Julia Martin
Martin
Language Arts 5 – 6th hour
11 November 2013
The small town of Salem has been turned upside down due to a select few
individuals. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a chilling tale of what can happen
with a town full of revenge-driven and power-hungry people. Most of the main
characters in this play are motivated by their own self-interests, including Abigail, the
Putnams, and Reverend Parris. As a handful of young girls began making false
accusations against innocent townspeople, many villagers used this mayhem to get what
they wanted and/or seek revenge. While many characters carry responsibility in The
Crucible, Mrs. Putnam holds the most blame because she initiated the search for spirits,
fed the gossip which led to hysteria in the town, and made accusations of witchcraft
against innocent people.
Good advice will tell you that it is dangerous to go in search of loose spirits and
Mrs. Putnam was forced to learn this lesson the hard way. In Act I of The Crucible, Mrs.
Putnam first proposed the idea of using supernatural devices to conjure by sending her
daughter, Ruth, to Tituba to find the “killer” of her 7 babies. When talking with Rev.
Parris in Betty’s bedroom, she admits, “And so I thought to send [Ruth] to your Tituba—
…Tituba knows how to speak to the dead…I take it on my soul, but who else may
surely tell me what person murdered my babies?” (15). In this quote, Mrs. Putnam is
clearly admitting that she was the person who initiated the process of finding loose
spirits in an attempt to find out who was responsible for the death of her babies. If she
had not started this by asking Tituba to conjure the dead, the girls would not have been
in the forest and would not have been frightened after being caught. In addition to
starting the process of finding witches, Mrs. Putnam also began the gossip about the
fact that the girls were actually bewitched.
Gossip is proven to be a dangerous form of communication. Continuing in Act I
of the play, Mrs. Putnam fed the gossip and hysteria surrounding the possibility that the
girls had been bewitched by claiming that there was proof that Betty flew. Upon seeing
Betty lying in the bed, lifeless, she begins to ask Reverend Parris about her bewitched
state. She asks, “How high did she fly, how high? …Why it’s sure she did. Mr. Collins
saw her goin’ over Ingersoll’s barn, and come down light as a bird, he says!” (12). This
quote clearly proves that Mrs. Putnam did not see Betty fly in the air, but heard it from
a neighbor and assumed it was true. Even as Reverend Parris tries to deny that Betty
flew, Mrs. Putnam continues with her theory. Spreading this type of gossip and heresy
is dangerous, as people are bound to believe it is true, fueling the fire in Salem. As if
spreading rumors was not enough, Mrs. Putnam continued by blaming innocent people
of witchcraft.
The accusations of innocent people begin to heighten the sense of desperation in
this small town. Mrs. Putnam furthers her motives by accusing Goody Nurse, a highly
respected woman of Salem, of witchcraft, stating that she was responsible for the death
of her 7 babies. In Act II, Francis Nurse rushes to Proctor, upset that they have taken
his wife to jail. He explains, “For murder, she’s charged! ‘For the marvelous and
supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies’ ” (67). This plea to Proctor and Hale
show that there is no evidence to prove that Goody Nurse has killed Mrs. Putnam’s
babies because you can not prove supernatural powers. Without proof, it is not fair to
blame Rebecca Nurse for the loss of her dead babies. This accusation rounds up the
case against Mrs. Putnam.
Many characters in The Crucible failed to take charge in order to prevent the
chaos that erupted in their village, but Mrs. Putnam carries the most blame. Starting
the process of witchcraft, using gossip to fuel the fire, and accusing innocent people of
murder all prove that she was in the wrong. These are lessons that we can still learn
from today: do not stir the pot, rumors and gossip are dangerous, and accusations
without proof are unfair.