“Vengeance is walking in Salem.” (------) This is an important quote in The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, for many reasons. The Crucible is a story about people of a town named Salem accusing and being accused of witchcraft. Since the conditions in the town are not good at this time the people use an excuse for why bad is happening to them. What other way to do this than to accuse others of being witches and causing harm. The most important reason is that John is expressing that witches aren’t even the main focus of what is going on. The main focus in Salem is revenge and the witches are just a gateway to be used to attack others. As much as The Crucible may seem as an entertaining story about witches to the average reader, if you look deeper one may see the deeper meaning being portrayed by the story itself. The main elements that are trying to be shown in the story are human weakness, hypocrisy, and vindictiveness. These three elements are shown continuously throughout the story. It may go undetected by the common reader, but with a little bit of an open mind, he or she may really see what Arthur Miller, the author of the story, was really trying to get across. …show more content…
Every human has their weaknesses and challenges that they have to face. The characters in the story definitely display how weak the human mind can be in stressful situations. At this time, there is disease and other bad things going on in Salem. Everybody knows that when something goes wrong, somebody has to catch the blame. So, the citizens of Salem turn to accusing average citizens as witches. Many times in the story John Proctor is telling other characters, “how can you do this?” or “do you really believe this is going on?” That is because John has a strong mind and can see past the lies. The other characters in the story seem clueless and instead of approaching the situation head on, they are weak and let whatever happens,
The swiftness of judgment of many people led to unfair trials. Many people from the play were considered guilty until proven innocent, and even then it was hard to prove innocence. You either conformed and said that you did witchcraft, or kept your dignity and went to the gallows. The fears of evil encroaching upon the people of Salem in The Crucible led to coincidences turning into witchcraft, harsh judgment of the accused, swift judgment of the accused, and many lives being ruined.
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
American playwright Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible (1952) displays to us that which hunt still exists in American society. Miller supports this claim by drawing parallels between the Salem Witch trials and the senator Joseph McCarthy. His purpose is to warn his readers of the dangers of mass hysteria. He uses emotional appeals and logic to convince the readers that mass “hunts” are still a danger to Americans today. The crucial way however, that Miller achieves his supreme objective of revealing the risks of reputation vs. integrity is through a fascinating character, John Proctor. John is an example of an internally conflicted character because he had a huge argument with Elizabeth over Abigail, Proctor also had an affair with Abigail, and lastly John had a choice between life and death at the end of the play.
(TS)The play begins with much hearsay that the town has become infested by witches, and soon this gossip develops into a fear that spread quicker than the plague. (R)The fear intensifies to such an extent that the powerful folks, such as the town priest and the wealthy class, must respond by handling the treatment of said witches with extreme strategies: the trials and eventual hanging of the accused, innocent or not. (I)When the other townsfolk saw how the higher ups were handling the situation, the fear set in and convinced otherwise sensible people to believe in very irrational ideas. (C) In act two, lines 389-390, John Proctor states “I‘ll tell you what‘s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem… common vengeance writes the law! This warrant's vengeance! I'll not give my wife to vengeance! (Miller.II.389-390)” Through the use of repetition, the word vengeance expresses the anger and resent that John Proctor has for the unjust treatment of the people accused and for the overall people of Salem. In this scene John is trying to defend the
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, revolves around the Salem witch trials of the 15th century. Much of what precedes the play portion of the novel is dedicated to establishing the background of the novel. This passage, in specific, sets the tone of the novel as it describes the ideology of the witch hunts, and how they came into effect. The passage summarizes the fundamental ideas of the witch hunts as a paradox stating, “The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set among the classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom” (Miller 11). These words are an important part of the novel because it lays out a groundwork which the rest of the ideas and concepts that are brought up in the novel will build themselves upon. Simply put, it sets the tone for the rest of the novel. It describes the fears that the characters have, and what conflicts they will undergo. For instance, signs of mob mentality can be gleamed from the passage. This can be seen when it says, “balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom” (Miller 11).
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a historical play set in 1962 in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. As you may know, you've all placed your trust in the words and actions of someone close to you. And what do they do? They betray you! It's rarely justified, and can happen to the best of us. Based on authentic records of witchcraft trials in the seventeenth-century this play explains how a small group of girls manage to create a massive panic in their town by spreading accusations of witchcraft. These rumors in turn are the causes that many citizens are hung for. This essay will show how the lies and betrayal of a few individuals eventually leads to the downfall of Salem and its society.
Like others, Corey’s internal conflict is deciding if he believes in witches, or if the whole commotion is just a fabrication. When Corey tells Hale that his third wife reads books in secrecy, he does not mention it because he believes she is connected with the devil, he is just not use to this, due to the fact that none of his other wives showed an interest in reading. One of the external conflicts that Corey faces, is when he begins to question Parris for being so quiet during the horrid witch trials, and wonders if the minister really does praise God, and is curious if he believes in witches or not. Giles Corey is often found motivated to prove that the group of girls claiming to have seen townspeople associating with the devil, are indeed
The play “The Crucible” demonstrates great themes of spite from many different characters. In a time of such chaos, these vengeful decisions led to many persecutions during the time of the witch trials. For example, Ann Putnam was jealous of Rebecca Nurse, because she had so many kids. This envy turns vengeful, and Ann accused Rebecca of witchcraft.The court believed this accusation because Rebecca delivered her babies,and only one of them survived. Rebecca could not have actually had anything to do with the death of her babies, of course. Francis Nurse in Proctor’s home says to Reverend Hale, “My wife is the very brick and mortar of the church, Mr. Hale...For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies” (Miller 174). Ann
Throughout the endurance of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, vengeance plays a prominent role in the actions and fates of various characters. In many ways, vengeance fuels the need for retaliation. Disputes among neighbors has bred hatred and then witch trials brought out the vindictiveness of Salem's population. This leads to the deaths of many citizens in Salem by false accusations to the court. Citizens of Salem were utilizing the court system as a means of "extermination" for people who had interests or beliefs, that were contradictory to their own. As Miller states himself, "This predilection of minding other people's business was time-honored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many suspicions which were to feed the
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 novel, The Crucible was written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, which was based on the Salem Witch Trials existing in the late 1600s. In the play, Abigail and several other young women accuse innocent citizens of Salem for the action of witchcraft. During the trials, many individuals were unfairly persecuted; such as John Proctor. This event in history may be associated with the Red Scare, in which individuals were tried for their questionable influences of communism in the United States. When Miller compares the character of John Proctor to himself, the reader is able to relate the similar experiences that both men faced. The Crucible demonstrates the struggle against corruption involving the court, which lead to the death of many innocent individuals in Salem. The Crucible generates an allegory for Arthur Miller’s struggles with McCarthyism because of his similar experience relating to John Proctor’s battle against the Salem Witch Trials, and the relation between the actions of the court in both situations. Arthur Miller uses several writing methods in order to convey The Crucible as an allegory for his struggles with McCarthyism. Miller demonstrates how the Crucible represents an allegory for his conflict with McCarthyism by relating his experiences with the plot of the novel. Miller relates the novel to his struggles by stating, “Should the accused confess, his honesty could only be proved by naming former confederates.” (Are You Now… 34) Miller is explaining how the court
Forgiveness is an emotion that is hard for people to accept. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller the story focuses on forgiving during the Salem Witch trials of 1692. The character of the play, Elizabeth Proctor, deals with pardoning her husband's sin of adultery. Through Elizabeth's change from a cold wife to a caring and loving spouse, Arthur Miller illustrates forgiveness.
“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.
During the time The Crucible was set, the community of Salem was awry. It did not have the solid characteristics of what a healthy town should look like. Instead there was no trust between people, everyone was watching out for only themselves, and most of the townspeople were turning their backs on the disastrous deeds of the court. The people of Salem feel like they have no one to turn to, so fear crept into their minds and hearts. They developed hysteria which caused the town to slowly disintegrate. This panic allows other people in their community to take advantage of them and manipulate them for their own purposes. In his play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows how vengeance and greed destroy the community through the characters of Abigail Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, and Reverend Parris.