Puritans established their religion to purify the Church of England (Divine). They had a strong belief in God; the providence of God; predestination in the form of the elect and the damned; and established this in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Even though they came to the colony to get away from religious persecution they continued to persecute other religions. They exiled Roger Williams after he proposed radical ideas. One of his ideas was that man should not punish people for what they believe because that is the work of God. This is really the prime reason that he was exiled, but in "The Crucible" Mrs. Putnam provides the same idea while in Salem, Massachusetts (Divine). She says that she sent her child to learn from the slave Tituba (Miller). Rebecca is immediately horrified and questions Mrs. Putnam for sending her child to conjure up the dead. She replies by saying that God is the only one who should blame her (Miller). This is almost exactly why Roger Williams was exiled to Rhode Island. This is a sign that Puritanism is breaking down in the first act. Another representation of this denomination dissipating comes at the end. Abigail and Betty repetitively denounce multiple Bay Staters as people who worship, or were at least seen with, the Devil. This is probably going to lead to many problems with
Puritanism, and cause a large dishevelment between the people.
"The Crucible" is riddled with a display of Puritanism. It is basically correlated with religion in every single page. Juxtaposing Puritanism with "The Crucible" is very easy because of this speculation. The founding of Massachusetts was established by Puritans to be “the city on the hill,” where it would entail perfection for all people of this monotheistic society (Divine). Because of this everyone in Massachusetts, or more importantly Salem, was of the same religion and the same beliefs (Divine). The most interesting thing about this was that this made the society based more upon religious beliefs than logical beliefs. So when the idea that people were witches under the spell of the Devil came up, people simply took this as fact. It made sense to the people even though it seems like something that does not abide to anything that holds true today. They also cannot explain the phenomenon that is the illness coming about. Betty, the daughter of Parris, is stricken with some sort of affliction that the doctor can’t explain (Miller). She is bedridden and is in a sort of in a continually reawaking coma. She wakes up occasionally and performs weird acts such as trying to climb out the window. The cause of this illness is passed off as the Devil’s work. Betty and many other girls were out with Tituba, and they are dancing around while, for a reason that is not exactly clear, they drink chicken blood. Word of this got around, and everyone is filled with the idea that they are witches. With this idea and no medical diagnosis for Betty, they called in an expert on witchcraft. This man, Reverend Hale, tries to figure it all out. It finishes off with Abigail and Betty, at this point completely awake, slandering several others as people who are in cahoots with the Devil (Miller). This all appears to be a problem with the Puritan society because it should have some sort of logical basis instead of declaring everything that can’t be explained as the work of God or the Devil.
Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.
Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.
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