Slavery And Racism In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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Arthur Miller brings slavery and racism and in his play, “The Crucible” which are the very common themes in black literature. Tituba lives under the triple oppression of these two things. Under the slavery system, she has to work outside from her homeland Barbados, which makes it hardly possible for her to return. “Negro slave enters. Tituba is in her forties. Parris brought her with him from Bardados, where he spent some years as a merchant” (17). The Commercial slavery was the logical extension both of the need to acquire a cheap labor force for burgeoning planter economies, and of the desire to construct Europe’s cultures as ‘civilized’ in contrast to the native, the cannibal and the savage (Ashcroft et al., 1998). The slavery system not only consumed the black physically but also destroyed them spiritually. In The Crucible, Tituba, a black woman and slave, is suffering from loss of ambitious to return home under slavery. Secondly, under the racism, as a black woman in the white society. In The Crucible, Tituba has been an ambitious and she …show more content…

Miller wrote stream on the practice of witchcraft, which was something strictly forbidden in America in the 1690s. Arthur Miller introduces a black character who is harshly accused of deeds linked with the Devil which she has basically nothing to do with. Although the novel reflects the period, Tituba is not characterized simply as a witch but more especially is portrayed as a black slave. Although, Tituba is not the protagonist of the play, she is blamed for witchcraft rituals that make her feared by the people around her. Because she feel the ‘others’ as danger, this leads to an urge to confront it or flee from it. Considering the general overview of 1690s in Salem, Massachusetts, it is observed that the government is ruled by theocracy, the rules which appointed by God are governed by the religious