How Does Arthur Miller Show Loyalty In The Crucible

Two Sides of the Coin Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible written in 1953 shows the mass hysteria in the small of Salem during the witch trials in 1692. Within the mass hysteria and accusations being made by a group of girls, the characteristics of self-interest and loyalty are presented by almost everyone in the town. While some see loyalty as being faithful to a good person or a good cause, loyalty can also be to a bad person or cause. The same can be said for self-interest. If loyalty goes both ways, is there a point where loyalty should end? Does the time and place of an event fuel self-interest? Throughout the play, both sides of loyalty and self-interest are shown. The concept of loyalty and self-interest is quite complicated. At first, the girls are loyal to Abby after she threatens them. One of the girls that happened to be in the group was Marry Warren. She was John Proctor’s servant and was loyal to Abby at first. After Elizabeth, John’s wife was accused of witch craft, Mary’s loyalty switched over to John and Elizabeth. She finally confessed that what the Abby and the other girls were doing was “pretense” (Miller 187). However, after Abby and her entourage pulled a believable act, Mary goes back to Abby (Miller 144). In this case, Mary showed both …show more content…
When he was called into tow to help catch the witches, his books “weighted with authority” (Miller 153) was what most people noticed first, and he was very proud of his books. He believed that the truth only came from his books. If his books said it to be true, then it was true. He could be not convinced any other way. After so many innocent people were falsely accused and hung, he finally saw what was really going on. He turned from his self-interest and was loyal to the remaining residents of the town. This goes to show that self-interest can be so blinding that they forget