The Use of Manipulation Regarding Power in The Crucible Essay Example

When people gain power, they often want to maintain it. In some circumstances, people are willing to go to extreme lengths to get what they want. In the play The Crucible by Aurthur Miller, there are multiple people in the town of Salem who were able to establish and maintain power. In order to withhold the power, characters use manipulation. Individuals in Salem are able to establish and maintain power through manipulation as demonstrated by the characters Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Reverend Parris. 

Although women during this time period were not seen as powerful figures or treated with any sort or authority, the character Abigail Williams was able to gain and maintain power with the use of manipulation, which she uses frequently throughout the course of the novel. This can be displayed when she states: “I have been near murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people- and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned…” (Miller 108).  In this instance, Abigail is instilling the feeling of guilt in the people who doubt her, more specifically Danforth, as a way of manipulation to preserve her power. By making them feel guilty, Abigail is playing with their emotions and making it seem like they should not be questioning her. As a result, she is able to keep her power because no one can get any real evidence against her. In addition, Abigail is able to obtain her power by threatening the other girls into doing as she says: “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (20). By threatening the other girls, Abigail is able to manipulate them into doing as she says as a result fear of what she might do to them if they don’t follow her orders. Due to this fear that she created in the other girls, Abigail is able to sustain her power because no one wants to testify against her. Also, she has people that she can control backing up her claims, giving her even more power and influence over the trials taking place in Salem. Overall, Abigail Williams was able to establish and maintain power by threatening the girls, and guilting the court, both of which are exhibiting her use of manipulation.  

Along with Abigail, Judge Danforth was able to use manipulation as a way to secure his power throughout Salem. This can be seen when the judge uses his influence in the court as a form of manipulation. In the play Danforth states, “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between” (94). It is no secret to the people living in Salem that Judge Danforth will convict someone for a crime on very little evidence. In doing so, he has created a fear of the court. Danforth uses this fear to control people’s opinions, thus not letting them challenge the court or his authority. He is making it so that people are easier to control because they don’t want to anger the court or disagree with them. Furthermore, Danforth uses the fear of witches in Salem as a means to control people. This is demonstrated when Danforth claims he will continue to hang people in relation to the law: “If retaliation is your fear, know this- I should hang ten thousand that dared to rise against the law…” (129). In this instance, Danforth is trying to maintain his power, claiming it’s in the name of the law, despite all the evidence that there are no witches in Salem. By doing his best to keep this fear alive, he is using manipulation so that the people of Salem need to fall back on his judgment, keeping him in power. By using his influence in the court, and trying to keep the fear of witches alive in Salem, Danforth is able to sustain his power. 

Reverend Parris was also an important figure in Salem’s community. He does not have the strongest personality, and is constantly worried about his reputation. It is a necessity for him to use manipulation to ensure that his reputation is not tainted and his power does not diminish. In order to keep his reputation in town, he must lie in order to preserve it. When talking to Danforth, Parris says, “I can only say, sir, that I never found any of them naked…” (105). This is contradictory to when he claims that he saw a dress lying on the ground and someone running naked after finding Abigail and the rest of the girls dancing in the woods. Abigail is family, and because of this he believes that by telling the truth, it would ruin his reputation and reduce the power he has in Salem. By lying and manipulating the court, Parris was able to maintain his power and influence of the community. Moreover, he is able to gain power through the court, and must manipulate them in order to sustain it. When John Proctor and the others come claiming they have evidence to prove the girls were lying, Parris immediately starts trying to show that Proctor and the others must be up to no good with these accusations: “All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem! These people are gloomy for it” (94). By saying this, Pariss is attempting to manipulate the court into siding with him rather than Proctor. He knows that the evidence Proctor is presenting would prove Abigail is lying, therefore ruining his reputation and taking away his power. As a way to maintain it, he attempts to manipulate the court into thinking Proctor must be up to something by questioning the convictions. As a result of having a weak personality and being obsessed with reputation, Parris uses manipulation in the form of lying and persuasion as a way to increase his power in the community. 

Throughout the course of the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, individuals will use techniques such as guilt-tripping, the use of fear, lying, or persuasion, in order to maintain power. Abigail, Danforth, and Parris were all examples of characters that would use these techniques as a way to create and stay in power due to the fact that they are all forms of manipulation. Although all these characters were all able to gain power, they did not necessarily use this for good, which contributed to the downfall of Salem. 

Works Cited

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Penguin Group, 1976.