Themes & Motifs
POWER:
The reason the witch hunt in The Crucible is because of the greed for power. During a period where land was equal to power, characters such as Tom Putnam showed greed for land by making his daughter accuse innocent people with big plots of land in order to gain the land in sale. Also, Reverend Parris gains great power as his reputation skyrockets with his daughter becoming one of the saints and his nephew, Abigail becoming the head of the saintly girls. All throughout the witch trials, he is next to Judge Danforth and tries to convince the Judge to make decisions which doesn’t jeopardize his reputation. For example, when John Proctor brought the signatures of people who believe Rebecca nurse, and Martha Corey to be innocent of witchcraft, he stated that these people were against the court and should be held into contempt. And the judge Danforth made Herrick to collect them for interview. Abigail as well, in order to gain reputation and power in the town acts like she can see evil spirits and talks as if she is one of God’s messenger, purifying the town. Due to her effort of trying to gain power, she is treated as a saint in the village and what she says becomes absolute. Later she is able to revenge upon Elizabeth by acting like she got stabbed by a needle and stating that Elizabeth proctor had done it with a voodoo doll. Power is motivating those such as Thomas Putnam, Reverend Parris, and Abigail to corrupt the children and accuse anyone unfavorable to them.
Pride/Reputation:
Pride is a great theme of The Crucible and has came out countless of times in important moments. John Putnam is a great example of a person with great pride in the Book. He refuses to participate in church because he believes that Reverend Parris’s way of preaching is corrupted and against his moral beliefs. Later in the book, he refuses to confess because of the pride of his name and thought of betraying all the people who refused to confess and died. Even after he confessed, he refused to sign his name stating that he has given up himself but he cannot give up his name because it is his only name and it would taint his pride. This really affected others by motivating the other accused people to keep their stance and protect their pride. Also, Judge Danforth’s main argument during the trial was that he accused 400 to jail and 72 to death. His pride and legitimacy in making judgement is in his past achievement of killing and condemning people. That is his pride in judging, and this pride is why he wouldn’t accept the fact that there are innocent people out of the accused.
Fear:
The large spread of the witch scare and the hunt for the devil is mainly caused by the people’s fear of the court and the punishments. In the start of the book, the girls wouldn’t answer to any of Parris’s or Hale’s question concerning the dance because of the fear of the punishment that they might receive if they confess of dancing. This led to Tituba becoming the scapegoat of the dance and Tituba, while she was being whipped, she confesses out of fear and pain, starting the witch hunt accusation hysteria. Later people such as Sarah Good confesses out of fear of being hanged. Also when John Proctor and Giles Corey was collecting signatures of people who do not believe Rebecca nurse, Elizabeth Proctor and Martha Corey did anything that resembles witchcraft, many were reluctant to do so in fear of being called upon the court. This fear affects everyone and makes everyone to praise the girls as saints in order to not be caught on their wrong side and be accused. During the trials, even Judge Danforth is intimidated by Abigail and because of this he believes in Abigail that the girls were never pretending.
The reason the witch hunt in The Crucible is because of the greed for power. During a period where land was equal to power, characters such as Tom Putnam showed greed for land by making his daughter accuse innocent people with big plots of land in order to gain the land in sale. Also, Reverend Parris gains great power as his reputation skyrockets with his daughter becoming one of the saints and his nephew, Abigail becoming the head of the saintly girls. All throughout the witch trials, he is next to Judge Danforth and tries to convince the Judge to make decisions which doesn’t jeopardize his reputation. For example, when John Proctor brought the signatures of people who believe Rebecca nurse, and Martha Corey to be innocent of witchcraft, he stated that these people were against the court and should be held into contempt. And the judge Danforth made Herrick to collect them for interview. Abigail as well, in order to gain reputation and power in the town acts like she can see evil spirits and talks as if she is one of God’s messenger, purifying the town. Due to her effort of trying to gain power, she is treated as a saint in the village and what she says becomes absolute. Later she is able to revenge upon Elizabeth by acting like she got stabbed by a needle and stating that Elizabeth proctor had done it with a voodoo doll. Power is motivating those such as Thomas Putnam, Reverend Parris, and Abigail to corrupt the children and accuse anyone unfavorable to them.
Pride/Reputation:
Pride is a great theme of The Crucible and has came out countless of times in important moments. John Putnam is a great example of a person with great pride in the Book. He refuses to participate in church because he believes that Reverend Parris’s way of preaching is corrupted and against his moral beliefs. Later in the book, he refuses to confess because of the pride of his name and thought of betraying all the people who refused to confess and died. Even after he confessed, he refused to sign his name stating that he has given up himself but he cannot give up his name because it is his only name and it would taint his pride. This really affected others by motivating the other accused people to keep their stance and protect their pride. Also, Judge Danforth’s main argument during the trial was that he accused 400 to jail and 72 to death. His pride and legitimacy in making judgement is in his past achievement of killing and condemning people. That is his pride in judging, and this pride is why he wouldn’t accept the fact that there are innocent people out of the accused.
Fear:
The large spread of the witch scare and the hunt for the devil is mainly caused by the people’s fear of the court and the punishments. In the start of the book, the girls wouldn’t answer to any of Parris’s or Hale’s question concerning the dance because of the fear of the punishment that they might receive if they confess of dancing. This led to Tituba becoming the scapegoat of the dance and Tituba, while she was being whipped, she confesses out of fear and pain, starting the witch hunt accusation hysteria. Later people such as Sarah Good confesses out of fear of being hanged. Also when John Proctor and Giles Corey was collecting signatures of people who do not believe Rebecca nurse, Elizabeth Proctor and Martha Corey did anything that resembles witchcraft, many were reluctant to do so in fear of being called upon the court. This fear affects everyone and makes everyone to praise the girls as saints in order to not be caught on their wrong side and be accused. During the trials, even Judge Danforth is intimidated by Abigail and because of this he believes in Abigail that the girls were never pretending.