Individualism In The Crucible

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In the current day and age, it is believed that being different is part of life because it makes a person who they are. However, in 17th century North America the Puritan culture had strict rules about the way a person should act in society. This is the society that Arthur Miller based his story around with the conflict of the story being the rise in suspicion about witchcraft. The town becomes more distressed over the rise in witchcraft accusations which results in a downfall of Salem. In Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible,” the downward spiral of the town and increase in witchcraft accusations is caused by the lack of individualism and high intolerance for anything but the rules of the Puritan culture.
However, it is possible the demise …show more content…
Personal interest is a powerful motivation to bring damage to those who have wronged the accuser or who have motives to socially dismember the accuser. It is a common human flaw for a person to get what he or she needs before even considering the repercussions their actions will have. Although these reasons are valid, Salem’s downfall is caused by the lack of individualism and high intolerance for anything but the rules of the Puritan culture. This causes accusations that have been created easier to prove in a courtroom that is biased toward the people that are “true Puritans.” In addition, the strict beliefs causes harmless situations to be exaggerated further adding to the chaos of the …show more content…
The story begins with a group of girls dancing and singing in the forest, while some were using the dance for witch craft purposes there were some innocent girls. The situation could be seen as innocent from afar except for when one girl removed her clothes which was looked down upon especially under such circumstances. Some of the girls, “Betty Parris, Ann Putnam, Mary Warren - who have been accused of unholy dancing at midnight (Weasles),” simply for being there. This small event caused the witch accusations to move at full speed all because of one small incident that should have been discarded. Meanwhile, after Betty Parris passed out people quickly jumped to the accusation that the devil touch. “I’d not call it sick; the Devil’s touch is heavier than sick. It’s death, y’know, it’s death drivin’ into them, forked and hoofed (Miller 465,” as stated by Mrs. Putnam people believed that she had been touched by the devil simply because she fainted after the chaos that happened in the woods. It is ignorance and precise rules that caused this religious community to quickly jump to this conclusion.
Now that it is known how unnecessarily overbearing the members of the Puritan culture were about whether or not their neighbors followed the written and unwritten rules, it can be understood there was a great lack of individuality in the time of the Salem witch trials. Though personal greed
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