the crucible

The requirement for the church to preserve its powerful position was a major contributor the Salem witch hunts in The Crucible. In a time of growing unrest and discontent, people were becoming more unhappy with the church and its organization, shown through Parris and Putman’s comments, “I an not blind; there a faction and a party.” (Parris)… “Against him and all authority.” (Putnam) (Page 35). The church took action to try and maintain its position of power over the people. The church, being the sole moral and political leader at the time, was able to exploit people’s fear of the unknown by making statements about its position on the devil and acceptable behaviour without other authorities to contradict them. Therefore, if anything challenged the church’s position on moral matters, This can be seen when Proctor manages to save Elizabeth’s life, but still wants to testify ...