Christopher Townsend
11/20/07
Period 8th
U.S. History
The Movie, Book, and Play of the Puritans
Who are the puritans? The puritans are church members who wanted to “purify” or reform the Church of New England. They traveled from England (Great Britain) to North America in 1620 to escape religious persecution. They created New England, where John Winthrop would be there first governor. You have many versions that tell you stories of the Puritans from books, to movies and plays. As you have read so far, you will be informed of the similarities and the differences between the movies, books, and plays of the puritans.
The book, movie, and play have similarities that are all true about the puritans. In the movie, play, and book, the puritans were strict. They were strict about dancing, drinking, singing, and of course spells and witchcraft. The puritans believed that if any of these activities were done, that it would only be traps for the devil to be let into your life, and another step closer to committing a sin. In addition to this, the puritans in the movie, play, and book as you know were very religious. Every Sunday you had to be at church, no excuses, unless a person was very sick/ill or similar to that. Speaking of being very religious, the puritans did not believe in forgiveness of sins. This is why you could not sin, or you will be punished. As you can see, in the movie when John Proctor admitted to having an affair with Abigail Williams, the Judge and court spoke of excommunication, or being hung by the gallows. Also in the play, movie, and book, there was a strong relationship of government and church. There wasn’t a separation of the government and church. For example, the town priest, which was Reverend Parris, was also considered the town’s mayor. That was the reason of how the government and church had a strong relationship.
The book, movie, and play have differences also that didn’t match up. All the differences came from the movie and play...