What Is The Theme Of Evil In The Crucible

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In life, people have the freedom and right to do what they please. Whether one decides to be good or evil is up to them. A bad person is someone who is selfish and lies without any regard to how it may affect another. Niccolo Machiavelli once said, “All men are evil and will act upon their vicious nature if given the chance.” Authors use allegory and symbolism in their writing to get a hidden point across and leave it up to the reader’s interpretation. In the playwright The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and the short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner depict the themes of good versus evil. Arthur Miller, William Faulkner, and L. Frank Baum used allegory and symbolism to portray that …show more content…
As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess their crimes and to “name names.”, bringing in evil spirits of others like Abigail who used it to cause harm. Abigail, whose heart was pure evil, was willing to let others die in order for her to get wanted, John Proctor. She even went as far as to stab herself in the stomach to play along (Miller 74).In the beginning, the young girls of Salem used the witches as a way to get out of trouble, but later it evolved into something more. The people of Salem became greedy and evil crying witch for their personal vendetta. People exclaimed witch in return for property or love. The Crucible was like the Red Scare because the people of America in the 1950’s were scared of communists, so many Americans were killed and imprisoned. Symbolism in The Crucible involved the rocks and the doll. The rocks mentioned when Giles Corey said, “More weight” (Miller 135), symbolises the weight of Salem’s sins crushing the good in its society. The Crucible is not about whether the accused were actually witches, but rather if the court officials would believe the …show more content…
“A Rose for Emily” is an allegory of the life of the old South and how Emily’s life is symbolically over. After Emily’s father passed away, Emily rarely goes out and one can only tell the time based on the color of her hair and how it was styled. In the story it says, “ When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl…”(Faulkner 866), then it goes on to say, “When we saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray...”(Faulkner 872). As years went on, the townspeople were displeased by the fact that Emily still had not married, but eventually she met Homer Barron. Homer Barron and Emily started seeing each other and formed an agreement to marry. After their agreement, troubles arose. There had been talk about Homer and how he liked men. Seeing how Homer liked men, Emily may have assumed he would leave her and break off the deal, and the reader can only assume that is the reason for seeing a druggist. When the arsenic was delivered, Emily noticed under the skull and bones the druggist wrote, “For rats”(Faulkner 870). The author left the ending up to interpretation and one can assume that Emily was planning on using the arsenic on Homer because to her, he was a rat for breaking the agreement. Emily was considered evil the moment she poisoned Homer. She was selfish and only thought of herself. She thought if she could not have him, then no one could.

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