The Oppression Of Women In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

“The MRI imaging showed that subjects who gave in to group pressure had marked activity in the part of the brain devoted to spatial perception,” (Huston). The Salem Witch Trials, a real-life incident that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts between February 1692 and March 1693, served as the inspiration for Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, which serves as an allegory for the charges leveled against a 12-year-old girl called Anne Putnam. This has been extensively discussed by psychologists and analysts. As a result, people can feel pressured to fit in, which can affect them as an individual. Age does affect one's societal outlook on one as a person. Miller in particular claims, “Abigail, is there any other cause than you have told me, for your

The Crucible displays, “You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tituba, I am John Proctor! You will not use me! It is no part of salvation that you should use me!” (Miller 143). What John Proctor is saying is that he is an important figure in this town, and he’s important because he is male. Tituba has no standing in Salem because she is a slave. In the Salem community, John Proctor always seemed to have a high level of esteem. But when Abigail sought retribution, everything changed. The thing that John Proctor found most difficult was maintaining the good name of his family. Since Abigail devised a scheme to win back her lover, she was found guilty of witchcraft. Abigail Williams and a number of other young Salem girls are detained while engaging in blood-drinking and witchcraft experiments in the woods. They assert that they were simply dancing because they feared negative consequences. According to Tom Jacobs, a writer from the University of California Berkeley, “A new study finds that women are less likely to be referred to employers…” (Jacobs). The idea that women are viewed as “less-than” in society is expressed in this quote. Gender roles are the social norms that define how we should act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves. It’s common to see expectations placed on girls and women to act nicely, be accommodating, and be nurturing. Typically, men are expected to be strong, brave,

When asked why John was asked on page 194 why he wouldn't sign the confession sheet he says, “My name, he wants my name. I’ll murder you if my wife hangs” (Miller 194). The Crucible by Arthur Miller demonstrates the extremes of social pressure and how it may lead others to take actions we would never have considered. The Crucible’s central subject is that one acts and functions differently than one would otherwise because of popular belief. Mary’s actions, the girls’ fainting, and Proctor’s battle to remain silent are a few instances of this. Mary Warren makes an appearance as a character in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. She works as John Proctor’s maid and is one of the accusers in the witch hunt led by Abigail Williams. Mary Warren is a very weak character who gives in to pressure quite regularly. One of the most egregious examples of someone giving in to peer pressure is when Mary Warren decides to accuse Proctor and assert that he is working with the devil. Mary sputters under the strain of the court and points at the Proctor. However, Dobrin writes in The Astonishing Power of Social Pressure that, “On average, subjects went along with incorrect answers more than 40 percent of the time.” (Dobrin). Solomon Asch, a psychologist, conducted one of the earliest and best-known studies on this topic in which participants were handed two cards. On the first