The Role Revenge Played In The Crucible

Essay, Research Paper

The Role Revenge Played in The Crucible

Revenge plays a major role in the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. Due to the social structure of the 17th century society it was very easy for the town s people to believe that witchcraft was the cause of all the town s problems. The arising suspicion of witchcraft allowed the town s people to express their hatred toward others and led many to seek revenge against society, enemies and also neighbors.

In a town where government was strict and sometimes unfair to its citizens, revenge was often taken out on the society. People would accuse others of being sinful or against God s will just by stating it. This led to complete chaos and people were falsely accusing others just to seek revenge on them for things that had been done in the past.

Revenge was aimed toward enemies when the young girls realized the power that had been given to them through court. Abigail Adams ambitions were to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor because she was married to the man Abigail loved. The quote, You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor (19), shows Abigail s ambitions of getting rid of Elizabeth so that she could have John all to herself. The alleged witchery was utterly their own doing and yet they continuously tried to take revenge against the innocent men and women of Salem.

Revenge was leveled against neighbors because of greedy self-interests. With all the bad things that were happening people began to quarrel over material things. Thomas Putnam was the worst at this. This man is killing his neighbors for their land (96). Putnam was promoting the accusations of neighbors so that if they were hung he would collect all their land. He was letting his friends die for the benefit himself.

The assault of friends, enemies and neighbors occurs all throughout the play. After everything opens up anger throughout the whole town arises. People began to let out their anger in the form of revenge on friends, enemies, or even just neighbors.