Abuse Of Power In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In The Crucible a lot of stuff happens. A girl controls the whole village with her bad reputation. A families life gets messed up. Also alot, a lot of people die just because of this girls actions. Every bad thing leads to another and that is what happens in this play. In this play it shows who people really are when a person gets power they don't care about others they get what they want. Repetition is everything in that time.Reputation and integrity is a big role in this book just because everyone's reputation changes dramatically over and over again. With a bad reputation you can do bad things. If you have a powerful reputation you can get whatever you want and when you want it. In The Crucible By Arthur Miller, Reputation and integrity was shown by the characters actions.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, justice and injustice is portrayed through the characters of John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. It is also shown through the minor characters of Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis, followers of Abigail Williams, and through Danforth and various townspeople.

The crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, a story about adultery, false accusations, and forgiving. The story is a real life based event that happened in the 1600’s when people were falsely being accused of being “Witches”. Along with the false accusations, it led to punishments such as death. In The Crucible, John Proctor’s reputation around the town is known as an Adulterer, he was also victim of false accusations brought against him, and he was forgiving of his sins.]

As stated by the great Irish philosopher, Edmund Burke, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse” (braniyquotes.com). Burke’s words are proven true in many facets of the human experience. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, a shift of power is portrayed through Abigal’s sly manipulation. Arthur Miller takes a historical context, that of the Salem Witch Trials, and shows how simple actions can alter the course of history. The disintegration of an orderly Puritan society into one that is governed by chaos and hysteria is caused by a radical change in the normally male dominated power by a woman whose pride has been bruised.

The Crucible, a historical play based on events of the Salem witchcraft trials, takes place in a small Puritan village in the colony of Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials, as Miller explains in a prose prologue to the play, grew out of the particular moral system of the Puritans, which promoted interference in others' affairs as well as a repressive code of conduct that frowned on any diversion from norms of behavior.

“Hale: Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws away for pride” (206). Reverend Hale’s eye-opening words make Elizabeth realize that John Proctor should do the right thing for God, even if that includes lying. This quote relates to the Salem witch trials because during this time, the court was getting involved with the town, so everybody had to constantly tell the truth. Overall, the play gives a feeling of the Salem witch trials by using facts and events relevant to the time period. On a similar topic, Arthur Miller feels that everybody is vindictive, manipulating, and betraying each other; therefore, Miller uses his troublesome experience to commemorate the demeaning investigations of witches. Miller’s high disapproval of the American government, especially how the court handles situations, is greatly represented in his play. The characters change throughout the story, and they start to realize that it is not all about what the government wants for their life. They soon enough start thinking and speaking for themselves which leads to big decisions and disapproval from the American government. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he artistically manipulates the authentic facts of the Salem witch trials’ victim John Proctor to fiction in order to similarly represent his interrogation during the Red Scare while also putting a spin on the trials through his style, characterization and tone.

Do you feel that your leaders ever fail to use their authority in the way you believe they should? James Madison believes that government is power, and since humans are in charge of the right, it always has the ability of being misused. Communities revert to chaos when the authority figures abuse the influence they have. Madison’s argument is correct because people in general need strong rulers, so if the privilege given to the superiors is exploited, society begins to break down.

Mistakes are part of human nature. Mistakes can happen to anyone and anything. In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, mistakes are shown all throughout the story. The whole idea of The Crucible is that a wild witch hunt is going on in the town. Names are being called out at random, and people are turning on one another. This story was written by Miller after the McCarthy Hearings, which was the period during the Cold War where Joseph McCarthy began to call many high level officials out for being a communist. The Crucible is right on along like the Hearings. One character who was of high respect in the town of Salem was John Proctor. Proctor is shown to the reader and throughout the play as the hero of the town. Proctor is a simple but well respected farmer in the town of Salem, who gets himself mixed up with witchcraft and the twisted and treacherous Abigail Williams. Through the writings of Arthur Miller, Proctor is shown to have many strengths and flaws that attribute him as the tragic hero of the play.

The Crucible A book by Arthur Miller, is structured around the idea of authority and who really has authority. Miller represents these ideas with the Salem Witch Trials. In Miller’s interpretation of the event, he integrates the theme by letting Abigail gain authority. She is able to get enough power to do anything. Leading to the theme of authority. With Hale and Proctor’s truth getting trumped by Abigail’s authority.

Abigail is the character that no ones wants to be in a story. She is most of the responsibility for the girls going with Tituba to the woods. Then after Paris finds them, she tries to fake her behavior because if she doesn’t it will show her affair with Proctor if she confesses to casting a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. Betty calls Abigail out by saying “you did it, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Procter’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! (Miller, 19). Abigail lies first to hide her affair but then she starts lying to prevent being accused of witchcraft. To keep all the attention off of herself she starts accusing other people of witchcraft. Abigail is heartless because she thinks nothing of just accusing people of witchcraft which will send them to their death. Abigail was a very deceiving when she spoke to anyone about anything throughout the story. Abigail was lying at the court case they had durning the Salem Witch trials, she was trying to get everyone to believe that Mary’s Warren was a bird coming to get her, she says, “But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary” (Miller 106). Abigail was lying that who court case so she didn’t get in trouble, she wanted to save herself even if it meant that others were going to die.

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is written about the Salem Witch Trials back in 1692. It began with a group of girls messing around in the woods and when someone walks down and catches them dancing, which is against the rules, they were accused of performing witchcraft. This is what started the Salem witch trials. As the play goes on it tells the story about the accusations of witchcraft and the punishments results of the accusations. Throughout this play there were two main characters, John Proctor and Abigail Williams. John Proctor was a father of three boys, married to Elizabeth, had sexual relations with Abigail, and tends to stands up for what he believes is right. In the play, Proctor comes across many problems that are ethical dilemmas, one of the biggest is his reputation, and deciding whether to lie to stay alive or tell the truth and die.

Imagine living in a society where you are guilty till proven innocent, instead of innocent til proven guilty. Due to the bias preference of the word of “God” in the story The Crucible By Arthur Miller, it is greatly implied that many of the casualties such as John and Elizabeth Proctor to name a couple was due to the restricted theology of church and state. In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. These girls are who create most of the controversy, as they lie to get through most circumstances. A specific individual is Abigail Williams, playing the victim for example as she blames Tituba in page 43 saying “She makes me drink blood!” leading to Tituba to being pulled to the side in page 44 and yelled at “you will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death” making her give in, in order for him to spare her life. leading to further unjustifiable atrocities.

Power can be as easily obtained as it can be abused by any given person. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible displays the use of power dynamics in many of its characters. The exert of power presented by the proposed children of God, Abigail Williams and Mary Warren, rose to the extent of mass murder through the witch trials.

People want power because it gives them control and dominance over others. Power gives the person who has it the ability to do whatever they want, say whatever they want and make people do what they want. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the whole plot revolves around the theme of power. There is a never ending conflict of characters to keep, assert and acquire power. The most prominent characters that ultimately hurt the community the most due to their greed and lust for power are Deputy Governor Danforth, Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams. Although their relationship with power is different from one another they all have one thing in common. Parris, Danforth and Abigail all contribute to the demise of Salem because of their

Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. This can often be portrayed in many ways like an authority figure. In the play there are multiple characters that start with a strong sense of authority in given situations. The idea of having authority lead to some conflicting situations. However, at certain points some of the characters begin to lose their authority as the problems continue. Throughout The Crucible, the amount of authority and power one has is a concern due to the lying that occurs.