Analysis Of The Poem ' Crucible '

A theme in The Crucible is that a society ruled by theocracy and status based on religion is bound to fall apart. Salem 's strict adherence to the Christian shurch is evident in everything the citizens do. They use measures of a person 's knowledge and adherence to the religion as a means of judging their character and also their status in society. They believe "God [was] provoked so grandly by such a petty cause" (121), which is why the "jails are packed" (121). If the citizen did anything to make God angry, they were punished. This is why the judges were so relentless and naïve in putting the accused women to trial and convicting them. They believed "the law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by the Almighty God,

Abigail is very self centered, she does not care who gets hurt by her actions, as long as she is in the clear from being known as the one who started this whole village to go down in the dumps. In the beginning of this story, Abigail seems to be a nice girl. Although, as the story develops, she turns out to be a manipulative girl who does anything she wishes to get what she yearns for. Abigail should have just told the truth in the first place, it is much better to confess instead of lie so that God will reconcile her and she can go along with her life. Many innocent lives were hurt and everyone turned on each other because Abigail did not confess. In the end, it is never right to hurt others for a personal

How many people have you met in your life that is stronger because of a difficult experience they went through? Most people are because we take these difficult experiences and grow from them and become better people. This is the exact case is expressed in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The story begins in Salem, Massachusetts 1692 right in the middle of a period of witchcraft hysteria. During this time many people were accused of being witches and wrongly convicted by judges Danforth and Hathorne. The characters in the story are struggling because of a girl named Abigail who gets caught practicing witchcraft and then starts naming and accusing others so that she doesn’t get in trouble; one of these people being a well-respected farmer, John Proctor’s, wife Elizabeth. The title, The Crucible, refers to a test, trial, ordeal, formation by fire, and vessel baked to resist heat, and the entire story is an allegory meaning it has a hidden meaning. John Proctor symbolizes a crucible by embodying the definition of one, as he went through a test and was formed by fire.

Under stress, people can easily forget parts of the Lord’s Prayer or the Commandments, yet this is used as a test to determine whether or not someone is a witch. These often unsound methods of justice, which are standard in Puritan society, leads to the accusation and hanging of many people that are actually innocent.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play written in response to the “communist scares” in America in the 1950’s. Miller chose “The Crucible” as the title because the definitions of the words match the play perfectly. A crucible is a container that can withstand high temperatures, often used to melt, and change the shape of metals. The town of Salem can be compared to the container that melts metals. The witchcraft trials can be compared to the severe tests or trials. Also, the severe tests or trials can be compared to how people are fighting themselves, and making moral decisions. (Dictionary).

Tituba is Parris’s slave from Barbados. Tituba was with the girls when they went into the woods and danced around the fire. Abigail told her to cast a spell onto Elizabeth so she would die but before anything could happen they got caught. When accused of witchcraft she confessed so she wouldn’t be hung. She also accused other people with being with the devil and that she even saw them. Tituba told them that the devil told her that she needed to kill Parris but she always told him no that he never has done anything to hurt

Betty wakes up and is uncontrollable. Rebecca Nurse enters and calms her. Rebecca then warns Parris that identifying witchcraft as the cause of Betty 's illness will lead to further problems in Salem. Mr. Putnam asks Rebecca to visit Ruth and attempt to wake her. Ruth is the only Putnam child to survive infancy, and Mrs. Putnam is jealous of Rebecca because all of Rebecca 's children are healthy, whereas Mrs. Putnam had lost seven infant children.

“The Puritans, like many societies in this time period, believed that women were culturally inferior to men,” which is why a young woman, like Abigail Williams, had to be so manipulative to gain control because a women in power was a very contentious topic at this time. (“Women in Puritan Society”). Abigail was both lower class and a woman, making it a challenge to be respected, which is why she used the witchcraft accusations for her own personal gain. From the beginning, she was just, “waiting for an opportunity to gain power,” when she made the girls perform witchcraft, lie about it, and then accuse other people (“The Crucible”). Her true intentions were to accuse Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, because she loved John, and with Elizabeth out of the picture, she could have him. In this case, being a young woman worked to her advantage because in this society she was looked at as this innocent girl, but being as manipulative as she is, she used that to her advantage to ultimately convict Elizabeth. Although this was her goal, she accused many people along the way, saying, “It’s God’s work I do,” (Miller 115). By accusing all of these people, Abigail is not only gaining power but attention too. Unlike Parris who doesn’t want this negative attention, Abigail doesn’t mind because it’s better to have negative attention on her than not having any attention at all. Also, she gains

Reverend Parris wants to gain and keep power, and the Putnams are seeking land and power from Giles Corey. All the characters in the play demonstrate human failings. Reverend Parris, Abigail, and the Putnams show greed, selfishness, and vengeance throughout the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams main human failings were jealousy and greed. Abigail was very jealous of Elizabeth Proctor,

When Abigail accused her of witchcraft, Tituba dined all of the accusations. Unlike Abigail, Tituba did not have a plan to defend herself. She was also not able to control the girls and make them tell the truth. When Tituba was threatened to be hanged, she changed her mentality on the situation. Instead of dining what she had done, she confessed her sins. During her confession, shame affected what she revealed to the others. Tituba said that the devil had control of her, and wanted her to kill Reverend Parris. This was Tituba’s way of admitting that she had thought about killing Reverend Paris. Tituba also took the center of attention off of herself by

9. What happened between Abigail and John Proctor prior to the opening of the play?

Abigail was not happy that she was no longer working for the Proctors, so she went into the woods and did what seemed like some sort of a ritual and wished she could own John Proctor.

The play opened with the girls doing something considered taboo in Puritan society, dancing in the woods. The girls involved in this were Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Mary Warren, Ruth Putnam, and a few others. Tituba, Reverend Parris’s slave from Barbados was also with them. All of the girls involved were caught by Reverend Samuel Parris, the minister of Salem. When Reverend Parris catches the girls dancing in the woods, his daughter Betty Parris becomes

Imagine the year is 1692. In a small Massachusetts town a culture of highly religious folk live in peace. Salem. It´s late January and the reverendś young niece Abigail and only daughter begin to act strangely. Rumors of witchcraft fly through town and fear runs rampant.In around a year 200 people are unjustifiably accused and 20 sentenced to capital punishment. Who is next? The strange widow down the road? The Coreys? In a time of obscured justice, line were crossed and innocent lives lost. In his breakthrough play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller spins a tale not far from the truth.Letting his readers explore a gruesome tale of blind hatred. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Abigail Williams embodies the wrongdoings of the Salem Witch Trials.

Throughout American history, no matter what time period, humans have been categorized, discriminated against, and treated according to their class, financial status, and race. Many concrete and obvious examples of this have appeared throughout the years, ranging from the Salem witch trials in the late 1600’s, all the way to the recent civil rights movements in the 1950’s and 60’s. Social history uses personal stories to show how class/status and race played a part in the way people were treated in America.