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Jealousy And Greed In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

676 Words3 Pages

In Arthur MIller’s play “The Crucible”, Thomas Putnam conveys the theme that “Jealousy and greed can be very destructive”. This is because Putnam’s character is constant throughout the entire play. He is an arrogant and envious, older man who is willing to go to extreme measures to get his way and to obtain his selfish desires. Due to Putnam’s actions of extreme methods to obtain his selfish desires, he invites a large amount of chaos in the small town of Salem,Massachusetts all while into his own and many others lives. Putnam’s character conveys the theme that “ Jealousy and greed can be very destructive” because of his arrogant nature and attitude. In “The Crucible” Miller states Putnams feelings about how the village “so blatantly disregard …show more content…

This is shown by Putnam’s attitude to his accuser and to his daughter. While he threatened to take legal action against Giles Corey for accusing him of the crime of and how he persuaded his daughter to lie and accuse George Jacobs for witchcraft. Putnam’s character conveys the theme that “ Jealousy and greed can be very destructive” because of how easily others in the village could find him guilty of a horrid crime that started with pure greed and jealousy. In “The Crucible” while in couselship with the other members of the court, Giles Corey makes an accusation against Putnam. He accuses Putnam by saying he “ coldly prompted his daughter to cry witchery upon George Jacobs that is now in jail” (Miller 96). This accusation reveals how far Putnam is willing to go to undertake the land of one who is innocent, but is charged and is not guilty. This is true because if any resident in Salem were to be charged with witchcraft by any of the affected girls, their land would be turned over to the government and anyone who had money to buy this land

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