Consequences And Corruption In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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.

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.

Crucible, a noun defined as; a container of metal or refractory material employed for heating substances to high temperatures, in the traditional sense but, it also means a severe, searching test or trial. The latter of the two definitions is exactly what Arthur Miller had in mind when he wrote the play, The Crucible. The play set in Salem Massachusetts during the start of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, is about the struggle to discover truth within the twisted and brutal lies flying about the little town, started mainly by a young girl by the name of Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams, as we quickly come to know, is the past mistress of the prominent Mr. John Proctor, a local farmer. As the tension rises in the

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the witch trials in Salem were a devastating time. The entire community was in disorder and chaos because of personal vengeance. This included accusations of innocent town’s people being called witches, so they hanged and were jailed. Throughout the play certain characters help the rise of witchcraft as well as the disapproval of all the innocent people who were being convicted for no reason. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character whom comes to rid of the evil spirits in Salem, yet he later tries to end the trials. Hale realizes the accusations are false, attempts to postpone the hangings, and persuade the victims to lie conveys that he is a dynamic character and changes throughout the play.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

It is always best to think before you act otherwise the situation could go from bad to worse. As in The Crucible, having trust on one another can be a risky choice because we don't know who to rely upon or who will eventually be deceiving and not be fully honest about the truth and simply abuse the trust being given. The play is about how viewing one’s mistakes can lead to various consequences. Proctor refused to accept his mistake on having a sexual affair with Abigail and because of that, he was sent to the gallows to be hanged. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, he demonstrates the themes that by remaining silent people get hurt, mistakes cannot be forgotten once they have been done, and speaking up can remove power from a person.

The power dynamics in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, are based on corruption and manipulation. Multiple characters, including Abigail Williams, Reverend Samuel Parris, Deputy Governor Danforth, and Thomas Putnam, misuse their influence in the drama. This depicts how once one has been in a seat of power for an extended period of time, they are actively aware, or in Danforth’s case unaware, of their abuse of power. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, possesses characters that illustrate how excessive perversion of power corrupts the Puritan society.

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.

In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, John Proctor and Abigail Williams try their best to preserve their individual reputations throughout the story. Firstly, John Proctor’s concern about his reputation affects the way he talks and acts. Although the town knows him as a good, trustworthy man, John keeps a dark, hidden secret from Salem. While in court testifying against Abigail Williams, guilt slowly builds up in John Proctor. The guilt takes over John, and he tells the court about his wrongdoing:

Corruption is defined as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power. Corruption present in any society negatively affects citizens no matter what time period in history. In order to reference a time of communism, the author of The Crucible portrays character based on real life people from Massachusetts in 1693 during the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller demonstrates effective usage of rhetorical strategies, such as comparisons, imagery, and tone, to convey the message of corruption and tragedies through morally ambiguous characters.

Powers comes easily to those who least deserve it. In The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, the reader sees a story centered on superstition and deception. Here Abigail serves as the main antagonist by manipulating the main characters to get whatever she wants. Her actions lead to a witch hunt which ends up convicting many innocent people as talks of rebellion spread across Salem. Abigail demonstrates throughout the story her motivations, conflicts, and characteristics as Salem falls into mass hysteria.

The Crucible is a play that takes place in the 17 century in Salem, Massachusetts. As the play starts, Reverend Parris caught some girls naked dancing in the woods. Apparently the girls where stirring up spirits and to escape the punishment of the accusations of being witches, they blame other women in Salem. Later on in the play, Elizabeth Proctor finds out about John Proctor and Abigail having an affair. Abigail soon accuses Elizabeth of being a witch to remove her and to get her out of the picture. A doll is then found at her house and the evidence is being stacked against her. Deputy Danforth is the judge for the trials while the girls begin blaming each other for being witches. Reverend Hale is brought in as an expert witness and first believes the girls are witches but over time he starts to believe the ones who are accused. John Proctor gets Mary Warren to testify against the girls. The next day, Mary testifies that the girls are lying. They respond by acting like Mary is bewitching them, stating phrases such as “Mary, this is black art to change your shape” (115). Mary then states the John Proctor is bewitching her and is under his influence; he gets arrested moments later. Three months later, Proctor is asked to confess or get hanged. The jury then accuses John of being an associate of the devil. As Danforth wants him to sign a confession,