The Crucible: Act One

Many of the stories that we have been reading in English have been written by Puritan writers, and their religious beliefs are very prominent in their writing. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, and it takes place and regards the Salem Witch Trials. While the story was written in the 1950's, it still contains many factors of Puritan writing. There were many passages, just in the first act that were about religion.

 "The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all organizations is and must be rounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space. Evidently the time came in New England when the repressions of order were heavier than seemed warranted by the dangers against which the order was organized. The witch hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom (Miller 6-7)."

This quote from the passage is a big hint that leads to the downfall of the entire story. The narrator explains that a theocracy is based on the principle that some people should be included and some people should be excluded from society, based on their religious beliefs. Basically, when taken to extremes, religious fervor always results in tragedy. The Puritan society was heavily based on religion. The whole reason they came to North American was to "purify" themselves, and in the end, that was their downfall.

One characteristic of Puritan writing that was not as prominent was the use of short, declarative sentences. Yes, the author does use declarative sentences, but they contain a little more detail than the average Puritan writer would include

"He was the kind of man - powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led - who cannot refuse support to partisans without drawing their deepest resentment."

 If that would have been written by a Puritan writer, I believe it would have contained less detail. Most of the writing still resembled very closely to Puritan writing (Miller 20).

After all of the blogs that I have written about the question "How does the writing reflect Puritan writing?" it has become obvious that there is only so much a person can say to answer that question. To me, the biggest reference to Puritan writing is their reference to God. In Puritan writing, there are many references to God, such as in the first passage that I cited above. The Puritans writing style also mirrored a 4th grader's, in my opinion. They used very short, declarative sentences, which got their point across, but lacked a personality in their writing.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.