The Struggle For Power In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

During the Salem Witch Trials, there was a time of hysteria; everyone was accusing everyone, and no one could defend themselves. What the accusers didn’t realize, was that they all had a common motive behind their accusations, and that was power. The power in a Puritan society was only given to specific people, but by making accusations, it could be gained. However, this wasn’t just specific to this time period, because throughout different time periods, power has always come with status, and no matter a person’s position in society, status wants to be gained. In The Crucible, the struggle for power is made evident through the characters and their subliminal actions during the witch trials, which reveals that power is held within the church, owning materialistic items, and through gender. This constant battle follows the notion that, “oppression exists in the political subconscious of a society,” because no one apprehends how society is organized, and nobody second guesses it. The rise to power was effortless for some people, but for others it was a constant battle. As mentioned above, status is the most important quality in society, even if the characters don’t necessarily realize it, which is the case for Parris, a leader of the Christian faith. When faced with the threat of losing his status in society, because of his niece’s involvement in witchcraft, his first concern is the “compromise” of his character, and that his enemies will ruin him. With this in mind, he directly told Abigail, one of the girls involved, “I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me,” which shows that the type of attention on him defines him as a person (Miller 11). Since he’s a leader of the Christian faith, he knows that people in society admire him, and he’s accepted, but if someone in his family was a sinner, he could never be accepted and he would be an abomination to society. Furthermore, this acceptance is the one thing people strive for, which is why the faith is so important to them. Even as Parris’s position on witchcraft changes, his motive stays the same, even if he doesn’t actually realize his true intentions. With that in mind, he goes from being against the accusations, to for them, when someone like Proctor, who doesn’t like him, is being accused. He knows that Proctor is his enemy, but subconsciously he wants him gone so he can maintain his position is society This ongoing battle of choosing a side is tough, when Parris doesn’t realize his, “own oppression,” since he is, “convinced by the state to be selfless,” (“Marxism”). In other words, he believes that he’s not doing anything wrong, but looking at this situation through a Marxist lens proves otherwise. This trend in society doesn’t just belong to people of high power, because a common man, like Thomas Putnam, is always trying to improve his position in society as well. The accusations of witchcraft …show more content…
Their society isn’t as accepting of people unless they’re involved in the church, which runs their society, or they have materialistic items which other people want. Often times, a person’s ideas were oppressed because they didn’t fit what society wanted, therefore they were oppressed in society in general. This idea can be compared to society today, because even though we aren’t controlled through a church, the idea of conforming is still relevant. People everyday either strive to be what society calls normal, and other people want to break free from society’s norm. In either situation, what society wants plays a huge role in controlling how people act, even when they don’t realize it. The same goes for the hysteria; people hear about an occurrence that scares them and they instantly blame someone before it’s proven. For example, bombs and terrorists have played a huge role in the fear Americans have in the 21st century, just like witchcraft and the accusations of witches. Also, having materialistic items such as land back then, or just money today shows that everyone wants to be more powerful in some way. All of these factors define Marxism and the idea that power is, “the motivating factor behind human endeavor,”