Gender Roles In The Crucible

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In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Gender plays a large role in the overall outcome of the play. Gender combined with the traditional Puritan society makes this topic very controversial; however, in the play women hold the power, but do so from the shadows. This is crucial to their power because of the society they live in which is very traditional in the sense that the women stay at home and the men work and support the family. In a patriarchal society men control the community but in reality it is the women working to influence their husbands and sway the communities decisions and actions. Women in The Crucible are the power players, they have the power to bring down the community or bring down families. However, the way they do so is very …show more content…
For example, if Abigail had been a male would she have had the same success in her accusations. Abigail attempts to hide behind the mask of female innocence but if she was a male she would have had no success. She preys on the fact that women are viewed as weak in this society and uses this too go from conspirator to a victim. Another example of this switch would be John Proctor. He is accused of witchcraft and has no way to hide from the allegations, however if John was female he may have been able to shed the blame or even join the accusers. These concepts further back up the allegations that women hold the power in the …show more content…
Women have a natural sense in the flow of society and understand how to exploit its various factions for their gain. For example, Abigail and her lackeys, while being children are one of the most powerful factions within the play. They have the power to accuse and therefore indirectly kill anyone they wish. The representation of a puritan society can be viewed from a feminist standpoint that our generation is so fixated on. For example, The crucible has an allegory that is being shown to the audience exposing how misogyny is being by Arthur Miller throught the play by implying his female characters going against societal norms. The feminist perspective can be compared to that of the bible's first and original sin; the women always being accused first for the actions versus the men who were never suspected of the actions of wrongdoing. While some may say that because of the Puritan society women couldn't hold power or have an influence they would be wrong. Just because of a strong religious or patriarchal society doesn't mean women are powerless. For example, look at Muslim women, they live in a very binding community yet they find ways to influence their societies in positive and negative ways. Another example, in The Crucible, men hold the power yet the entire society is
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