Examples Of Evil In The Crucible

An old proverb states, “A shared joyed is a double joy, shared sorrow is a half sorrow”. This simple concept is much easier said than done. To feel joy double and feel sorrow half, we must develop and cultivate relationships with others. Many character traits cause relationships to falter. Throughout life people encounter many relationships that cause a variety of emotions, envy, greed, forgiveness, and loneliness. Through American literature, students will understand how crucial the effect emotions have on the quality and outcome in human relationships.

The play, The Crucible, is a fireball of guilt, evil, and good compiled into one magnification. It is a play with tremendous feelings, with many inside twists hidden in the archives of the true story. It is a play with emotional feelings; feelings of anger, hate, and evil, yet also feelings of goodness, and pureness. Undeniably, The Crucible is a play illustrating good versus evil.  The principal characters, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Ann Putnam and Marry Warren all contain within them elements of good and evil.

Martin Luther King, Jr once commented:”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The Crucible written by Arthur Miller in 1953 introduces us a story of this kind that injustice brought by a character named Danforth brings the social malfunction of Salem accompanied by a breakdown of humanity and faith which destroys the interpersonal trust, social relationships and even many lives of many Salem residents. Obviously, when the structures become shackles and the judges mute off their voice of the truth, it leads the affliction and misery to the people. In our modern society, the public requires the power and presence of a fair justice system to protect their rights and convince, punish the offenders.

Revenge in the world today has caused many relationships to be ruined by betraying and backstabbing, and results in friends turning on eachother. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play and takes place in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. The town has gone mad, and Abigail Williams accused many people of witchcraft. The mass hysteria had 20 people hung, and Abigail and Mercy disappeared with her uncle Parris's Money. In act one Thomas Putnam got revenge on the people of Salem by jailing them for debts they did not owe. In act two Abigail got revenge on Elizabeth Proctor negativity by saying her spirit pushed a needle in her stomach and accused Elizabeth of witchcraft. In act three Abigail got revenge on Mary Warren and afflicted harm and suffering by pretending to see a yellow bird in the courtroom and said it was Mary's spirit, and said the yellow bird was going to attack her face.In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays revenge as a negative trait and causes many people to get jailed and hung for crimes they didn’t do.

“I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”, John Proctor said in Arthur Miller’s book, The Crucible. Proctor was one of the main characters in this play and throughout this play he experienced some horrific tragedies. It all leads down to the themes of The Crucible. There was guilt, sacrifice, and hysteria all throughout the play, that all of the characters went through.

Wayne Dyer, a wise doctor who once said, “The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about but refuse to investigate.” Ignorance can be defined as an uninformed or uneducated condition. How could one reject something they know nothing about without even acquiring information on the matter? Ignorance is clearly shown in Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, regarding the judges of the Salem Witch Trials. Inspired by the McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s, The Crucible focuses on the Salem witch trials and the hidden agendas of those involved as well as the lack of accountability of those who were truly responsible. The play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in a unforgiving colony. The mass hysteria of the town begins with girls in the forest appearing to be practicing witchcraft. This begins a controversy that has detrimental consequences. Judge Danforth is most responsible for the mass hysteria in Salem because he neglected any thoughts of justice and replaced them with only thoughts of ignorance and power.

Imagine the wicked House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) arrest an innocent man. The HUAC does not arrest the man because he has committed a murder, but because he is a communist. Many communists became victims of HUAC in the Red Scare crisis of the 1950s. These communists made the right decision to speak out for their freedom and against injustice. These communists also spoke out for their freedom of different beliefs. Speaking out for freedom and against injustice is also present in Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery, Arthur Miller's tragic play The Crucible, and Elia Kazan's fictional movie On the Waterfront. Ultimately, these texts illustrate that injustice, the desire for freedom, and the threat to one's rights makes it appropriate for a person to speak out in times of crisis.

“The arrogant are wise in their own eyes, but the wise will recognize their lies” (Anonymous). This quote accurately describes how the events in the Salem Witch Trials unfolded. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, places the reader into the city of Salem, Massachusetts. Arthur Miller tells a fictional story based on real events of how people who were wise in their own eyes used others to better themselves in a community based on honesty. Three characters from the story stand apart in their arrogance. Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Parris were conceited and cared only about their personal gains. These characters used their power to blame, but not to be blamed or accused of alleged witchcraft which resulted in the deaths of several townspeople. Arthur Miller used these characters to illustrate how simple lies and rumors can spread and become an unstoppable force. With these simple but powerful accusations, well respected citizens soon became the targets of these characters manipulation.

There are many conflicts that arise due to decisions characters make. The characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller all have one thing in common corrupting the entire town and is all at fault for most of the actions decisions, and conflict displayed in the book. This corruption can be described in one word: Greed. Driving the town to go after one another greed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is the true antagonist of the book, for it provokes most of the conflict in the book. This can all be proven with definitions and impacts of greed tot all of the characters, examples and how it relates back to the plot of the book.

He has used many symbols to cement the ideas of the play and to comment on what he needs to convey. Ideas are present in nearly every symbol he uses. Mary's puppet that is used to set Elizabeth up is a symbol for Salem's arrogance that sets the will of fanatics. The witch trails represent tyranny and injustice rising from wrath, intolerance, mass hysteria and the desire for revenge. The stones that kill Corey symbolize the weight of sin and guilt committed by the corrupted in Salem (Gottfried 219). Miller represents The Crucible as an allegory to McCarthyism, the anti-movement to communism. The American people loathed communism and whoever found guilty was killed. In The Crucible many people are falsely accused of witchcraft as in Miller's world many were victims of false accusations. In both cases, the ruthless accusations were believed and people falsely confessed to escape death. The Crucible is an extended metaphor for the era of terror known as McCarthyism in America ( Gottfried 187). Miller employs allusion in The Crucible to demonstrate blunder in reason. For example, when the witchcraft scholar Hale is asked how such a virtuous woman like Rebecca could be serving the devil he replies that the devil too seemed virtuous. He says that the devil is a deceiver and 'until an hour before he fell, even God thought him beautiful in Heaven" (II iii 76). Another one comes when Goody Proctor describes how the people are

In the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, it displays courteousness and cowardliness through faces of adversity. Adversity means a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. The two characters that are faced with adversity are John Proctor and Abigail Williams. Couragousness will be shown with John while Abigail shown with cowardliness. John and Abigail will be faced with adversity and then see who is courageous and who is cowardice about it.

Miller represents conflicting perspectives on political ideologies through contrasting character motivations in The Crucible. Proctor, the protagonist, is represented as one who aims to reverse the manipulative effects of authorities by representing the truth, whilst Abigail is presented as a deceitful child who manipulates the theocracy of Salem by portraying herself as a victim. Abigail manipulates in order to seek retribution against Elizabeth, whose husband she longs to be with. This motive is illustrated when she proclaims to Parris, “Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!” Through high modality and emphatic language, Miller alludes to Abigail’s motives, which ultimately acts as the catalyst in the hysteria that fills the play.

Another trait that is needed to make a supernatural horror film is the “unknown” evil. This trait is present as the antagonist or “bad guy” in the film, but usually is not a person. The “unknown” evil is the unseen glimpses of the effect of a demon or ghost. The importance of the “unknown” evil is for the hints or fragments of dangerous, life-threatening occurrences that happen to the characters. In the film Insidious, the “unknown” evil is the unexplainable coma Dalton is in.

The McCarthy hearings (The Red Scare) in the 1950’s with the political issues that were happening during those years could be depicted as the 1692/93 Salem Witch Trials. Accusing people of being communists is the same as accusing people of being witches. Arthur Miller, the author of the play,The Crucible, that was based on the Salem Witch Trials is a good example of a morality play. In 1692, there were accusations against innocent people in the town of Salem. In The Crucible, a group of teens accuse others of witchcraft even though, they are trying to cover up their mistakes that had been caused. After John Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams this had opened a full can of worms throughout Salem. The Crucible displays characterization and bold symbolism and is represented in good and evil morals during the Salem Witch Trials.

Ms. Trinkner English 11 9/29/14 Crucible Essay As far as fictional characters go, they most often signify an important objective. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, it seems as though most characters take a side and stand for either “good” or “evil” and there really isn’t much sense of neutrality. There is a definite good and evil demonstrated through John Proctor and through Reverend Parris, but there is also Mary Warren who is torn between what she thinks is right and wrong. The character that represents the good in The Crucible is portrayed by the protagonist of the play, John Proctor.