Trials In The Crucible

The year 1692, everything the Puritans have worked towards has finally come true. Even though they finally have a place to be free they are still under a someone’s rule. They are under the rule of their mind. The author of the The Crucible, Arthur MIller, wrote the lovely tale to illustrate the trials of Salem. . The Crucible tells the story of what happened to this little village as they dealt with the forces trying to tear them apart. These forces were people in the village. The people thought to be the sweetest soul were doing the foulest thing imaginable. the villagers look towards the town’s minister, but Reverend Parris was not the man they need. Reverend Parris was a greedy, power-hungry, and egotistical man who cared for no one but

himself and the power he held over the people of Salem.
Reverend Parris is a power-hungry man that runs the Church of Salem.

Reverend Parris runs the village with an iron fist. He makes sure everyone is dedicated to him by putting his demands off as the word of god like when he said “There is either obedience or the church will burn in Hell!” (152). He made it seem that you must follow all the things that he says or you will be damned to Hell for eternity. He even goes as far as to establishes punishment for not being in church. He seeks you out the next day, so he can punish you in front of everyone so that they know not to defy his power.He uses the fear of that he gives everyone in the village to rule them. When Parris said “ Abigail,I have fought here three long years to bend the stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character” (144). He showed that he did not care for anyone in his community. Parris only cared for the power he had on the people of Salem. He thought himself to be over everyone else so that led to him being an egotistical

man.
Oxford dictionary says that self-centered means preoccupied with oneself and one's affairs. Rev. Parris is self-centered when it comes to the people of Salem. Parris does not for his niece or for the village of Salem that looked up to him. Parris showed his true character when he told Abigail, “I have fought here three long years to bend the stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character” (144). Rev. Parris made it clear that he was a self-centered man only caring for himself and not of others. he sees himself and his close family like his daughter or wife ,if she was there with him, above others in the village. He was not only self-centered man that care for no one but himself, he was also a greedy man.
The greed of Minister Parris is what the people of Salem hate most about him.

He is the greediest man in Salem. He has demanded that he gets the deed to the church house and he request that he receive free firewood as payment with his salary. “Parris- Where is my wood? My contract provides I be supplied with all my firewood. I am waiting since November for a stick, and even in November I had to show my frostbitten hands like some London beggar! Giles- You are allowed six pound a year to buy your wood, Mr. Parris. Parris- I regard that six pound as part of my salary. I am paid little enough without I spend six pound on firewood” (152). Parris’s character in this part of the text is a greedy and vain. John Proctor is ashamed to have Parris as his minister. John feels that Parris is too materialistic to be a minister because he says “Proctor-. Mr. Parris, you are the first minister ever did demand the deed to this house— Parris. Man! Don’t a minister deserve a house to live in? Proctor. To live in, yes. But to ask ownership is like you shall own the meeting house itself; the last meeting I were at you spoke so long on deeds and mortgages I thought it were an auction” (152). Instead of accepting the generosity of the town in supplying him a nice place to live, Parris demands that he be given the deed of ownership to the house. He wants to change his legal position to one of greater material power. The quote shows that even though he is a minister, he cares more for the

material things in life more than he would the spiritual peace he would get in the afterlife.
The main theme for the first act of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible would be greed and reputation. Parris main focus was on his self worth and on material things instead of on his religion and the spiritual well being of his people. Parris should have been a better leader but he was not. he was a power-hungry, self-centered, and greedy man. He was not the light the town of Salem need during this period of darkness. Salem need someone with a pure heart. Someone that will care for them now and until they die but we know from Act one that That person is not Samuel Parris of Barbados, Graduate of Harvard.