Imagine being killed for a crime you did not commit. Unjust people out of fear, shame, or pride will perpetuate and defend their mistakes. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller takes place during the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams, a very naughty teen, is caught with her friends dancing naked in the woods during the nighttime. These acts are considered signs of witchcraft.…
Between the months of February 1692 and and May 1693 in Massachusetts there was a up bringing of rumors of witchcraft in the small town of Salem. In “ The Crucible “ by Arthur Miller revenge is shown through characters, fear is shown through plot , and hysteria is shown through theme. Fear is shown through plot by the lie that has gone too far and is ruining people's lives on telling the truth. In one instance John Proctor is taking Mary Warren to court to confess she lied about everything and so the girls. “ I cannot lie no more.…
I’ll tell you what’s walking in Salem— vengeance is walking in Salem. We are what we were now the little crazy children are jangling the keys kingdom and common vengeance writes the law!”(Miller 74). This shows how the Salem people, scared of witches were now controlled by whatever children said even if they blamed innocent and holy people as witches. This also shows how Salem finds the accuser holy and how the…
The Crucible’s Blind Truth Arthur Miller’s portrayal of mass hysteria accurately depicts the enormity of unjudicial falsehoods from a communal perspective. The Crucible’s setting is in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 when the controversial witch trials occurred. Parallel similarities arise to the way in which the Red Scare affected the people of the 1950s. Many of which became fully blind to truth of who was at fault for this mass hysteria. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, Judge Danforth, and Abigail Williams are largely blind to the truth that holds them back from achieving true justice.…
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, tells the story about a tangle of lies, misunderstandings, and deaths in the town of Salem during the time of witch trials. In the story, Abigail Williams along with a group of girls who follow her, between they Mary Warren, are responsible for falsely accusing the vast majority of people in the town of alleged relationships with the Devil, an act that the highest authorities believe. In this occasion, Miller treats topics such as integrity, revenge, guilt, and intolerance among others, issues that are related to the context of paranoia because of communism in which the play was written and which in fact can still be seen today. In the play, Mary Warren is one of the girls who follow the fraud of Abigail to end up being an example of how lack of character causes the death of the virtuous and the victory of the liar. Mary Warren “is seventeen, a subservient, naive lonely girl” (Miller 1267).…
In the play “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller we see many themes and lessons in the story. The main theme is focussed on deceit and lying and how lies can lead down a dark road which results in the ruin of many. The Crucible is a fictional play based on the Salem Witch Trials which occurred between February 1692 and May 1693 and resulted in over 150 people being accused of witchcraft and 20 executed. The story focusses on the story of John Proctor and Abigail Williams, his niece, and how lies, jealousy, revenge, and deep seated feuds caused a community to turn on each other in a vicious circle of accusations and misunderstandings. The characters in the play who lie significantly are Abigail, John Proctor, and Mary Warren…
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible visualizes the abuse of power and greed in society in many ways. Miller forces the reader to understand the different motives that an individual can get from the overbearing presence that one gets with power. In this play many characters hold power, though some hold more than others. One character that holds an extensive amount of power is Reverend Hale. Reverend Hale has come to the town of Salem to find out the truth behind these praises of witchcraft in the town.…
Can you imagine the people you love, your family or your neighbors, dying one by one around you? How would you react in a reality of witch accusations and inevitable deaths in a place you call home? Near and in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, a series of various convictions of witchcraft led to the executions that are now infamously known as the Salem Witch Trials. The main fuel behind this fire of violence is made apparent in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to be the effects of hysteria and paranoia rooted from fear. Hysteria is defined as a condition affecting a group of people, characterized by mostly anxiety and excitement, irrational behavior or inexplicable symptoms of illness.…
The Salem Witch Trials in the 1690’s brought sweeping fear across the state of Massachusetts. The fear that satan could be lurking around every corner plagued many, but there was no greater fear than that of being accused of witchcraft. The crime of witchcraft was so horrendous that it was punishable by death. This constant scare caused many to turn on one another, in the hopes of saving themselves. Arthur Miller 's play, The Crucible highlights this deceitful society, and portrayed how many characters responded to fear.…
Religion, repression, and revenge all play vital roles in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, by motivating the citizens’ accusations, rebellion, and mass hysteria. Without these elements, the witch trials would not have taken place. The religion of the Puritans, and their theocratic society caused the witch trials to worsen, citizens to make drastic choices, and fed the spread of mass hysteria throughout Salem. Since no separation between church and state existed, the people were forced to live a godly life in order to keep from breaking the law.…
During the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows how a simple game can turn violent in the small puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. The inhabitants of Salem are confused and very terrified as they see their longtime friends and trusty neighbors turn their backs on each other. Salem, a once peaceful town, has now been placed in what many of the people of Salem are sure are the hands of the devil. The Crucible tells the story of how accusations of witchcraft came to be during the real world event of the Salem Witch Trials on which the play is based off of. Scientists, along with historians, have tried to find the real motives behind the accusations but the world may never really know the complete truth of how and why the people of Salem…
The Power of Integrity If you were given a choice: your integrity or your life, which would you chose? In the play, The Crucible, the author, Arthur Miller, reveals that most people chose their life over their integrity. The Crucible illustrates that this decision leads greater chaos and distrust through the hysteria that occurred in Salem in 1692. In this time people start to lie and accuse their neighbor of witchcraft to save themselves from the punishment, while their neighbors either hang for their false accusations or they too lie and put their neighbor in the same situation.…
How the Powerless Became Powerful in the Play “The crucible” Over the years witchcraft has been experienced in different parts of the world. Although, it is usually seen as a thing of the past, in “The Crucible” drama of 1953 , Arthur Miller demonstrates how witchcraft still exist in the current society and the position people take concerning those involved in it. The play dates back to 1692 in a place known as Salem part of Massachusetts where different characters are revealed and each one of them plays a vital role in this hilarious play. Among the themes elaborated in the play is the theme of power which Miller portrays through several characters in the play. There are those who started powerless and ended up very powerful while on the other hand, some started powerful and at last they seem toothless.…
The words, witch hunts, are usually looked at as a joke or stupidity on the side of the humans. One of the most well-known witch hunts in history was in Massachusetts Salem. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he discusses the seriousness and unjustness of the crucible. Major power often results in the abuse of power and corruption, is one of the things he said provoked the witch hunts in Salem. In act two, John Proctor was furious because Abigail accused his wife, Elizabeth, of witchcraft.…
Introduction and Thesis Statement – Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a novel set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Its primary focus is the description of the chaos, struggles and difficulties which arise as a result of the witch trials taking place during this time. The Crucible has been referred to as a “Morality” play. A morality play is a drama in which the characters personify qualities or concepts such a having virtues or vices and generally involves a conflict between right and wrong or good and evil from which a moral lesson may be drawn. There are numerous characters and circumstances in The Crucible that support the assertion that it does indeed represent a morality play.…