PURITAN VALUES CREATING TENSION IN THE CRUCIBLE

By Steven Elmer, Dallin Jones, and Dan Radler

PURITAN VALUES

Puritans thought that the best way to survive was

through hard labor

They thought society should be lead by a good,

strong leader

They relied on the power of God for their dealings

Puritans had confidence and trust in God

They thought all sins would be punished

They believed that there was a Devil

PURITAN VALUES

Principles relied on God having supreme power over

everything humans did

They believed that prosperity was a gift from God

They were strongly against the Roman Catholic church’s

ideas on religion, and some thought the Pope was the

Antichrist

Aimed to make Christianity more mindful and intelligent

in beliefs, not mindless

PURITAN LIFESTYLE

Took everything very seriously and did their best in all they did.

Believed prosperity was a blessing from God.

Puritans worship was generally uncomplicated, but the Puritan’s

life outside of church was not simple at all.

Puritans were very uptight about their beliefs and had a lot of

integrity.

It was a law to go to church.

Children were supposed to behave maturely.

People weren’t supposed to express opinions or emotions

openly.

MORE PURITAN LIFESTYLE

There were so many beliefs, that it was impossible

to follow them all, sometimes they were beliefs even

conflicting with the others

Religious beliefs were law—if you didn’t follow the

religious rules of the Church, then you could be

punished

TENSION IN THE PLAY

If the Puritans were not so strict on rules like no

dancing, maybe Abigail and the circle girls wouldn’t have

wanted to dance secretly and none of the witchcraft

accusations would have happened.

The belief that Puritan society should be led by one

strong leader added to the tension. This gave power to

one person, which was what Parris desired. This in turn

caused him to add tension by lying about what he saw in

the forest to keep his position.

TENSION IN THE PLAY

The strong belief in the Devil and his presence added a

large amount of tension. People were very fearful of this

evil and any thought of his presence made the people

instantly ready to do whatever it took in order to rid

themselves of him (such as killing suspected “witches”)

There was also an idea that God had supreme power,

therefore if a person opposed the court empowered by God

then he/she was opposing God himself. This made standing

up to the court scary and much more difficult.

TENSION IN THE PLAY

Puritans strongly believed in “simple worship”. This

entailed few unnecessary luxuries for praying, so when

Parris demanded golden candles it did not rest well with

Proctor. This was an example of how Proctor disagreed with

Parris and created a lot of tension between them.

Because they were so religious it was hard for some like

John Proctor to decide if they should lie or die because they

had to choose between life and truth—two very important

things in religion.

WORKS CITED

“The Influence Of The Puritan Lifestyle.” 2010. Living-

Prosperity. 9 October 2010. http://www.living-

prosperity.com/puritan-lifestyle.html

"Salem Witch Trials the world behind the hysteria."  Discovery Education.  10 October 2010. http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures

/salemwitchtrials/

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/9543352_19a0d99722.jpg