A small village in Salem, Massachusetts is what this Puritan community calls home. The village is not a new settlement, rather, one that has been molded for decades. The inhabitants have continued to build on the lives and reputations of those before them. Now that Abigail Williams, niece to the town’s Reverend Parris, and other girls in the community have begun accusing many of witchcraft, everything has gone downhill. Considering Arthur Miller describes Salem as a close, Puritanical community in The Crucible, the setting is crucial to the storyline. The Crucible entails the demise of a mostly upper and upper-middle class hamlet as young women begin to accuse people of their village of witchcraft. This is a result of the Reverend
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The article reads, “The Puritans were somber, disciplined people who did not allow any frivolity to come between them and their work,” (Neoenglish 3). The actions of Abigail Williams and her friends would have been looked down upon as a diversion from the Puritan lifestyle. Acting wildly at the mention of someone’s name to make the person look suspicious was out of place, nevertheless, that was the girls’ reaction. They were scared, but they kept up the God-fearing charade until enough was enough. It finally got to the point where people thought it ridiculous that some of the most well-respected people were accused of practicing witchcraft. The idea of witchcraft alone was unsettling to Puritans, and if anyone should have a suspicion, (reasonable or not), all heads would turn to those who were made to look out of place. The fact that Salem was smaller and more religious community was not helpful in silencing the uproar of accusations. Outlandish lash-outs would not have been tolerated in a Puritan society like Salem. To make the situation worse, if there is a closer village like the one depicted in The Crucible, gossip spreads like wildfire and specifics can be lost. The combination of these factors proves that the plot of this story is dependent on the
The article reads, “The Puritans were somber, disciplined people who did not allow any frivolity to come between them and their work,” (Neoenglish 3). The actions of Abigail Williams and her friends would have been looked down upon as a diversion from the Puritan lifestyle. Acting wildly at the mention of someone’s name to make the person look suspicious was out of place, nevertheless, that was the girls’ reaction. They were scared, but they kept up the God-fearing charade until enough was enough. It finally got to the point where people thought it ridiculous that some of the most well-respected people were accused of practicing witchcraft. The idea of witchcraft alone was unsettling to Puritans, and if anyone should have a suspicion, (reasonable or not), all heads would turn to those who were made to look out of place. The fact that Salem was smaller and more religious community was not helpful in silencing the uproar of accusations. Outlandish lash-outs would not have been tolerated in a Puritan society like Salem. To make the situation worse, if there is a closer village like the one depicted in The Crucible, gossip spreads like wildfire and specifics can be lost. The combination of these factors proves that the plot of this story is dependent on the