be the Hebraic God’s chosen people and abiding by strict social rules. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an example of this, especially when the situation was taken to extremities through the Salem witchcrafts. Because of their strongly biased religious government being easily swayed by the lies from some other people, the sole individual was left with no chance of defending themselves from accusations when the public had already decided their fate. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Puritan theology derived in New England after an exodus from England during the English Protestant Reformation. Puritans believed that their motherland was full of sin and impure people, these settlers

“Each individual needed to behave well and conform to the social order not only to provide evidence of his or her own salvation but also to protect the group and its experiment” (Cooke 338- 339). Because of foundations of Puritan society were built on the notion of conformity, those who are different from the collective were left defenseless. The irregularity caused a lot of problems and wrongs in the societies when it was believed to be the result of sin causing many to suffer. Such as what happened in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, those who established guilty by the society were exploited and scapegoated. In the beginning, the people in the town were nice and friendly to each other. However, after the events involving witchcraft occurred, the women in the town were no longer viewed as people, but as witches with malignant intent. The play created a sharp contrast between the truth and fiction, with the people in power that abuse their authority under the guide of