Reverend Parris In The Crucible

To start off with one of the main characters of The Crucible─Reverend Samuel Parris─he is a minister of the church in the community who puts his authority as his first priority. On some circumstances, he will also try to cover up things not only for his ministry, but for his family. In the beginning of the play, he finds out about his niece Abigail practicing witchcraft and tries to get her to confess. “Parris: Now look you, child, your punishment will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it” (10). Reverend Parris is accusing Abigail for being associated with witchcraft, at the same time it sounds like a threat to Abigail and himself only

Change is inevitable. Many humans fight it while others greet it with open arms and smiling faces. Most people change because of things that happen around, or to them. Negative or positive, the actions can dictate whether the individual changes for the worse or for the better. Reverend Hale in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is the perfect example of this. He changes drastically, yet gradually, throughout the entire play. Hale progresses from conceited due to his abilities, to hesitant because of the great negative impact the witch trials are beginning to hold, and finally, he becomes regretful because of his ignorance and the actions it caused.

In The Crucible, it is forbidden to go into the forest because of the horrible things that people believe in. In the beginning, a group of girls went into the forest with Tituba and were caught chanting, running around with no clothes on, and dancing around a fire. In a conversation between Reverend Samuel Parris and niece Abigail Williams, “Parris: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?” (170). “Abigail: We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it.” (170). This proves that although all Parris saw was dancing, he suspected much more of it because the forest is known of the devil's zone.

Samuel Parris and John Hale are the two ministers in The Crucible and were initially alike in their attitudes towards witchcraft. However, their personalities show some striking dissimilarities. Unlike Hale, Reverend Parris is characterized by extreme paranoia and egotism. He is very static- his traits and motives remain consistent from the beginning to the end of the play. Although a religious man and believer in witchcraft like Parris, Hale values human life and is motivated by personal beliefs and his sense of morality, disregarding his best interests. He is a very dynamic character, becoming progressively less confident and trusting of law and doctrine as his faith is tested throughout the ordeal.

Whilst living in a repressive society one can become paranoid, permanently on guard, living an anxious life. Though things soon get too intense and adolescent girls have no outlet for natural feelings, so they take to dancing in the woods - an innocent enough pastime. In a society that are forever on the lookout for any signs of the devil, dancing can lead many to assume the worst - that they had 'trafficked with spirits in the forest.' And that there were 'unnatural causes.' This may not necessarily be true as when Parris first confronts

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the characters John Proctor and Reverend Parris are some of the major characters during the course of the play. John Proctor is a farmer in Salem that lives in the outskirts of town, and is religious like the rest of Salem but rarely makes it to the church due to living far away have having large amounts of work. He is seen as strong and confident by most town members, however “Proctor… has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud” (Miller 20-21). Reverend Parris is Salem’s religious leader. While he does regularly speak to the entire town, he has very little confidence and “believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God over to his side” (Miller 3). By comparing and contrasting both Parris and Proctor’s actions and beliefs throughout the play, underlying truths regarding self-realization and the consequences of our actions can be discovered.

In Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, Reverend Parris is to blame for the witch trials in Salem. The witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts from 1962 to 1963. During the trials, people were accused and blamed for partaking in witchcraft and worshipping the devil. In some cases, neighbors turned on neighbors and family members turned on themselves. Reverend Parris is to blame for the witch trials that took place because of his egotistical attitude, his selfish ways, and lying to his peers.

Imagine you find out something shocking that could ruin your reputation, but regardless of your actions it will put everything in jeopardy. What would you do? In the play The Crucible, a man by the name Reverend Parris, found himself in this exact situation when he stumbled upon his daughter and niece doing the forbidden, dancing and conjuring spirits naked in the woods. In Salem Village this mischief was not allowed; however to escape the trouble they had gotten themselves into the girls involved decided to fabricate a meticulous lie. Reverend Parris, worrying too much about what the town’s people think, withheld this information, partially causing the deaths of innocent people accused of witchcraft. Reverend Parris' flaws of anxiety about his reputation, pride, and hypocrisy eventually led to his downfall of losing respect and being stolen from.

In the Crucible there are a group of girls that go into the woods. They dance, chant, and some of them even took there clothes off. They were caught by Reverend Parris. He wasn't sure on what to think of it so he left it alone until that morning his daughter Betty was in bed sick. Parris and some others began to investigate the girls, because they expected witchcraft.

However, throughout the story, Hale turns from a power-abusing, authoritarian intellectual into more of a caring, life-preserving ally. First of all, Reverend Hale acts as a very narcissistic individual, and uses his past condemnations as an example of his power. “Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it. ”(III.516-519). In this quote,

Hale feels tested in his faith in God, and faith in his own abilities. He came to Salem to help the people, and feels he failed everyone; including himself. He blames himself for killing innocent people. He ultimately couldn’t handle this feeling. He starts to crack.

The day after his daughter betty was not waking up and Parris is thinking that the girls were conjuring spirits and that his daughter is possessed “Parris says that if the girls were conjuring spirits, he needs to know because his "enemies" will surely find out and ruin him”(Miller, Arthur “The crucible act 1 summary and analysis)  Parris is not worried about the fact that they were dancing, he is worried about his reputation. Days past and the town are begging to find the witches so Reverend parris contracted a witch hunter Reverend hale a very good trained witch hunter who promise to hunt down all the witches in salem’’Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army’’-Hale.(Miller, Arthur’’ search quotes reverend parris quotes’). Reverend Hale meets and have a talk with all the girls afflicted with the girls dancing in the forest because he wants to know who started it.

In the book “the crucible” in a town called Salem in Massachusetts a minister and father reverend Paris discovers that his daughter Betty, niece Abigail, his servant tituba, and a whole lot of other girls dancing in the woods. Betty ends up fainting from fright after being discovered by her father and won't come to wake. Rumors quickly spread that it might be witchcraft they had done which also wouldn't be good for Paris's reputation because he's worked hard to get a lot of respect from the town people. But their are others who think Betty and the rest of the kids who are ill just have an illness. I think both of these suggestions are good but supernatural forces is what i think it is. Some examples from the text give me the reason why i think it's supernatural.

In the crucible it is explained the beginning, middle, and, end of the salem witch trials, which was started by a group of girls lying about just simply dancing and said that they were trying to conjure

     In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, set in the Regency Period, dance performs several important functions.  Dance patterns emulate courtship rituals, marking dance as a microcosm for courtship and marriage - two main themes of the novel.  The Regency period propagated the belief that no ingredient was more essential to a courtship than dancing:  "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love..." (Austen 7).  Therefore, knowledge of dance - dance steps as well as dance etiquette - was a crucial necessity and was often acquired through study and awareness of conduct codes.  These crucial codes were disseminated through popular courtesy/conduct books, which