Journal Entry 3: In Class Relevance

          Through in-class studies, I have found that Puritans were above all else a God-fearing people who centered their lives around morality and religion. However, the belief in Original Sin meant that they were constantly fighting what they believed to be human nature. Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a 1953 play depicts the town of Salem, Massachusetts during their infamous Witch Trials of 1692. Characters struggle with supporting the accusations of witchcraft - condemned by the Bible and therefore by the Puritans - and watching their friends, neighbors, wives, and families be imprisoned on no more than the words of a few young girls. "The Crucible" pairs perfectly with the classroom study of Puritanism, for, though it was written about two and a half centuries later, it puts names and personalities to the people of Salem, one of the most famous Puritan towns.
          In the play, the most important characters are a pair of priests - one from Salem and one from elsewhere - the judge, and an accused farmer named John Proctor. The priest have a great deal of power in the town, and when Mr. Proctor is accused of missing the Sunday Service a few times, the judge looks at him in a new and unfavorable light. While it was ultimately the judge's decision as to who would hang and who would walk, the priests' input is held in high regard. The judge too dealt with nearly all questions as a matter of piety. Clearly, religion was the center point on which the Puritan world focused. Lastly, John Proctor, tormented by guilt for lusting after a young girl - the same girl who ultimately accused him - nearly goes mad with self-loathing, doing whatever he can to regain his moral goodness. Even when his wife convinces him to confess so that he would not be hanged, at the last moment he violently refuses to sign the false confession, in theory clearing his name in the eyes of the Lord. All of these factors contribute to a strong connection between the twentieth century play "The Crucible" and the seventeenth century literature and culture of Puritanism.