What Does The Serpent Symbolize In The Crucible

989 Words4 Pages

Another symbol we observe that when the old man offers him a staff that resembles like snake and serpent is the symbol of turning faith as we see in Puritan and Biblical concept in Christianity that serpent has maneuver the mind of the Eve in the heaven. The same phenomenon we conceive here that this old man offers this staff to show and guide the path but in real sense this snake like staff will put on devilish path. It denotes that the staff which bore the likeness of a great lack snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself, like a living serpent (p-277).
Salem, is considered or symbolized here as the most notorious colonial town in American History, it is famous for its witch trials in 1692 and it is also dramatized brilliantly by Arthur Miller in The Crucible. At the core of the Salem Witch …show more content…

She represents both the symbol of greed and selfishness and she wants to ascertain a large amount of money to fulfill her rampant desire. She is avarice and selfish more than her children and she is willing to spend luxurious life beyond her limitation and her inordinate desire leads her son towards devilish activity. It states “She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them” (p-734). Lawrence stresses that Hester is incapable of enhancing an emotional affinity to her children. She thinks that the children are overburden to her lifestyle and she gives importance to wealth more than love. Hester thinks that affection and love may be replaced with expensive gifts or some valuable things and it states “When her children were present, she always felt the center of her heart go hard. Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love. ‘She is such a good mother, she adores her children’. Only she herself, and the children themselves, knew it was not so”