Crucible And Murders Essay, Research Paper

The deterioration of Salem’s social structure precipitated the murders of many

innocent people. Arthur Miller’s depiction of the Salem witch trials, The

Crucible, deals with a community that starts out looking like it is tightly knit

and church loving. It turns out that once Tituba starts pointing her finger at

the witches, the community starts pointing their fingers at each other. Hysteria

and hidden agendas break down the social structure and then everyone must

protect themselves from the people that they thought were their friends. The

church, legal system and the togetherness of the community died so that children

could protect their families’ social status. Being isolated from any other group

of people with different beliefs created a church led Puritan society that was

not able to accept a lot of change. The church was against the devil, at the

same time it was against such things as dancing and other premature acts. The

reputation of the family was very important to the members of the community.

When the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just

themselves but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil

took them over and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw

members of the town standing with the devil. A community living in a puritan

society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a difficult

time dealing with what they consider to be the largest form of evil. Salem’s

hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs that they were

trying to strictly enforce. The church lost many of its parishioners because the

interest of the town was now on Abigail because people wanted to know who was

going to be named next. When the church was trying to excommunicate John

Proctor, there were not enough people at church to do it. The people were

getting misled so far as to leave a dagger stuck in the door of their minister’s

house: "Tonight, when I open my door to leave my house–a dagger clattered

to the ground…There is danger for me."(128) were Parris’ exact words.

With the conveyer of God fearing for his life there was no longer anyone but

Abigail to lead the community. The justice system is designed to protect the

people that it serves but during the trials the accused witch had two choices,

death or imprisonment. The punishment of death was given to all people that

pleaded not guilty; the other punishment was to plead guilty and go to jail.

John Proctor gave his view of the justice system when he said "I like not

the smell of this ‘authority’ "(29). "And do you know that near to

four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my

signature?"(85) said Danforth, describing the number of people that were in

jail on charges of witchcraft. There were so many people executed that Hale

commented "there are orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned

cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs

everywhere…"(130) Salem was turning into a ghost town. With Abigail

controlling the community, the church no longer getting the whole town to

prayer, and an unjust legal system, it is natural that the people were in a

state of total chaos. The unexplained was caused by the devil, so some members

of Salem used the unexplained to their advantage. Mrs. Putnam told the truth

when she said, "There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires

within fires!"(26) Mrs. Putnam did her share of spreading rumors after she

heard that the girls were flying, so she asked Parris "How high did she

(Abigail) fly, how high?"(11). These rumors happened because people did not

want any blame put on to themselves. This ‘passing the buck’ made people start

fighting with one another such as Corey charging Putnam of having his daughter

accuse a resident of witchcraft in order to get Corey’s land. Abigail used her

power of getting people to listen to her to her advantage when she charged

Proctor’s spouse with being a witch so Abigail could live with John. This again

proves that Abigail had control of the town and the unexplained turned neighbor

against neighbor. The social breakdown in Salem was the major factor in the

tragedy that took the lives of many innocent people. There was more than one

tragedy in The Crucible. The first was the murdering of many innocent people,

and the second was that a community that was once very close had been broken

apart. It appeared that the people of Salem were like a family but isolation

actually made them unable to adapt to a troublesome situation. If the community

could have had a greater influence from another group of people then the social

structure would have been able to adapt.