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The Crucible Quotes

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The Crucible Quotes
“He believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God to his side”
Miller about Parris and how he doesn’t belong to the community but belongs to religion pg13 “To the European world the whole province was a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics”
Belonging to a place – Miller says this about Salem
13

“Their creed forbade anything resembling a theatre or ‘vain enjoyment’.”
Miller says what belonging to a community/group can lead people to feel/do
14

“A holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer”
Miller tells us about what THEOCRATIC society required
14
“This predilection for minding other people’s business was time-honoured among the people of Salem”
Miller explains what it meant when people belonged to a community
14

“The edge of the wilderness was close by…and it was full of mystery for them.”
Miller states that belonging to such a wild place may be reason for the witch hunts
14

“…the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand”.
This again shows that Miller believes that the location played a role in their beliefs. Highlights also their strong beliefs in religion and how theocracy ruled their society.
15
“…their church found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom”
Miller highlights that you either belonged with their church or didn’t belong at all.
15

“…the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together”
Miller informs us, in the introduction, that Salem was theocratic and their intentions in it
16
“…the people of Salem…[wanted] to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies”
This is, as Miller points out, the purpose of their theocratic society, but also gives reasons for what happened when people didn’t

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