Author: Ecila Carpin, West Campus High School
📍Sacramento, CA

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, logos is constantly abused by several of the book’s characters via assumptions based on flawed, or a lack of reasoning in order for those characters to make the case for the existence of witches and witchery in Salem. One example of this is after Proctor goes to the courthouse after his wife is taken into custody and Hale accuses him and his wife of being in contact with the devil. Proctor is making his case, trying to convince Hale to let his wife go, when Reverend Parris runs into the room screaming “They’ve come to overthrow the court, sir” (Miller 82)! Here, Parris is implying that Hale should not listen to what Proctor has to say because he is indeed a witch. When presenting evidence of Proctor’s witchery, Parris brings up how Proctor “… will not come to church but once in a month!” and Cheever brings up how he saw Proctor “plow on Sunday” (Miller 84). This is a slippery slope fallacy, because just because Proctor was plowing on Sunday and missed church a couple of times does not mean that he is in contact with the devil. Neither of these actions provide solid evidence for him conjuring spirits or being controlled by the devil. Another example of this creation of evidence for the existence of witchery based on flawed reasoning is when Goody Putnam exclaims, “They [her miscarried children] were murdered, Mr. Parris… Last night my little Ruth were ever so close to their little spirits; I know it, sir. For how else is she struck dumb now except some power of darkness would stop her mouth”(Miller 15). Here, Goody Putnam is blaming her miscarriages and Ruth’s current sickness on the existence of spirits and witchery. Her motive for doing this is the fact that she likely feels guilty and/or incompetent for the fact that so many of her pregnancies have resulted in miscarriages, and wants to blame it on the existence of witchery to absolve her from her guilt. This is fallacious, as there are many reasons, including sickness, fatigue, the possibility that she is faking it, etc, for Ruth’s sickness, and there is no evidence that links the fact that Ruth is sick and her several miscarriages to witchery as opposed to natural reasons. In conclusion, throughout The Crucible, misused logos is used to create evidence for the existence of witchery in Salem.