Introduction To The Crucible

– Summary And Translation Essay, Research Paper

The Crucible starts off giving incite on one of the main characters in the story, and it also ends on foreshadowing of what will happen in the first act. In the introduction, it also gives us incited on what happened, and why it happened. Were there really witches? Were their really devils? Or was it all a big hoax?

At first the story puts a setting on where act 1 will probably take place. This is in a small upper bedroom of Samuel Paris in Salem Massachusetts in the spring of year 1692. As the curtain opens, Samuel Paris is discovered kneeling at the bed praying. His daughter is lying on the bed motionless and still. At that time, wherever Samuel Paris went it seemed like he was being persecuted, despite his efforts to win these people and god to his side. Samuel wasn t the typical person. He was not married, nor did he have children. As a matter of fact he did not like children at all.

The town that Samuel Paris lived in, Salem was an ordinary town. Salem was located near the wilderness. The continent spread far west and most of it was a mystery to the people of Salem. Every now and then Indian tribes would move in and out of there. But in the town of Salem lots of helpful people, and no one really had time to fool around. Everyone in the town knew one another and there was no, minding your own business . Everything was everyone s business and this would soon cause problems.

The people of Salem believed that the wilderness that lies next to them was a home for the devil. The virgin forests was the Devil s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand. From this all the trouble began. The Salem tragedy developed from a paradox, a paradox in which some of us still live. This paradox was further strengthened since the people in Salem had a combined church and state or a theocracy. The witch-hunts show what happens when too much power goes bad. As more people became individualistic, and did not need to rely on thy neighbor. They good express their hatred and vengeance torward them and accuse them of being a witch.