Faiths Furnace For Gold In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

“The Crucible”, by Arthur Miller, is a play constructed around a Puritan society in Massachusetts where the concept of religion is portrayed as the main structure of civilization. In the Puritan society of Salem, the fear and distress of witchcraft is concealed by the anger of the townspeople, which derives from past animosities and vengeance. Fear controls the townspeople of Salem; affecting their motives and behavior, and eventually shifts their mindsets into doing acts that they would never do in a normal situation.

Proctor 's decision to tell the court about his affair ironically demonstrates his goodness. He also spoke up for the innocent girls that had their names branded. He willingly sacrifices his good name in order to protect his wife and others who are wrongly accused. Only through his public acknowledgment of the affair does Proctor regain his wife 's trust. At the end of the play, Proctor refuses to slander himself by allowing the court to make him make a false confession. The court told him to lie, and that if he lies that he would not be sent to the gallows. He did the right decision by telling the truth about his affair with Abigail. He honestly told the truth about the affair, and that he was not part of the witchcraft. His response further exemplifies Proctor 's integrity. But John was not guilty. He had nothing to do with witchcraft, he admitted to his own mistakes. Proctor knows that if he confesses that he will be damned himself, yet again, if he agrees to confess, he will also be free from the torment from the demon inside him and set others free too. This realization, along with Elizabeth 's forgiveness, enables Proctor to forgive himself and finally regain his good name and self-respect. As the court

Arthur Miller’s famous 1952 court room drama ‘The Crucible’, based on the 1692 Salem Tragedy, explores the hysteria, strong theocracy and the importance of reputation in the town Salem. Many characters in ‘The Crucible’ generate empathy, but many do not. Sympathy does form for Abigail Williams the most, despite the fact she is seen as the play’s “evil villain”. Other characters however, also evoke condolence and concern like the honourable hero of the play, John Proctor and Giles Corey.

            Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, Arthur Miller's The Crucible describes the witch hunt that saw harmless people hanged for crimes they did not commit. The Crucible provides an accurate historical account of the witch hunt, but its real achievement lies in the many important issues it deals with. Miller's concerns with conscience, guilt and justice develop into significant and thought-provoking themes throughout the play. These themes are developed through the characters of Abigail Williams, John Proctor and Deputy Governor Danforth. The Crucible is even more successful when the wider relevance of these issues is considered. This occurs particularly when

The Crucible by Arthur Miller, explains the marvels of witchcraft and the world of “magic”, which unravels a set of confusing disasters in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. While confronted between a choice of life and death, situations hastily get out of hand, and soon become uncontrollable. These events are based on true happenings that led to the writing of this play, which contains the themes mass hysteria, groupthink, and abuse of power. The vast world of witchcraft may not have seemed too intimidating, but it is proven that it’s more dangerous than one can truly imagine.

The year is 1692. Throughout the small, Puritan, seaside community of Salem, rumors and accusations fly like gusts of ocean wind. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and even the most holy church-goers are accused of being the devil’s servants. The Crucible details this real-life tragedy of the Salem witch trials, in which nineteen members of the Salem community were hanged for alleged witchcraft. Abigail Williams, a seemingly innocent girl, accuses dozens of Salem’s citizens of witchcraft through the support of her mob of girls and the complicity of the court officials. The title of this play gives significant insight into the experiences of several of these Salem citizens. Although a crucible is often used in chemistry for heating up substances, the title of the play carries a much greater weight. In his famous play The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the title of “crucible” to signify the severe and unrelenting tests of faith and character that many of the community members endure throughout the Salem witch trials, which he achieves through the use of figurative language and fallacies of relevance and insufficiency.

His refusal to give up his false signed confession and even going so far as to rip it to shreds, is a religious stand, but also a personal stand as well. Such a confession would dishonor his fellow convicted friends, such as Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse, who were also brave enough to die as a testimony to the truth rather than satisfy the court with a false confession. Not to mention a false confession would also dishonor him, not just staining public reputation, but also his very essence. Proctor, without reservation, proclaims that the integrity he is showing will convince God to allow him into heaven. Thus when he goes to the gallows to be hanged, he has no fear of death, believing he will be forgiven for previous sins. After Hale begs Elizabeth to continue with trying to convince John to sign the confession, she responds, “He have his goodness now,” and coldly finishes the play with, “God forbid I take it from him!” She realizes that John is now at peace with himself for the sins he committed in the past and feels that he needs to go through with this to get back his goodness and honesty, lost during his affair with Abigail.

John Proctor changes his mind and tears up the confession. He does not want to be used as an example of him confessing witchcraft. The first confession is after the confession is signed, Danforth tells one of his court marshals to hang it up on the church doors so that John can be used as an example to the people who refuse to confess to witchcraft. The second reason is that John realizes that signing the confession will ruin his name for his three sons. Proctor’s perception of a morally righteous person is one who is “right with God”.

Remembering the 1692 “Salem Witch Trials” along with Joseph McCarthy’s “Communist Witch Hunts” Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in the 1950s. In a religious town of Salem, Massachusetts young girls who were caught dancing in the woods became ill and were suspected of witchcraft. They began to accuse people of the town and people eventually became fearful of being accused next. These witches and those accused were hung in order for the town to remain true to their religion. The universal ideas hysteria and reputation were causes of the accusations of witchcraft. Being the start of it all and very important to their society, both are themes that were reviled in the play.

John Proctor is a good citizen in the town of Salem. He is known as a man with good morals and he tries to do the right thing. He has built up

In 1692, countless innocent people were hanged, tortured, or stripped of their reputation because they were falsely accused of being a witch. They would have to falsely confess to save their lives, or else have their reputation be defaced. Arthur Miller shows the chaos of people constantly living in fear that their neighbor would become greedy, and falsely accuse them of being something that they were not. Miller does this through the book “The Crucible”. Motives of revenge, greed, and peer pressure contribute to the hysteria and hangings in the Salem Witch Trials.

The play ‘The Crucible’ written by Arthur Miller is an allegorical reference to the McCarthyism of the 1950s. Set in the historical context of the 17th century Salem, this play explores several themes to point out how politics, greed and imaginative hysteria can tear a community apart. To further emphasize this, Miller uses different characters and develops them as the play progresses. In addition, his use of effective language intensifies the role of characters like John and Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris and many others in the play.

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, depicts a dark but important period of American colonial history. The Crucible portrays the Salem witchcraft trials of the mid to late 1600s. As the drama depicts, hysteria was rampant, and the implications of that hysteria can have major effects on the surrounding community. John Proctor, a historical figure and the protagonist of the play, is a well-regarded man who ends up being accused of witchcraft. He is faced with the choice between living a lie and dying as a symbol of truth. Ultimately he decides that a dishonorable death with an honorable message is of greater importance. He cannot fathom that he could live but his name would be cursed. Therefore, in the conclusion of Act Four, Proctor cries

The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller in 1953, the play is based on the events surrounding the 1692 Salem witch trials. That year, the puritan New England village went through an episode of mass frenzy that lead to a wave of witchcraft accusations and a large number of executions. When reading Miller’s enthralling piece, it is easy to forget that the events that actually happened in Salem and the events portrayed by the author differ quite significantly. These non-negligible modifications have a large impact on a reader’s understanding of the trials. The author himself makes a note on the historical accuracy of the play at the beginning of his piece stating that “it [the play] is not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian” and that so little is known about the characters involved that “they may be taken as creations of my [Miller’s] own” (Crucible 2).

The Crucible is a fictional play that tells the story of Salem witch trials. It focuses on how mass hysteria can quickly destroy a whole community. In this play the characters forced to confess to a crime they did not commit or be punish for contempt of court. The author, Arthur Miller, wrote this play in response to the “red scare”, because he was accused of being a communist. In this play, the rumors are important, since the whole