The Crucible
lust for Land
Land is one of the motifs that appear frequently throughout The Crucible. The only ways to get power in the Salem is either to have God by one’s side or owning a massive land. Usually the people have power through the second choice. Thomas Putnam is the best example of landlust. Arthur Miller gives us a background of Putnam that he was involved in a “land war” with Nurse family, and also “attempted to break his father’s will, which left a disproportionate amount of a stepbrother”. Even from the background, we can see how much Thomas Putnam craves for land, the power. Starting from Act one, Putnam argues with Proctor and Corey on land problem. He accuses Proctor of stealing the firewood off his land. “That tract is in my bounds, it’s my bounds, Mr.Proctor!”. He eventually threaten them to harm if they ever touch lumber on his land. Moreover, when George Jacobs was accused of witchcraft, Thomas Putnam uses his daughter, Ruth to jail him so that his land would be open for him to buy it. A member of the town “heard Putnam say…the day his daughter cried out on Jacobs, he said she’d given him a fair gift of land.”