serve to bring the supernaturalto their fans and unite them under its banner. As observed by King, “one touch of horror makesthe whole world kin.”31The Puritans of America’s early days did not understand much about their universe. In avain attempt to explain what befell them, the Puritans built up “such personifications [and]marvelous interpretations”32 as to reveal their own morbid fascination with the unnatural. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible best illustrates this hypocritical attraction-abhorrence nature of thePuritans. They believe that the forest was “the Devil’s last preserve.”33 Hence, when the Salemminister, Reverend Parris, discovers a group of girls from the town, including his daughter,Betty, and niece, Abigail, dancing and “conjuring up spirits”34 with his slave girl, Tituba, “therumor of witchcraft [spreads] all about.”35 Betty will not wake from what seems to be a deepsleep36. Almost everyone in the town jumps to the conclusion that she has been put under awitch’s spell.37 One of the first things Goody Putnam asks about Betty is “How high did shefly?”38 This clearly illustrates how instinctive and deeply entrenched was this desire for thesupernatural. Exasperated, Reverend Parris calls on Rev. Hale, who is an expert in the “demonicarts,”39 to evaluate the situation. The fact that they even have an expert of the demonic artsspeaks volumes about their superstitious way of life. When Mr. Hale arrives, it is quicklydetermined that “Tituba knows how to speak to the dead,”40 and that more went on than simplydancing. From these meager details it is resolved that “there is a murdering witch among[them].”41 Tituba is called in to speak to Rev. Hale, who forces confessions out of her as if hewants them to be true. Finally, she sobs that she “danced for the Devil [and] wrote in hisbook...
