A society is made up of many different individuals who will stand by their own beliefs. An individual is a single human being that is distant from a group or class. Individuals are usually narrow minded, only believing in what they think is right. Many times; however, society overpowers an individual’s thoughts just because there are more people in a society. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, society vs. the individual plays a major role during the Salem witch trials.
When the antagonist, Abigail Williams starts a dilemma in the community and ultimately ruins peoples lives, and futures, many of the characters have to decide which side they should be on, even it means that they’re going against their Puritan religion. John Proctor is set on revealing Abigail’s real reason of creating these trials, even if his reputation is at stake. Even though the individual and society tug at each other throughout this play, society prevails over the individual in the end because the beliefs of the individuals cannot over-power the stronger voices of the public.
A society consists of many people with many ideas, while an individual is only a single person. This makes it easy for Abigail Williams to pursue her accusations of witch craft with the other girls, Tituba, Mary, Ruth, and Betty, along side. As Abigail is accused of drinking a charm to kill Goody Proctor, she begins to blame it on Tituba for forcing her do it every night. In the beginning of the book, no one wants to believe in the devil because of their Puritan religion, until Harris comes into town and declares the truth about witch craft.
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The lies from Abigail, Ruth, Mary, Betty and Tituba begin to grow bigger, and bigger. “I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil…” (48), says Abigail as Tituba reveals that the Devil has come upon her as well. Society now believes in witch craft because of vengeful teenage girls, who are accusing people in the community for their own arrogant reasons. In the beginning of the book, the individuals who don’t believe in witchcraft stay quiet and keep their thoughts to themselves because they don’t want to be blamed.
Society dominates majorly in the beginning scene, but as you get through the book, individuals start to stand up, creating a greater number of problems. As the Proctors find out about their servant, who is now along side Abigail, they start to think about declaring to the court that the girls are faking it. Mary Warren, Abigail’s side kick is one of the “officials of the court” (52), meaning she tells the court who is under the power of the Devil or not. Elizabeth and John don’t believe in anything that is going on; however, they try to talk to Mary Warren, but she doesn’t want to hear their advice about departing from the court.
“I must go to Salem, Goody Proctor! ” (52), Mary says in a harsh tone. Elizabeth “couldn’t stop her” (52).
This scene shows that society is taking over and becoming more powerful. The society in Salem is taking away people and making them strongly believe in this witch craft. Individuals like John and Elizabeth get more furious as the book continues because their own servant is not listening to them anymore. Tensions are beginning to grow and outbursts are ready to be made by certain people. John Proctor, the main individualist finally confronts Mary, yelling at her to stop doing what she is doing.
John starts by saying, “You will not go to court again, Mary Warren” (58), but Mary tells him otherwise. Things start getting heated when he says, “I’ll whip the Devil out of you! ” (59).
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Nothing will stop Mary Warren from going back to court because society has taken over the individual. “There is too much evidence now to deny it,” (64), says Hale. People are now falsely accusing other people of dancing with the Devil for reasons relating to themselves and the relationships with the people they are accusing. The town is getting chaotic, and the individuals are running out of time to control it.
The final stages of society taking over completely begins with Abigail accusing Elizabeth Proctor of dancing with the Devil. At dinner Abigail “falls to the floor… and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear… stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out…she testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in” (74), says Cheever to Proctor about Elizabeth. The most individualistic people in the community are getting accused because of Abigail wanting revenge on the wife of a man she loves.
As they pull a needle out of the stomach of a puppet that was found in the Proctor’s house, Mary Warren is forced to tell the truth by Proctor and say it was hers. Mary is forced to turn to the individual side with John and Elizabeth; however, she is not only outnumbered , but terrorized by Abigail, the rest of the girls, and the thoughts of society when Abigail accuses her of being a witch. Even Danforth obeys Abigail when she threatens him for doubting her because he needs to stay apart of the society to keep his reputation high. Every individualist in this book dies or is put in jail by the end because they do not believe in witch craft and deny to society and themselves of being witches.
“Giles is dead” (135).
Giles died because he rose against witch craft and didn’t want society to take advantage of him and his faith to the Puritan religion. “Rebecca…is one foot in heaven now” (134).
Rebecca is hanged because she tried to overpower society as well. Proctor was the last to persuade society to go against the girls who started the witch craft hysteria, but eventually the “drumroll strikes the air” (145), and he is hanged as well. Although people in Salem died with dignity, they still died and were not around to see any changes made.
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The teenage girls took over society and consumed the entire village of lies made up when they were bored one day. They were the voices of the community, and nothing was going to get in their way. Even though the individuals tried to prevail and get people on their side with their strong opinions, nothing could turn around the idea of witchcraft. Society over all is stronger because one individual cannot overpower a community, it takes many people to do the job, and thats exactly what happened in The Crucible; society prevailed.
