Examples Of Fallacy In The Crucible

People believe that actions happen for many different reasons and tend to blame others before themselves. Some believe that the devil is doing the work in the body of someone else, and some believe that the devil does not, and some even believe in witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, nineteen innocent people are hung for accusations of performing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of young girls go out into the woods which is forbidden in Salem. They are sent into a frenzy when the town’s reverend, Parris, spots them dancing in the woods. The girls are led by Abigail Williams, a young teenage girl who lives with her uncle, reverend Parris. Abigail is not the most truthful girl, which ends up causing 19 innocent people their lives. Previous to these events, Abigail was a servant in the Proctor household, but was sent off after Elizabeth Proctor found out about the affair between Abigail and her husband, John Proctor. In Abigail’s case the more lies she told, the more lives she ended.

“Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.” Is known as the Straw man fallacy. This fallacy has been used various times in the famous play by Arthur Miller “The Crucible” (1952). Below is an example of a Straw man fallacy, along with examples of from in “The Crucible” Arthur Miller (1952).

Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, writes “For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud” (I. 1153- 1156). Miller illustrates that there is a difference between men belonging to ignorance from having no options and men not taking opportunities to gain knowledge. The town of Salem is caught committing sins in everyone’s daily life. This town is running on fear and quick decisions because the citizens do not understand the inevitable power of God. These people have claimed witchcraft by the devil has taken these people and it is their job to prevent this on anyone else. The town quickly accuses anyone that shows a questionable action of

While reading the crucible and analyzing other documents, Scapegoating became a relevant occurrence in communities. Societies will turn to scapegoating a group of people to place blame for a problem or event; there is evidence shown regarding scapegoating in “ The Crucible” / Salem witch trials, “The Holocaust”, and in politics. These three examples all relate to scapegoating because they all discriminate and place blame of something the community cannot control on a specific group of people.

In the Crucible written by Arthur Miller, he essentially talks about “courage, weakness, and truth.” Arthur Miller gives multiple scenarios when different characters have their time to shine and take the reader's attention. They’re multiple examples to prove this statement. For example would be when Thomas Putman stated, “he felt that his own name and the honor of his family had been smirched by the village, and he meant to right matters however he could.” In this specific quote he is very courageous to say something like this and take the law into his own hands.

In “The Crucible” Arthur Miller made the plot develops through the conflicts by using high tension and climaxes. He ends each of the four acts with a climax. In addition, he allowed the protagonist to develop throughout the acts. “The Crucible” has many internal and external conflicts. The major external conflict is John Proctor trying to save his wife from being hanged by the town officials for supposedly being a witch. The major internal conflict is John trying to decide between saving himself and family from being hanged, or accept the death penalty for false accusations against him. The main conflict sharply differentiated good and evil as John Proctor, the protagonist of the play is faced with the

In the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller there are prominent examples of doubt in the second act. Act 2 talks about a married man named John Proctor, who is rumored to have had intimate relations with Abigail Williams. Abigail is a young girl who still believes Proctor has feelings for her even after he denies their affair in hopes to save his reputation. In addition, Proctor is married to Elizabeth, who begins to question her husband’s relationship with Abigail. During Act 2, Elizabeth loses all faith that Proctor did not have an affair when he admitted he had been alone with Abigail for a moment. Elizabeth believes Proctor would testify against Abigail’s false accusations about the women of Salem being witches if he did not have

Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Crucible, uses words to feel and convey the feelings created by characters and events in his novels. Witchcraft was the fulfilling lies of the courtroom authority, and separated the Puritan society. He enhances his message of overwhelming authority with such a plethora of literary devices such as hyperbole, irony, and fallacy to explain and demonstrate the abusing of power throughout The Crucible.

Fear is the direct result of manipulation. In Act 3 of The Crucible, manipulation is employed many times in order to create an atmosphere of fear and often resulting in the byproduct of fear. During the trial of Abigail Williams, the issue of Proctor’s affair with Abigail arises; in order for Abigail to be defamed, Elizabeth needs to be honest; however, Judge Danforth utilizes tricky wording such as “has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?” to create the feeling of it being John’s trial not Abigail’s(Miller 113). Danforth’s manipulation of how Elizabeth views the trials ends with the prosecution fearing for their lives and reputation. This created atmosphere of fear plays to Abigail's position giving her more power and persuasive

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of frenzied zealotry and paranoia, and in such times, most logic seems to go out the window. One fallacy in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is the fallacy of the false alternative. It is exemplified during the witch proceedings when Francis Nurse presents a paper of signatories declaring their good opinion of his wife. Danforth arrests all of the signatories for questioning. At Francis’ objection that he has promised that no hurt would come to these people Danforth replies “No old man, you have not hurt these people if they are of good conscience. But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against this court, there be no road in between.” (Miller 87). The conversation is merely a variation on the classic false alternative, “You’re either with us, or you’re against us.” The trouble with that logic is that Francis was merely trying to defend his wife from almost certain death. He was not trying to attack the court as Parris states, nor was he really for the court. In disproving this logic we can look at Francis as a counterexample: Not against the court, but not supportive of the court’s actions

During World War II, Hitler used his power to persuade the government to make him the chancellor, which gave him more control over Germany. This lets him manipulate the people so they would think that same way as he did. The people believed this because they did not understand what Hitler was going to do with the Jews, during this time they used the Jews as a scapegoat to blame for their problems. Many situations have a scapegoat that people need to blame to help them deal with their problems. In The Crucible written by Arthur Miller the town used witches as their scapegoat. In the New York Times article Extended Forecast: Bloodshed the people in Tanzania used witchcraft as their scapegoat. Finally in the Quartz Magazine article Fear of the Government Makes Americans More Likely to Reach for a Gun the government is creating scapegoats out of the certain people and events. Some people need to find a scapegoat to blame for example, in The Crucible, the New York Times article Extended Forecast: Bloodshed, and the Quartz Magazine article Fear of the Government makes Americans more likely to Reach for a Gun the people had to find a scapegoat for the problems that they faced.

There are many flaws that people have, do you have any flaws? In the novel, The Crucible, Abigail shows many character flaws. Abigail’s flaws are jealousy, lust, and remorsefulness.

When we are younger we used to get our brother or sister and pick on another sibling. When mom or dad comes to yell at the person who started it we tend to pin it on someone else or you are the person who gets left with all the punishment. At one point in our lives we were blamed for something we didn't do or we were the person that pushed it onto someone else. Arthur Miller expresses a lot of scapegoating or being the scapegoat in The Crucible.

“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.

The Crucible is a play written in 1953 by Arthur Miller. It is based off of the 1662 Salem witch trials written as a parallel between this time period and the Red Scare, the time period in which he was living. There are many topics explored throughout the play, but the most important is hypocrisy, which can be seen in several characters.