The Crucible in an allegory that ultimately addresses human behaviour. Death is a common denominator when societies are left to their own demise, as seen with the useless killings of the “witches” of Salem, Massachusetts to include our protagonist, John Proctor. Through the hysterics of the Salem villagers we see people struck with the fear of being accused of witchcraft; despite witchcraft being somewhat of a grey phenomenon, it was solidly used to indict and kill villagers to the benefit of others. When you look at two specific characters within the Crucible i.e. John Proctor and Reverend Hale you notice opposite reactions in response to their respective regret thus analyzing their actions, you notice threads of human action that continues…
Act Three: Act Three opens in the courtroom as Giles bursts in, claiming to have evidence that all of this has been a farce. Deputy Governor Danforth, Judge Hathorne, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris, joined Giles and Francis in an outer room to get to the bottom of the matter. At this point John Proctor enters, dragging with him a reluctant and terrified Mary Warren. Despite her obvious fear, Mary testifies to the Judge that the trails are a sham. The girls were all faking and only pretending to have been afflicted by witchcraft.…
Kieran Press-Reynolds AP English Language August 20, 2015 Novel Analysis Assignment The Crucible by Arthur Miller Plot and Conflict The Crucible is a story about the power of theocracy and how hysteria corrupts it. It takes place during the seventeenth century in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts.…
The Crucible by Arthur Miller provides a historical fiction account of the Salem witch trials. The play, written in the 1950’s, has many similarities to the McCarthyism that swept across the United States at the time. Arthur Miller uses many different literary elements to tell the story of the trials including Irony, Allusions and Archetypes. One element used in The Crucible is Irony. “Irony is a literary technique that involves a difference between appearance and reality, expectations and actions, and meaning and intention.…
The Crucible is a movie based on a play written not long after the McCarthy era, which focuses on the chaos surrounding the small town of Salem in 1692, where numerous accusations of witchcraft plagued the town. This movie reflects upon how personal profit, community wide terror, and easy justification can ruin both the individual and the group as a whole. “Witch hunts,” as they are later called, are a series of events (often accusations) that have no logical evidence, are biased, and are often connected to a situation involving heavy amounts of fear. Witch hunts have occurred during many points throughout history, such as the McCarthy era and the Salem Witch trials, trying to find communists and witches respectively. Often witch hunts are composed of three roles: the punisher, the accuser, and the accused.…
A Battle of Pride and Righteousness The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, demonstrates an exceptional example of a tragic hero with the character John Proctor. A tragic hero is one who must undergo the transformation of a good and happy life, to a tragic downfall that concludes to one’s own peace and understanding that their fate was due to none other than their own flaws and decisions made in their lifetime. Understanding that nobody is without flaw and that actions must have consequences, the audience of a tragic hero makes a special connection with the character and becomes deeply saddened with their final outcome. John Proctor begins as a happy farmer living an average man’s life, with a dark secret.…
Annotated Bibliography: Bonnet, Jean-Marie. “Society vs. the Individual in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.” English Studies 63.1 (1982): 32-36 Bonnet argues that Miller fully contradicts himself in his standpoint between the individual and society in the Crucible. The play alternates between being about an individual’s self-discovery and being about a community’s uproar. Bonnet illustrates how Miller constantly forces the characters to deny themselves at the sack of the community’s unity.…
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the people of Salem are accusing others of witchcraft. During the play several people were realizing that what was happening was not right, some did speak out but many did nothing to try and stop it. There are also many times in the real world this has occurred. An example of a person doing what is right when others wouldn't is when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man.…
Throughout the play, fear proves to have resulted in persecution. One of the first to be accused was Tituba, servant to Reverend Parris. Tituba brought the girls to the woods to cast spells and dance. She is accused for practicing witchcraft and arrested. As she was beaten, she figured out that if she confessed, she would be saved.…
Can disastrous consequences happen when people put their own needs before others in society? That theme is in "The Crucibles", a story where the Salem witch trials are taking place in this historical play created by Arthur Miller. In addition, there are many different characters that Miller shows that theme from. Overall, Miller shows that theme through the characters Proctor, Abigail and Danforth. One character Miller uses to display that theme is Proctor.…
“I saw Sarah Good with the devil! I saw goody Osburn with the devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the devil!” (Miller, 1996, p.25) These are some of the false accusations that Abigail yells after Tituba confesses.…
Literature is a wonderful thing; it explores the relationships between humans and their nature, historical events, and can be used to express one’s creativity. It can also be used to give moral guidance; this was Arthur Miller’s reasoning behind writing The Crucible. In this dramatic retelling of the Salem trials, Miller ensnares his reader with stories of adultery, betrayal, and material greed. His intention, however, is not to entertain with operatic drama. This play is a cautionary tale about finger pointing and its potentially fatal consequences.…
For example, when two girls are struck with an “illness” at the beginning of the novel, some people turn to witchcraft as the explanation. Mrs. Putnam supports her claim by stating that she sent her daughter, Ruth, to Tituba in the hope that Tituba could conjure her dead babies. She believes they were murdered, as she is determined to find the one responsible. Her daughter’s “illness” is viewed as a work of darkness, a sign of witchcraft (Miller 15). However, the benefits of the scene outweigh the costs, and the fear of witchcraft exhibited in the scene is crucial to the development of the play.…
1. Discuss the role of the opening scene of The Crucible to bring out some of the dramatic effects sought for and achieved? The opening scene of The Crucible by Arthur Miller serves a predominant role in the play as it establishes the main themes and introduces the main characters. It also foreshadows further events in the play through dramatic effects such as, stage directions, tone, and punctuation.…
Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1901-1909, view for the nation became known as the Rooseveltian Nation. In Gary Gerstle’s historical monograph called American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century he makes argument as to why the Rooseveltian Nation collapsed. He argued that the collapse was due to “racial antagonism, anti-war protests and cultural revolt” (313). The civic nation of the Rooseveltian Nation collapsed due to the Civil Rights which sought to integrated, civic nation, while the Black Power sought to segregate, racial nation. Gerstle defined Black Power as “a political ideology calling on African American to free their communities and consciousness from white controls” (295).…