The Crucible Post 1

In the Crucible, the power in the city of Salem shifts in the first act. In the beginning, all of the power lies in the hands of Parris, the town reverend. He is relatively hated in Salem, though, and has many enemies. This makes him paranoid and he tries at all costs to maintain his grip on the power of the town. His control over the town remains mainly in the fact that he controls their religious life, which, at the time, was basically their whole world. By controlling their religious life, Parris virtually had a realm of control over almost everyone in the town. But, in the end of act 1, that power begins to shift.

At the end of the act, the influence over Salem instead fell to the girls Mercy, Mary, Betty, and Abigail. They gained this by calling witchcraft on Tituba (and eventually many others). By saying that witchcraft was alive in Salem, they took advantage of the townspeople’s fear and piety and gained control through pure lies. The control was like Parris’s in the way that it controlled their religious life too; mainly because the Gospel says that there are witches. The girls gained control through capitalizing on the townsfolk’s superstitions and greatest fears, and basically had power over the entire village.