TITUBA: I don’t compact with no Devil!
PARRIS: You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!
PUTNAM: This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged!
TITUBA, terrified, falls to her knees: No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.
PARRIS: The Devil?
HALE: Then you saw him! Tituba weeps. Now Tituba, I know that when we bind ourselves to Hell it is very hard to break with it. We are going to help you tear yourself free—
[….]
HALE: You would be a good Christian woman, would you not, Tituba?
-Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Act One, page42
In Act One of The Crucible, the character utilize fear of death and religious overtones to direct language and incite action. The Crucible has religion as a major factor in the hysteria and desperation of the witch trials, but in this moment Hale uses it in an attempt to appeal to Tituba to convince her to help them. As the major conflict of The Crucible is the contrast between good and evil, or in this case Christianity and the Devil and his witches. In this moment, as Tituba confesses to interacting with the Devil and thus to being on the opposing side of this grand battle, Hale must invoke the other side of the battle. This creates clear sides and identifies enemies. However, by asking Tituba if she is a good Christian woman, Hale is appealing to the societal expectation that she be a Christian woman in order to convince her to give them the information they want. In contrast, however, Putnam and Parris utilize a fear of death to persuade Tituba to tell what they think of the truth. They state that they will hang and whip her, and it is after these threats of violence that Tituba changes course to admit to working for the Devil. She “falls to her knees” and is “terrified” after their threats. Tituba’s fear of harm and death capitulates her to do as they wish as they urge her to tell them how she is involved with the Devil; they do not really urge for the truth but rather for her to confirm the truth they believe. In doing so, Putnam and Parris shape Tituba’s actions and language through threats of death to change Tituba’s statement. Act One of The Crucible demonstrates how religious appeals can be used to persuade, but also how threats of harm can force an audience to state things they may not believe.