On The Religious Power In The Crucible From Greenblatt’s Perspective

The Crucible, one of Arthur Miller’s most successful representative works, attracts lots of discussion on the power and people’s struggle. In the play, Miller presents the whole process of the witch trials in Salem in the late 18 th century, in which the religious power, as the ruling power,predominates over the whole trials.From the perspective of Stephen Greenblatt, the most famous representative of New Historicism, the ruling power of the society usually adopts the process of containment and subversion to consolidate its authority. Meanwhile, the self-fashion of individuals, as the result of the ruling power and individual potentiality, is also the presentation of containment and subversion of the ruling power. Therefore, it is very proper to adopt Greenblatt’s theory of power to analyze the religious power in The Crucible.This thesis starts with establishment of the religious power. The religious power in Salem forms in the certain historical context and then establishes its own governing institutions: the church and the government.By the governing institutions, the religious power takes control of every aspect of the society, including people’s mind. All the people in Salem can not escape from the influence of the religious power. What’s more,they take it for granted that repression of the religious power exists in thedaily life, which also proves the domination of the religious power.While the religious power dominates the society, it still has to use religious, moral and political approaches to defend its own authority and stability of the society. The witch hunt in The Crucible shows how these approaches work. The governing institutions claim that all the people who may threaten stability of society and authority of the religious power are all witches. Then the governing institutions can punish these so-called witches severely. To contain the subversion more reasonably, the religious power can make use of any people, even the subversive ones, like the girls in the court, to reach its goal.Further interpretation of the thesis focuses on two chosen character,Reverend Hale and John Proctor, as the examples of two kinds of new-born subversion. Reverend Hale, though realizing the errors the religious power makes, chooses to persuade the criminals into pretending confession so that they can survive. However, his subversive behavior,from the objective perspective, contributes to guarding the authority of the religious power. John Proctor chooses another way of subversion. He refuses to cooperate with the court and defend for his own name and virtues. His subversive behavior is contained, but his death contributes to awakening of people and final collapse of the religious power.By analyzing the religious power in The Crucible, this thesis provides another interpretation of the tragedy in Salem. The tragedy isinevitable since the process of containment and subversion has no end.However, though people can not escape from the domination of the ruling power of their age, they can still keep their humanity, which helps them to realize the hypocrisy of the ruling power and try to find out the way to make the society better.