Essay on Emile Durkheim Theory In The Crucible

📌Category: Plays, Sociological Theories, Sociology, The Crucible
📌Words: 700
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 18 June 2021

A French sociologist, Emile Durkheim creates a theory arguing bad things must happen for society to maintain social norms. In “The Crucible”, there are plenty of events that can be argued on whether or not this theory is true. Emile Durkheim's theory should be recognized as true because as a whole society in Salem can become stronger and learn from the mistakes after fixing the problem. “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller, shows us a town named Salem, filled with prideful individuals, and the town gets bizarre after everyone is accused of performing witchcraft. For example, a character named Reverend Parris saw girls in the forest dancing which was prohibited at the time because it meant they were “dancing with the devil”. The girls were casting spells, drinking blood, and dancing. From there everything went downhill for the girls as well as Salem; everyone started turning on each other. Another example is near the end of the play when a man named John Proctor is accused even though he is innocent of being a witch. He was accused by a little girl named Mary Warren because she was trying to save herself from being accused. John proctor is no perfect man; he has had an affair while his wife, Elizabeth, while she was sick. Though he cheated, he is no witch. Overall the town had their ego and pride get the best of them and needed a moral humbling experience. Emile Durkheim argued that bad things must happen for society to maintain a social norm. I fully agree with this theory. Without anything bad happening in society no one will coalesce and search for the good things in life. It is not normal for everything to be given to us, we need to be humbled, especially in the Crucible. Like mentioned before, the girls were spotted by “Mr. Parris [and he] discovered them sportin' in the woods...” or otherwise known as dancing (Miller 68). It was revealed later on that they were doing more than dancing in the woods; drinking blood, sacrificing a frog, and other odd suspicious activities were performed. Without them being caught dancing in the beginning, the whole story would not have happened as it did. Though some innocent people were wrongly accused, overall society must have gone through what they did for them to learn the right morals. John Proctor had cheated on his loyal wife as well as executed for not confessing in court. He chose the option of being executed instead of living a lie because he needs to be known as being prideful for him and his children want to leave a positive legacy for his children. Though this was long throughout the choice, it was a good thing. Elizabeth was able to learn from his cheating as well as objectively see things from both points of view and do better for herself. Not only was John's legacy saved but their future children were saved as well. All these insufficient events were important or else the people in Salem would not have been humbled enough to maintain society's social norms. Some will say that Salem needed bad things to happen for society to maintain social norms is not true because they do not agree with Emile Durkheim's theory. People in Salem that were accused were given the unfair choice of “You will confess yourself or you will hang!” (Miller 117). In the story, bad things were happening to innocent people. They were being accused of witchcraft though they had no right to be. It is argued that innocent people dying is wrongful and there is no good in doing so. While that may be the case, Salem needed bad things to happen to humble society, meaning the social norms still stand because looking at the bigger picture lots of people were able to use this time as a learning experience. People are now aware wrongfully accusing one another of witchcraft is not acceptable. Innocent people dying is still important but in a way, they were sacrificed to help in the future. All in all, Salem has been through numerous bad events, but without them happening no one would have given the bad reputation they deserved or even the good reputation. Without all the trials and the truth coming out, society in Salem still would have gone downhill and no one would have put them in their place. Emile Durkheim's theory of bad things needs to happen for society to maintain its norms applies perfectly to the town of Salem. 

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