Mary Warren Patriarchy

The Dangers Of A Divided Society

People are unquestionably natural born megalomaniacs; they feed on any opportunity to obtain power. When people are put in positions in which they feel powerless or irrelevant, they will do absolutely anything to gain the power they feel deprived of. This was especially true in the seventeenth century, in which women were extremely mistreated. This inspired playwright Arthur miller to write The Crucible, in which he warns of the dangers of what happens when a society conditions people to believe they are subordinate to others. Miller accentuates the horrors of an unequal society through Mary Warren.

Women in Miller’s Salem, especially Mary Warren, are undoubtedly seen as inferiors to the men. The only way seen fit to deal with Mary when she is

disobedient is a threat such as “I’ll show you a great doin’ on your arse”(20).

In Miller’s Salem it is commonplace to threaten a woman with with violence due to the inherent patriarchy of a Puritan society. This blatant misogyny only causes harm due to it leaving Mary with a sense of worthlessness, which she somehow needs to fill. Once rumors of witchcraft arise in Salem causing mass hysteria, Mary is finally able to fill her void by using the witch trials to gain the authority she has been deprived of her entire life. Through the witch trials, Mary, who has been degraded interminably for being a woman in a puritan society, finally gains a sense of significance. Mary begins to appear somewhat arrogant due to all the attention she gains through the trials from people who have previously neglected her. She gradually begins to challenge her boss when she exclaims “Four judges and the king’s deputy sat to dinner with us, but an hour ago. I would have you speak civilly to me, from this out”(57). Previously, Mary would never have had the courage to tell a grown man who inherently was her superior, to watch the way he speaks to her, however due to her newfound sense of authority, she can. Mary is now

authenticated by Magistrates amongst other powerful people, which, as a young woman in a Puritan theocracy, was incredibly rare. The respect given to Mary by the court of law evidently makes her feel powerful, due to how in a theocracy the court of law and religion are one. This means that Mary gaining power from the court was also her gaining power from God, which would clearly make any adherent of Puritanism feel superior to others. If it was not for how Mary is treated as a subordinate to the males in Miller’s Salem, where men are raised to know they are superior to women, Mary would not feel the need to start to exercise her newfound authority.
When a women is neglected for her entire life, it is expected that she would reach for the power she has been deprived of; this is particularly true in the case of Mary Warren. Mary begins to feel a sense of authority through the superficial power being an “official of the court” grants her (50). Mary begins to demonstrate her belief of this newfound power when she defies her boss, exclaiming “I’ll not be ordered to bed no more Mr.Proctor! I am eighteen and a woman”(57). Although what Mary states may not appear to be a huge defiance, in Miller’s Salem women were to do what a man tells them to do with no questions asked. Mary refusing to attend to her boss's orders signifies the beginning of Mary using her newfound authority. Miller begins to display the downfall of a patriarchal society when Mary wrongfully accuses her boss of being “the Devil’s man”(110). Mary, who previously would never have been able to have the authority to accuse a person superior to her, now has the power to accuse her boss who she previously has been subservient to. Miller has Mary accuse her boss of witchery to emphasize the dangers of a society which mistreats a certain group of people. It can only be expected that a woman who was oppressed her entire life would rise up and attempt to grasp all the power she possibly could.
Mary Warren is used as a tool by Miller to convey the atrocities of an unequal community. Miller accentuates how an unequal society is terrible for everyone living in it by demonstrating what happens to a person who has been placed at the bottom of a social hierarchy. It is part of all peoples innate needs to be respected and when a person is neglected of respect it is only expected that he or she will undoubtedly reach for it, regardless of the outcome.
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