Authority and the Individual

Abstract

Among the major themes of The Crucible is the conflict between authority and the individual who dissents from its demands and restrictions. In seventeenth-century Salem, authority was willingly accepted, not imposed, as a social necessity. Having fled religious persecution in England, the Massachusetts Puritans were wary of persecution in the New World. They closed ranks to support a unified society that, under God, promised safety. Life was harsh (of the 103 Mayflower passengers who landed at Plymouth on 21 December 1620, only half survived the first winter) and the presence of Indians in surrounding forests was still a danger (Abigail watched them kill her parents and Proctor carries a rifle when he plants his crops). Small wonder that the Salemites, their religion synthesising fears of the wild and pagan forest, considered it to be the Devil’s preserve. Because Salem was a theocratic state, every religious or secular transgression offended both domains. As Danforth states, Salem’s law is based on the Bible, which, ‘writ by Almighty God, forbid the practice of witchcraft, and describe death as the penalty thereof’; also, ‘the law and Bible damn all bearers of false witness’.