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Social conformity has afflicted humanity forever. Conformity is the root of all evils, and when put in the wrong hands can ruin lives. The tendency of the townspeople to conform blindly may have come from their religion. The obligation to conform to the views of the church is truly evident. Puritanism did not encourage individuality, and anyone who was different was looked down upon. Miller presents this idea of power and conformity through the character Abigail Williams. She uses manipulation and fear to drive the residents of Salem into doing what she wanted.
This lead to the fall of Salem and all its inhabitants.
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the character Abigail Williams to depict how having too much power can intensify the pressure to conform, which causes a person’s rationality to be diminished resulting in the abandonment of morality and harm to society.
Miller leaves his readers with a horrifying vision of conformity. He doesn't in any way seek to accept that vision, but he does try to help the reader understand it and why it happens.
'The Salem tragedy… developed from a paradox… Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious.” Conformity was demonstrated in The Crucible when people were forced to give false statements of witchcraft in order to save themselves, or instead, die to preserve their integrity.
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Hence the great importance of John Proctor who ultimately died to keep his name, as he valued his pride above all else.
“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!
Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 85).
John Proctor is a prime example of how to stick to your values and to turn the other cheek to conformity. He didn’t let his fear of death persuade him into the evil doings of Williams, instead he stood up for what he believed in to protect his pride.
Miller shows how fear can drive people to do things they wish not to do through Williams forced accusations on the girls of Salem. People often view submission as the one and only route. They see a majority of the population following one another and figure it is the best option. Unfortunately, conformity does have its consequences. “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this-let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (12.1.1).
Out of her fear of the aftermath, Williams intimidates the girls by telling them that if any of them told on her that she would hurt them. The girls stay with the lie and go with whatever Williams says because they fear what she could do to them. This fear drove the girls to conform to her wishes. “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” Williams used her position of leadership amongst the accused witches to make them follow her lead. She basically ran the town with her possey of girls accusing people left and right. Once Williams started to name names in court, the others followed close behind. She used her master manipulation skills to lure these innocent girls into doing her will.
Social conformity is a disaster waiting to happen. Miller unvails that the pressures to conform causes one’s good sense to be weakened, ending in the annihilation of their morals and eventually their community. Williams left her town of Salem to be “an everlasting funeral [that] marches round your heart.”
The Effects of Social Conformity. (2022, Nov 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-effects-of-social-conformity-essay
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