Age Of Faith In The Crucible

There is no such thing as a perfect society. How can there be, if us humans are not perfect? In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the town’s people believe there are witches among them and when something inexplicable happens, people start to take advantage of their own religious beliefs to falsely accuse others. In the Age of Faith, there were several problematic issues in the Puritan society: they had to constantly worry about their behavior because they didn’t want to upset God or the community, they could not speak their mind or contradict authority, and harsh punishments were delivered without concrete proof. The Puritan belief system influences their lives to the extreme.

The Puritans had to double think their daily actions or else they would be marked as unlawful by the church and everyone else in the community. This becomes an issue if people want to live in a
When Tituba is accused of having dealt with the devil she is poorly treated, ‘‘Parris smashes the whip down on her repeatedly’’ (26). The judges easily believe the lies of the girls who accuse Tituba and they beat her several times until she confesses to have been in alliance with the devil. Although, not everyone accused, like Tituba, gets the opportunity to live. For example, John Proctor refuses to give a false confession and so Proctor is hanged. The punishments were cruel in the Puritan theocracy and people were condemned to death without full evidence ‘‘Witchcraft is an invisible crime: therefore who may witness it? The witch and, of course, the victim. Now we can’t expect the victim to accuse herself, can we? Therefore we may only rely upon her victims!-And the children certainly testify!’’ (66). Not only were the punishments severe but the judge's only proof came from a certain group of people, who were most likely not delivering the