Character Analysis of Parris in Arthur Miller´s The Crucible

In 1971, a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment that would show how humans reacted when they were divided into two groups, one group of guards and the second one group of prisoners. In the experiment he conducted, he noticed that the groups took the given role very seriously within minutes; the two groups took the experiment to extreme level by actually having the groups think of themselves as prisoners and guards. The experiment was canceled after few days because the reactions of the people were so extreme it got out of control. A villain and a prisoner have similar traits because a prisoner did something illegal in the past that would only benefit him/her. A villain has a trait of being very egotistic and it can be inferred that villains can commit illegal acts to satisfy themselves. “The Crucible” has many villainous characters but the one that stands out most is Parris. Throughout Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” Parris is the most villainous character because he considers himself superior and is very self centered due to this, he fails to give good advice to his people which leads to destruction of his society.

A villain has a lot of characteristics that can make him/her a villain, but one common trait in a villain is being very self-centered. As most villains, Parris is very selfish and proves it throughout the play. The first time he shows he is self-centered is when he is talking with his niece Abigail, and blames her for conducting witchcraft, he says “Now look you ,child, your punishment will come in its time. But if trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.”(Miller 10) In this quote Parris, repeats “I/ my” whic...

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...he village are more inferior, and he is more pure and superior. Parris in the play does not stop here; he continues to put down others, another incident that shows his nature of making others feel inferior is when he says “You could see him, why could you not see her?”(Miller 46). In this quote Parris is talking to Tituba in a tense voice making her feel guilty of not seeing the witches. He is trying to intimidate her so that she confesses that she was also part of the witchcraft act, concluding that Abigail and his daughter are not guilty. To summarize Parris makes others feel inferior to him and consider himself superior to others, as any villain would do.

Works Cited

"Influence of Social Roles: The Stanford Prison Experiment." Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.