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The Crucible Character Analysis

Decent Essays

In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller, presents the clergymen as strong, religious, and overwhelmed men whose actions of deciding on who was innocent caused the town to stir up chaos and continue confusion and anxiety. Miller displays the men’s weaknesses through the second meeting when Mary Warren confessed, Danforth discussing with Abigail about deception and Reverend Hale discusses his true beliefs to Goody Proctor about John. Without the flaws of the clergymen, the girls plan to get rid of some townspeople would not succeed. With those flaws and strong ideas and beliefs of religion, the suspects are remorselessly hanged for being innocent. Arthur Miller gives the solution to this problem to a group of men who society would see as doing justice, although they do none. The overall tone of the play is defensive being that the whole town is trying to defend their faith while trying to defend their friends and family. Hathorne easily believed the girls when they said the town were filled with witches, but found it harder to disbelieve after the girls have manipulated them. Since Puritans lived a strict and god fulfilled life, there were certain things such as games and toys that were sinful distractions and forbidden. This being the case, it makes the community closer and more open to believing the kids accusations. Hathorne was shocked to hear that Mary hadn’t been “threatened or afflicted by any manifest of the Devil or Devil agents” (3.98.14). The up rival of drama

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