Power In The Crucible

The Crucible is a play written about events that happened in the 1690s. It was written by Arthur Miller in 1953 which was adapted into a film thirteen years later. Miller’s play focuses around the factual events in Salem. In The Crucible, power is the focused theme which becomes very important in Salem, and Miller uses that to determine how a character, with or without power, reacts to the situation at hand. Power is to have the ability to determine people’s actions and behaviours to determine the outcomes.

In The Crucible, people use, gain and lose their power throughout the play. Reverend John Hale enters the play having being summoned by Reverend Parris, a main character, to Salem. Parris was in need of his intelligence as his daughter, Betty Parris, did not move or speak no matter what. Hale possesses legitimate and expert types of power, having being trusted by many due to his position as a minister and doctor, he
He starts denying the condemning of witches until he could prove it which angers the court and the locals of Salem. Citizens of the town start to decrease their trust in him and his power among them subsides, he no longer has an influential voice in the court therefore he could no longer postpone the condomneming of innocent people.

Salem is a quiet, patriarchal town which is located in Massachusetts, America. It is a town where men and women know their roles in society, that the men are the dominant gender and have authority over women. It is evident that the men rule the court and that most of the accusations are towards women which gave power to low status girls but the men’s position remained the same. The power that was given to the group of girls who were accused of witchcraft had altered Hale’s thoughts throughout the trials but other than that the gender roles did not affect him in any other