The Crucible

The Crucible In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, I found three of the several themes shown throughout the play to be important. In Salem, fear rules the lives of the villagers, causing irrational actions. Also, the Salem Villagers are very manipulative people and will coerce others into doing what they want. Finally, the officials tend to follow either the letter of the law, or the spirit of the law, affecting the choices that are made in court. These themes are shown periodically throughout the play, and play a large part in the interactions between the villagers. The people of Salem Village live their lives in fear of Satan, causing a vast amount of stress, and poor judgment due to fear. Tituba is being questioned about being a witch and says, “No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir” (Miller 44). The villagers are questioning Tituba, because they fear that she has sold her soul to the Devil, and is casting her evil spirit onto the children to torment them. Tituba is afraid that she will be hanged for witchcraft due to the Puritan’s fears. The villagers put suspected witches through rough questioning in order to verify whether they are truly evil, or just falsely accused. Although the villagers are fearful of many things, they are also very manipulative. When Mary Warren tries to reveal Abigail’s scheme, she turns on her in order to force her to stop, saying, “I—I know not. A wind, a cold wind, has come. Her eyes fall on Mary Warren” (Miller 108). Mary Warren was attempting to reveal Abigail’s plot to kill Elizabeth Proctor, so Abigail turned on Mary and accused her of witchcraft. Mary warren did not want to be deemed a witch, and hanged, so she took back her accusation in order to stop Abigail’s lies about her. Abigail successfully manipulated Mary into doing what she wanted, which, in this case, was to stop revealing her vindictive scheme.
The Salem Court officials sometimes follow the letter of the law, and other times