the Stream of Conscience
... where the conscience of the people was strictly governed by this theocracy, the social atmosphere of the parish was truly repressive. But at the start of The Crucible, it is obvious that the people had already begun to feel the strains of this repression. Abigail Williams, a very beautiful, orphaned girl who lives with her uncle, the Reverend Parris, says to John Proctor, a farmer who serves as "a prime example of a sinner who is able to accept and confess of his sins in order to do good" (Pearson 192), "I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women" (Act 1, Scene 2). Like so many others in Salem, Abigail is quite aware of the hypocrisy arising from the strict repression of theocracy, and has begun to rebel against it. When the girls dance naked in the woods and cast spells, an act strictly forbidden by theocratic law, Abigail immediately uses this as a means to "work herself around the conscience of the church and all its restrictions and establish her own idea of what is right and what is wrong" (Decter 204). But Abigail is not the only character in The Crucible that is guilty of using the witch hunt as a means to foster individual interests, for Putnam uses the trials as a way to obtain land, thus manipulating the usual restrictive mores of Salem to create his own conception of conscience. With all this, a new conscience has evolved in The Crucible, stemming from the trials in which "the societal balance was turned towards greater individual freedom" (Paton 146). Ideally, the community of Salem has turned from a strict, repressive conscience to one where personal gain and "common vengeance writes the laws" (Bloom 170). The church has lost its mighty power and as Mr. Hale so eloquently points out "The crazy children" are now "jangling the keys of the kingdom." As Arthur Miller declares, the character of John Proctor was greatly reassuring, for as a sinner "he might overturn his paralyzing personal guilt and become the most forthright voice against the madness around him" and demonstrate that "a clear moral outcry could still spring even from an ambiguously unblemished soul" (160). This "personal guilt" is associated with Proctor's affair with Abigail Williams which greatly affects his own conscience, for he is "a sinner, not only against the moral fashion but also his own inner vision of decent conduct" (Decter 168) as manifested in the theology of Salem. Proctor's conscience troubles him throughout the play and rises in his relationships with other characters, for he conceives of himself as a sinner, due to his deeds associated with his adultery. But the courts in Salem are intent on ridding the parish of evil by inflicting its morality upon the citizens. As Judge Danforth exclaims, "No uncorrupted man may fear this court" (Act 3, Scene 2), which emphasizes the fact that the court is the epitome of morality in Salem. And it is here that the question of whether conscience is organic to the human being as posed by Miller comes to the forefront, for the courts exist, in part, to provide conscience and morality, based on the assumption that conscience is not part of man but ordained by God and that the laws of the church are required to provide this conscience in order to distinguish between good and evil for the mindless human being. Therefore, the courts require that all those accused and found guilty of practicing witchcraft must confess or be hung at the gallows. With this, conscience has been handed over to the state which takes the place of God and decides on matters of right and wr...