I Love U

Bianca Andersen

The Crucible is set in a theocratic society, in which the church and the state are one, and the religion is a strict, austere form of Protestantism known as Puritanism. Because of the theocratic nature of the society, moral laws and state laws are one and the same: sin and the status of an individual soul are matters of public concern. There is no room for deviation from social norms, since any individual whose private life does conform to the established moral laws represents a threat not only to the public good but also to the rule of God and true religion. In Salem, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the devil; dissent is not merely unlawful, it is associated with satanic activity. This dichotomy functions as the underlying logic behind the witch trials. As Danforth says in Act III, a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it. The witch trials are the ultimate expression of intolerance; the trials brand all social deviants with the taint of devil-worship and thus necessitate their elimination from the community. Reverend Parris’s niece, Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor household, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John Proctor. Abigail is smart, wily, a good liar, and vindictive when crossed.

Abigail is an orphan and an unmarried girl; she thus occupies a low rung on the Puritan Salem social ladder. For young girls in Salem, the minister and the other male adults are God’s earthly representatives, their authority coming from the high. The trials, then, in which the girls are allowed to act as though they have a direct connection to God, empower the previously powerless Abigail. Once shunned by the townsfolk who had heard rumors of her affair with John Proctor, Abigail now finds that she has power, and she takes full advantage of it. A slight accusation from one of Abigail’s troop is enough to convict even the most well...