The Crucible Greed Analysis

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, villagers of Salem demonstrate greed through the service their self interests, whether it be preservation of reputation, or land possession, despite conducting unjust acts. Arthur Miller, in turn, uses the setting of the play, Abigail’s willingness to perjure in preservation of her desires, and imagery to highlight the importance of the greed as a social issue upon the play as a whole.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible sets in a Puritanistic community, where qualities of purity, dedication to God, and honesty, construct the core ideals of society; thus, provides the grounds to highlight the negative significance of greed as a social issue. The Crucible sets in Puritan Salem, where a theocratic governing body, who

Abigail, in fear of the likelihood of a deteriorating reputation for having casted charms in the forest, finds an outlet in Tituba’s confessions. As Abigail realizes Hale’s encouraging reactions to Tituba’s confession to service of the Devil, she proclaims, “I go back to Jesus...I saw Sarah Good, Good Osburn with the Devil!” (45). Abigail takes advantage of her fellow villagers’ naivety in believing in the existence of witchcraft, in doing so, acts as though she’s sending herself back to God, presenting an image of a truthful Christian. Moreover, Abigail accuses other villagers of witchcraft, despite their innocence, relieving speculations upon her conducts in the forest and putting them upon her fellow villagers, harming others in protection of her personal reputation. Not only so, Abigail threatens, or on many occasions, harms, or possesses thoughts of harming others in order to satisfy her own desires. From the beginning, Abigail, as Elizabeth Proctor argues, “thinks to kill [Elizabeth], then to take [Elizabeth’s] place”, possesses motives not only to preserve her name within the town, but to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft, and consequently obtain her status of being John Proctor’s wife as well

As Hale warns Danforth of his decisions, he proclaims, “orphans are wandering...abandoned cattle bellow on highroads...and stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere,” using these imageries in insinuation of the court’s failure to justly judge when regarding conducts of witchcraft, suggesting that they, as Danforth had earlier pronounced, “hold four hundred in the jails upon their signature”, thus an immense amount of power and authority that presumably their leaders would not want stripped away (121,81). From the beginning, as Danforth suggests, the safety of the court’s prolific dominance lies upon its ability to continue charging villagers of witchcraft upon its signature. Hale, consequently, using the images of “abandoned cattle” and “wandering orphans” to suggest that the court’s inability to realize the reality that the outcomes of their trials lie beyond just simply whether one is with God or the Devil, thus taking away its people's’ lives, brings forth its leaders’ reluctance to disregard Abigail Williams’ erroneous acts as signification of their greed upon power, fearing that if they were to charge Abigail for perjury, all their previous decisions conducted upon Abigail’s lies would damage their prestige within the town. Greed, again, is demonstrative of the vast alternation in the town’s dynamic through Miller’s use of imagery. The Crucible’s