Essay On The Tragic Hero In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller. In the town of Salem, the people’s obsession of trying to provide justice only caused injustice against the accused. The law of Salem was guilty until proven innocent. Their government was also a theocracy, and their obsession with religion also caused the injustice.

A crucible refers to a harsh test, and in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, each person is challenged in a severe test of his or her character or morals. Many more people fail than pass, but three notable characters stand out. Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor all significantly change over the course of the play.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Puritan Massachusetts in which religion, justice, individuality and dignity play a vital role. These factors define the characteristics of many of the most significant characters in the play. Some of them being John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale, Danforth and many others. The Salem witch trials were a result of the lack of expression of individuality and the fact that no individual could expect justice from the majority culture as a result of the deterioration of human dignity in the Puritan society of Salem.

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.

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.

pull it down and so denounce God and place a whore in God’s place is

In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” it tells the tale of the Salem Witch Trials. At the time of the play, the McCarthy trials, named after Sen. Joseph McCarthy, were underway. Though, instead of hunting for witches, they were hunting for communists. These two trials may have happened at different points in history, but were in many ways the same. Whether it was death to job loss a lot of lives were changed on account of these trials. “The Crucible” and the McCarthy trials have become historically important because they show the process of power, fear, and turmoil.

The Crucible was based in 1692 in and around the town of Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The Salem witch-hunt was view as one of the strangest and most horrendous chapters in the human history. People that were prosecuted were all innocent and their deaths were all due to false accusation of people’s ridiculous belief in superstition and their paranoia. The Puritans in those times were very strict in personal habits and morality; swearing, drunkenness and gambling would be punished. The people of Salem believed in the devil and thought that witchcraft should be hunted out.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play written to mirror the anti-communist hysteria and how Joseph McCarthy went on “witch hunts”, which was basically finding an innocent person who was accused of being a witch and punishing them. Throughout The Crucible you will see very similar actions that mirror the McCarthy era; like how Abigail gets mad John Proctor does not want to be with her and spreads a rumor that his wife is a witch. “A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy,” directly describes John Proctor. John Proctor is the husband of Elizabeth Proctor and one of the most well known and respected men in the village. They both have trust issues after John has an affair with an old “maid”, Abigail. She was fired or ‘let go’

Many of the characters in Arthur Miller's The Crucible have specific human flaws that cause the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem villagers exhibit failings, including greed, vengeance, and fear, which eventually lead to the downfall of their town. Many villagers, especially Abigail Williams, take advantage of the opportunity to seek vengeance on others through the trials. Greed for power and land often holds precedence when the hysteria takes over. Fear of being arrested or put to death is the key motivation in turning others in as witches. From these three human flaws, the town of Salem falls into chaos with many innocent people paying the price.

 The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a play that takes place in the sixteen nineties during the famous but tragic witch trials. The entire community is in pandemonium yet certain characters are also fighting internal conflicts. Miller uses three characters that manifest this internal battle ever so clearly: Mary Warren whose whole world turns upside down, John Proctor who must weigh the importance of his family against his reputation and Reverend Hale who must decide whether to do his job, or do what he knows to be right. 

Arthur Miller writes about the tragic results of human failings in his play, The Crucible. He presents characters from the past and infuses them with renewed vitality and color. Miller demonstrates the horrifying results of succumbing to personal motives and flaws as he writes the painful story of the Salem witch trials. Not only do the trials stem from human failings but also from neglect of moral and religious considerations of that time. Characters begin to overlook Puritan values of thrift and hope for salvation. Focusing on the flawed characters, they begin to exhibit land lust, envy of the miserable and self-preservation.

How does Arthur Miller use the crucible to represent personal experiences or voices? Arthur Miller used “The Crucible” to his advantage in the 1950’s, voicing his personal experiences of belief and religion through the characters of Danforth and Rebecca Nurse. He represented his experiences of proving ones honor and name through John Proctor and he characterized his experiences of hysteria and extremism through the girls and Abigail. Miller is using his play, “The Crucible”, to illustrate significant issues that he wishes to convey to his audience. Miller has used “The Crucible” as not only a representation of the Salem witch trials and McCarthy trials, but also as a representation of how humanity will react when faced with situations such as hysteria, extremism and proving ones honor and name.

Arthur Miller in the 1950s wrote a historical fiction play called The Crucible. he wrote this play as a disguise for what was going on his the 50s. The play is compared to the Red Scare or Red Hunt. The story revolves around a little town in Massachusetts in 1692 were the people in the town go crazy and start accusing random people of witchcraft for multiple reasons: selfishness, to save themselves, and revenge. While the play can be called historical fiction, it can also be described as a tragedy because the main character (John Proctor) dies at the end of the story. One common theme the play revolves around is lying about selfishness. These characters accusations all come from their thoughts of hatred towards other characters. This theme is a focal part of the plot.

In the play, The Crucible, John Proctor is one of the main characters. He is a noble character that has a tragic downfall. Which causes him to suffer in this play. At the end of the play he wants his name to be left alone since they took his soul. He also has judgment when he confesses to his flaws. John fits the definition of a tragic hero. Even though his weaknesses or errors occur. Throughout play, John make some wrong decisions that he later regrets in the story.