PURITAN VALUES CREATING TENSION IN THE CRUCIBLE

By Steven Elmer, Dallin Jones, and Dan Radler

PURITAN VALUESPuritans 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 LIFESTYLETook 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/

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