The loud cackle, green skin, broomstick and pot of potions all bring the thought of witches to mind. In Salem, Massachusetts though, thoughts of witches were found in a different source, the very faces of their own neighbors. It was discovered, that these witches found in Salem may have come through the rising social pressures in the belief of the existents of witches. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, he illustrates the social pressures during the Salem witch Trial Era. Miller shows that due to social pressures, Parris, Hale, and Proctor’s actions and choices were influenced; whether to hang and condemn someone, to seek the truth no matter how drastic, or die because you refused to give in. Reverend Parris, a preacher struggling to …show more content…
He came with those pressures heavy on his shoulders just like the books he carried as he claimed “they must be; they are weighted with authority (Act 1 pg, 36). The pressure he felt spurred Hale to find answers where none were. He was a character that felt pressure but also knew how to use pressure to get people answer and just like Parris he discovered it was a powerful tool that cost people their lives. Towards the end with many more getting accused and rising hysteria, he found that the pressure had changed to the need to answer for himself and his actions as he said, “Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it” (Act Three, pg 99). Shortly after this Mary Warren came forward claiming it to be pretense. There was now “ a slightest qualm of conscience ” as he put it, something the court refused to acknowledge. Hale was faced with the decision in that moment of how he was going to let pressure affect his life; as he denounced the court and left his choice was clear, he would not let the pressure of society hold him prisoner but let the pressures he placed on himself set him free something Proctor had found out much