How Is Religion Reflected In The Crucible

In The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller, show how the Puritans are too involved with religion and have too much trust in religion. The amount of trust and involvement Puritans had in religion caused clouded perspective and overreaction. These factors together are what caused many Puritan community to become weak and lose much of their involvement in church. Think about it their core value of church is destructive, one power is destructive. Clouded perspective is a common theme in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The scene that identifies the Puritans clouded perspective is seen in scene three when they are talking about the poppet. Mary claims the poppet is hers after Elizabeth is accused by Abigail over witchcraft and stabbing her with the doll “A poppet were discovered in Mr. Proctor's
The biggest overreactions are seen in the beginning of the story. When a group women are talking about Hester and what her punishment should be for her actions of adultery. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it ? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book.”(Hawthorne). The one who is said to be the ugliest of the group says that Hester should die for her actions. The lady also asks “Is there not law for it ? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book” the Puritans were so involved in religion that there judicial system was built around it. This shows overreaction for the simple reason that they wanted to kill her. Having a child out of wedlock and having an affair is terrible, but to kill Hester for her actions is extreme. This again shows the Puritans over involvement in religion. They rely on their scripture to tell them what is right or wrong. This is destructive to the community, because just like in The Crucible by Arthur Miller religion is what brings the community