Social Norms In The Crucible

Imagine being an African American living down South during the 1930’s, when racial discrimination was a huge thing. Why were these African Americans so hated and discriminated? It was the way these people grew up in their setting, or even the way the setting raised them, to automatically view these colored people different and not equal towards them. The place in which people are raised in give them these characteristics and social beliefs, so they are not used to anything outside of their social norm. In the novel, “The Crucibles”, by Arthur Miller, the characters living there had a very vague and straight forward way of living life, and if anyone was seen to be doing something different or unusual, they would automatically be accused of witchcraft.

“The Crucibles” was a novel that showed that if anything was seen different out of the social norm, people would think it was the work of the devil, or in other words- witchcraft. The townspeople in this setting had a very vague and simple way of living, and had a couple of beliefs of the devil, which scared them all. It was seen that any act of something not normal was to be very suspicious. “I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came up to you. Why was she doing that? And I heard screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She was swaying like a dumb beast over that fire.” (Page 10.) A belief of these people was that if any girl was to be seen dancing in the woods, she would be with the devil. It advances the plot because this put the people in panic, and men and women in trials would accuse others if they thought they were a little out of the normal. This setting proves the small theme that these girls don’t need to be seen flying a broom and wearing a black hat, but simply if they did something out of their norm, they would automatically think it's witchcraft. “The psalm! The psalm! She cannot bear to hear the lord's name….That is a notorious sign of witchcraft afoot, Goody Nurse, a notorious sign!” (Page 23.) How did this influence the characters? They were panicked. Abigail Williams, a girl who was seen suspicious throughout the town, was in love with a man named John Proctor. Now, this man John, had a wife Elizabeth Proctor, but cheated on her with Abigail. Abigail hated Elizabeth, so she accused her of witchcraft in court. It was seen how easy it was to be accused of something and court, and the punishment of being hung was extremely scary. “To sustain the integrity of their own names, the accused were invited to offer the names of others, even though to do so would be to make them complicit in procedures