A Guide on How to Manipulate a Government
Deniz Soral
Sometimes the system is rigged and there’s nothing you can do about it, except try to use it to your advantage. The play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was published in January 1953, is about the Salem witch trials. It is a more simplified version of the actual events, and sometimes multiple characters are simplified into one, but its characters are real people. This is about how characters manipulate and deceive others because of the way the religions and government are woven into the way the Puritan system functions.
The first way the Puritan system can be manipulated is the way Tituba is able to trick everyone in the room, maybe unintentionally, by assuming innocence and stupidity after being accused. This is allowed because of the strict functioning of the Puritan system which believes entirely in the innocence of a person who claims to love god. Generally, Tituba is an enslaved Black person who is accused of witchcraft by many characters but is mostly being used by Abigail. But what’s interesting is how she’s able to avoid the blunt force of accusation when other characters couldn’t. First, Tituba says, “I didn’t compact with no Devil!” (pg. 42). This is where she tries to deflect the accusation. Then she confesses after being told her life would be spared as long as she would confess; while this happens she fakes being clueless along with going along with everything they say. Tituba says, “There were four(people),” (pg. 45), then proceeds to say, “Oh! How many times he bid me kill you, Mr. Parris!” (pg. 45). Tituba went with the flow and did whatever she was asked which allowed her to get the best possible outcome by harnessing the beliefs of the system and playing to the egos of the people in power, but for a slave in the year 1692, the best scenario was being thrown in jail for the rest of her life.
Abigail has a similar idea of pulling away from trouble with a more tactical approach to the situation, but a far more sinister one. She takes the approach of the “holy accuser,” the idea that whoever makes the first accusation cannot be doubted by the people in power, this ties to the very religious part of the government which believes in innocence and especially believes in the innocence of children. She’s able to make claims with no backing whatsoever, and even when there is evidence that would seem to incriminate her, it just bounces off her like a pebble because she’s the holy accuser. In this part of the play, the conversation starts going a bit off track for Abigail, so she says, “She(Tituba) made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (pg. 40). She gets rid of blame by either faking bewilderment then throwing blame onto someone else. Another time she does this was during one of the main scenes in the play when John Proctor tries to accuse Abigail of making false claims against Mary. The situation gets a bit out of hand so Abigail says, “You(Mary) will not! Begone! Begone, I say!” and after more antics, “Mary, please don’t hurt me!” (pg. 45-46). She acts as though Mary is bewitching her. This is another play on the system which targets the large implications of witchcraft, so when any word of it is mentioned everyone jumps on the accused. After some more of that, all of the other girls join in and start to gang up on Mary by also acting bewitched, effectively throwing off all of the blame put on her.
This idea of the “holy accuser” only exists because of the failing of the religious court that cannot correctly depict proper evidence. When John Proctor, who is a landowner and important character in The Crucible, accuses Abigail before her previous temper tantrum, the court starts to question Proctor’s Christianity and morality instead of evaluating the evidence by itself. Proctor says, “It were pretense, she (Mary Warren) says” (pg. 89). Mary warren is the one giving evidence but instead, Proctor starts to become the one in question. After some surprise from Judge Danforth, he says, “You are in all respects a Gospel Christian?” (pg. 90). This shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not the evidence he presented is legitimate or not and instead is sprung from the idea of having the church and government woven together.
This woven government and church is the basis for the Puritan system, which is the interesting construct that occurs when belief and rule are mixed. Combined with the idea of the innocence of the accuser it becomes corrupt and easy to manipulate. And by playing along with the people in power the system falls apart and starts to derail just like the witchhunt in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts.
