The Crucible Jealousy Analysis

Jealousy is the feeling resentment against someone because of that person's rivalry, success, or advantages. Temptation is a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise. The combination of these two strong feelings made for a deadly climax. The society in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is based upon the oppression of emotions. The suppression of these two enduring emotions played a key part in the destruction and unraveling of the town of Salem by not only igniting the fire that was the Salem witch trials but unceasingly fueling it until the point of no return. Temptation was not the first emotion introduced in the story but it was the first to light the fire of the witch trials. Adultery is usually the result

Abigail’s jealousy is what ultimately drives her to the edge of reason. Abigail’s intense jealousy is exemplified in Act II lines 162-168 when John and Elizabeth are discussing the situation.“It is her dearest hope, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name—I am no Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osburn, drunk and half-witted. She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it. She thinks to take my place, John.” Suppressing this emotion for so long - along with other emotions like grief for her parents and the aforementioned temptation and lust for John Proctor - made the emotion more violent when it finally reached the surface. Abigail is not the only one in the play who shows examples jealousy. Thomas Putnam is also a victim of jealousy and what it can make you do. In Act 3 Scene 2 Giles accuses Putnam of lying to get Jacob's land. His jealousy led him to lie just as it did Abigail. Like temptation, if people in the town of Salem had more ways to deal with their emotions than pushing them down they would experience far less situations such as the one that occurred in The Crucible. The main emotions in The Crucible that caused trouble were jealousy and temptation. The main problem with these emotions was not that the characters had them but that they were constantly suppressed