preview

Chaos In The Crucible

Decent Essays

Order Leads to Chaos: The Irony of the Witch Trials In 17th century Massachusetts the Puritan government was a theocracy. They did this to restore order and have a Holy Community. In the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, people are being accused of witch craft and the whole town goes crazy. There are a series of trials and multiple people are killed. In the Crucible, in an attempt to keep order and maintain a holy community greater chaos emerges. In the Crucible, the people of Salem are determined to keep order and to maintain a holy community. For example, Paris says to Abbigail, “Abigail, I have fought here three ling years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you …show more content…

For example, Elizabeth tells John, “The Deputy Governor promise hangin’ if they’ll not confess, John. The town’s gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear her. Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea from Israel. And folks are brought before them, and if they scream and howl and fall to the floor – the person’s clapped in the jail for bewitchin’ them,” (Miller 52-53). If people don’t confess then they get killed and if a teenage girl faints in front of them then they are found guilty of witch craft. This displays the opposite image of a peaceful and godly community. People are lying and being killed for working for the devil even though both those acts are sins. They are so afraid of the devil yet they are committing his acts. When Mary Warren was being questioned about lying, Danforth asked her, “Do you not know that God damns all liars?” (Miller 101). Even though he is naming God he really means that they will damn her. He is declaring the government’s right to do as they believe God would do. But even though they believes that those who lie should be condemned he is not condemning the real liars. The real liars are being treated like saints while the honest and good people are being killed. It shows that their society has become the opposite of what it was

Get Access