PURITAN VALUES
CREATING TENSION
IN THE CRUCIBLE
By Steven Elmer, Dallin Jones, and Dan Radler
PURITAN VALUES
 Puritans 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 LIFESTYLE
 Took 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.livingprosperity.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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