Arthur Miller 's The Crucible

Purist Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 suffered from a rapidly increasing phenomenon: witchcraft accusations and trials. The Crucible is a play that recounts the times of this incident. For the most part, it follows a man known as John Proctor. He is a sensible, honest, and hardworking man who made the mistake of succumbing to lust which sets off a chain of events that leads to the witch trials, and to his own demise. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible’s protagonist John Proctor proves to be a flawed human being who struggles to make sense of his past relationship with Abigail, his love for his wife, and his pride.

Additionally, Proctor demonstrates characteristics which lead to his moral downfall as he attempts to use every possible avenue to circumvent the consequences of his adultery. Proctor manipulates Mary Warren into accusing Abigail of pretending to be afflicted by witchcraft. Proctor informs Judge Danforth that “[Mary] has signed a deposition [stating] that [the girls’ actions] were pretense” and therefore Abigail cannot be trusted (Miller 82). This signifies the reality of Proctor’s moral downfall because he further involves innocent Mary Warren in the trials. Resulting from Proctor’s insistence that Mary speak her mind about Abigail, Mary experiences a series of painful and humiliating events.

The Crucible, a novel/play by Arthur Miller displays the chaos of the witch trials within the small town of Salem, Mass. Of the many characters of the novel, John Proctor and Mary Warren are both characters that serve an importance to the novel. The two characters both interact in the stories in different ways. Even though both characters can be seen as minor characters because of their inferior power in the novel, Proctor and Mary Warren serve as important characters to the story line. One reason being the fact that they both bring about problems with and/or against antagonist Abigail Williams such as Mary Warren, who likes the feeling of have authority but gets into unwanted conflict often, and Proctor, who is an very aggressive person

Page 1 of 3Hai Nguyen John Proctor and the McCarthyism “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller illustrates the reflection of the anti-communist hysteria in the United States known as McCarthyism. Miller uses the character John Proctor as a force in demonstrating the way lives were destroyed by McCarthyism. Throughout the story, while Proctor is respected in the community, he has conflict secretly with many people as well as himself. John Proctor is a perfect character because the readers are able to view him as a victim in the society where McCarthyism took place. He is also an adulterer, husband of Elizabeth, and knows what is happening in and outside of the Salem society. Proctor was having a conflict with his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth did not trust John because he had an affair with Abigail Williams. Elizabeth was supposed to trust John, but she refused to because he said he was alone with Abigail for a moment. John cannot say or argue against Elizabeth because of his guilt:” Because it speaks deceit, and I am honest! But I will plead no more! I see how your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!” Elizabeth tried to make John feel guilt, so John wanted to make sure she understood her cold nature may have prompted his cheating. He also has conflict with Abigail Williams which is his mistress. John Proctor was so angry because Abigail accused his wife to witchcraft. She sent Mary Warren with a puppet that has needle inside its

The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It all started when Reverend Parris discovers a group of girls dancing in the woods. After he found the girls in the wood, his daughter Betty fall ill. Since Betty wouldn’t wake up, people become paranoid and started believing that witchcraft was real. Fake accusations were made and innocent people kept dying. In The Crucible there are many people to blame for all for everything that occurred, characters such a Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams is to blame because she accused everyone else just to protect herself. Reverend Hale is also blame because he was the one who got people to think that witchcraft was real. Lastly Reverend Parris is to blame because he was just worried about himself and his reputation in Salem.

With all that is going on in the world today, what is more important to you freedom or Safety? In The Crucible, Abigale choose her own safety over hers of her friends and family, and in Fahrenheit 451, Guy choose his freedom over the safety of him and his wife and, in Berlin you either live on West Berlin were you were free or you lived on the other side of the wall where you had no freedom but you were safe. So which side of the wall do you want to live on?

A man 's reputation in many forms is his, life’s work. To have your reputation dismantled is like taking away one 's accomplishments and life’s work. Arthur Miller 's The Crucible is a play about justice and injustice, and how our justice system can be easily corrupted. The story revolves around a man named John Proctor, the tragic hero of this story. John Protector is a symbolic character created by Arthur Miller, because he faced the justice system head on. Proctor’s biggest flaw would be his great amounts of pride, which unfortunately led to his own death. In Arthur Millers’ The Crucible, he characterizes John Proctor as the tragic hero of the story because of all that he lost, through his relentless crusade to free his wife and exposing injustice, illustrating that no hero is perfect.

Teenagers are often treated like children. Adults don’t respect their opinions because they are too young to understand or are too immature. The time period between childhood and adulthood are teenage years. So why do we treat teenagers like children when the teenage years are supposed to prep them for adulthood? However, there are situations were teenagers hold more power than we think. Although these are two completely different genres, The Crucible and the movie, Mean Girls, show how much destruction a group of teenage girls can do. So how could a group of teenage girls, younger than 18, possibly cause so much chaos?

“And they feel if only they can demolish that person, then everything’s going to be okay.” -Margaret Atwood the author of “Half-Hanged Mary”. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, ¨Why I Wrote The Crucible¨an essay by Arthur Miller, and ¨Half-Hanged Mary¨ a poem by Margaret Atwood, it shows that a society under stress will always scapegoat a person or a group of people. Defending this statement, people from each of these sources have felt betrayed by being blamed and persecuted for actions they have not done. In The Crucible, Abigail and her friends choose to scapegoat people in their society to push the attention away from them. In “Why I Wrote The Crucible”, Arthur shares with us about the communists and how it was a scapegoating society. In “Half-Hanged Mary”, Mary is blamed for witchcraft and hung for having land and being an independent woman.

In the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the story was based on McCarthyism. This book is based on a real story and real people. John Proctor tore up his confession and goes to his death because he can’t lie about himself and ruin his reputations. He also doesn’t want people to think he is a bad person by confessing a lie just to save his life.

In the novel, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail, the antagonist in the book is to blame for all the events that occur because she was the one that first dabbled with witchcraft. In that time period, witchcraft was thought of as a sin, and if somebody was accused, they would be hung unless they confessed. She would be categorized as an instigator of her society since she played with witchcraft, and accused others, which would be hung if they didn’t confess. Many events in her past and present influence this behavior, and many problems occur because of her impact on the community. Abigail’s affair with John Proctor, her association with witchcraft and her accusation of others causes her to be blamed for the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts.

When one conforms to society, it makes the general public and authorities feel as if they have nothing to worry about. The Puritan society had a strict moral code and established a rigid Theocracy to keep ones who would express individual freedom in line. Throughout Arthur Miller’s writing of The Crucible, this Puritan view of panic and freedom is described and hidden behind the Theocracy and what they would call government. In the 16th and 17th century the Puritans believed in not bending their laws, or forgiving errors; if one were to commit a sin he shall keep committing that sin because the fear of admitting flaws came with a cost. The Crucible is set in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts; Miller explains,

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, written in 1953 the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts around 1692. The most despicable character in The Crucible is Abigail Williams because she is the reason for many peoples’ deaths. Abigail’s lies and manipulative actions lead to pain for others characters in the play. Abigail’s lies caused destruction and harm to the Proctor family. Such as when Abigail convicted Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft just so Abigail could be with John Proctor. Abigail’s main goal is to see Elizabeth dead because she and John had an affair seven months prior to the play. These points demonstrate that Abigail is the most despicable person in The Crucible.

“Your reputation and integrity are everything. Follow through on what you say you’re going to do. Your credibility can only be built over time, and it is built from the history of your words and actions.” Maria Razumich-Zec put into words the importance that society places on reputation. It has become clear that what other people think of someone is far more important to that individual than what they may know to be true about themselves. In todays society is very rare to find people that are content with what they are, despite what the people surrounding them believe. This notion that in order to be validated there has to be external approval dates back to the seventeenth century and earlier. During the Salem Witch Trials, men and women were killed daily due to the thoughts of others. In Arthur Miller’s Crucible, it is clearly demonstrated that reputation is a huge role in the daily lives of people.

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community” (Proverbs 6:16-19). The seven deadly sins are named as pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth, and among all of them, pride is claimed to be the deadliest. In Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch Trials, “The Crucible” pride also finds it’s way to be the most important theme of the play. Almost every character displays pride in oneself just as every person does in reality, but a select few not only condemned themselves but others. Reverend Hale, a christian man, demonstrates pride in his knowledge, the Proctors express pride in their good name and would rather die than lose their honor, and Judge Danforth is never wrong in his eyes and wants to be known as the judge who always makes the right decision. Arthur Millers “the Crucible” shows that in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1962, pride will kill you; if not, arrogance will.