The Crucible: Revisiting the Salem Witchcraft Trials
Does power corrupt? In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Miller takes his readers on a journey back to 1692 to revisit the Salem witchcraft trials. He cleverly portrays a small Puritan town and the disappearance of their commitment to each other and the truth.
One of the main characters in Miller’s play is Abigail Williams, who is a seventeen year old orphan with an “endless capacity for dissembling”.(p.8) She, along with an evil land owner, Thomas Putnam, and a distinguished judge, Danforth, is able to corrupt the town to get what they want.
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Through their manipulating tactics of deceiving the town and making them believe that evil has taken over, Danforth, Putnam, and Abigail Williams are able to destroy the morals and values the town once had to get what they want.
Judge Danforth is the first of the three individuals that use power to corrupt. He is a deputy governor and a “grave man in his sixties… with an exact loyalty to his position and cause (p.85).” Danforth sees his position as judge as an important one, and in the case of witchcraft in Salem, his main objective is to “rid the town of all evil (p.140).” However, he misuses his power to punish the innocent in order to please the town’s majority.
An example of how Danforth uses his power to achieve his goal occurs towards the end of the story. He makes an example out of John Proctor, and makes him confess to being involved with witchcraft. John Proctor was a very important player in Danforth’s plan because he is so well known throughout the town.
If Danforth could use his power as a judge to make Proctor confess, then the presence of witchcraft and evil in the town would soon disappear and order would be restored.
Thomas Putnam, a wealthy landowner, is another character that uses power to corrupt the town to benefit himself. He is very well known throughout the town not only as a “well to do landowner (p.13),” but also as a “man with many grievances,…
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