How Does Arthur Miller Present Religion In The Crucible

Relations between Religion and the 1690’s In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is about hysteria that describes how the characters created social panic to ruin their neighbor’s life. The characters in the play accuse each other of witchcraft in order to protect themselves from getting in trouble. The author’s purpose in writing The Crucible was to reveal the importance of religion because the characters are judged based on the actions that they make. When the people in the town make a mistake, religion is their first sought out as a cause. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, religion is the theme that determines the appropriate decisions for the people to make in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1690’s. Arthur Miller uses religion to show the significant meaning of it referring to the people of Salem. As it has stated in the beginning of act one, “Reverend Parris is praying now…” (8). Arthur Miller opens up the act to grab the reader’s attention by mentioning how important religion is. Reverend Parris is praying for his daughter Betty

For example, in act two it has stated, “In the book of record that Mr. Parris keeps, I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath Day” (64). Since religion plays as a big role model at the time it counts as a big deal for the people in Salem if they plow on Sundays instead of going to church. They take this as a serious offense because accomplishing a different action on a Sunday besides going to church is considered as a sin. Another example is in act two that has stated, “Pontius Pilate! God will not let you wash your hands at this” (77). The character John Proctor mentions Pontius Pilate because he is the man who put the omnipotent Jesus on the cross while he was innocent; he is referring to his wife on how she is innocent also. The readers can learn from this that the characters make connections between religion and the contentions happening in the