Modern Day Crucible Analysis

In ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, there are numerous elements of dramatic tension in Acts 1, 2 and 3. First of all, we must establish that the town and play revolves around the ideology of theocracy and its effects on the people of the village; Miller explores the feeling of paranoia, fear and tension throughout the play by setting that people’s grievances can lead to sinister motives. Miller conveys the idea of a society at war with itself in the violent language used by the villagers towards one another.

The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the Salem witch trials. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses revenge as the main theme throughout the playwright. Revenge is the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong done to someone else. Revenge is shown throughout the characters actions in the play. Witch craft is used to represent revenge. If someone didn't like another, they could accuse that person of witch craft and inflict harm on him or her. Many characters in the play are motivated by their desire to seek revenge. During the course of the play, revenge motivates the characters and has a huge significance in the play.

Using the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller effectively uses ethos, logos, and pathos in his argument to prove societal pressures have an astonishing amount of power over people’s emotions and actions to such an outrageous extent as to eradicate all reason

Crucible, a noun defined as; a container of metal or refractory material employed for heating substances to high temperatures, in the traditional sense but, it also means a severe, searching test or trial. The latter of the two definitions is exactly what Arthur Miller had in mind when he wrote the play, The Crucible. The play set in Salem Massachusetts during the start of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, is about the struggle to discover truth within the twisted and brutal lies flying about the little town, started mainly by a young girl by the name of Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams, as we quickly come to know, is the past mistress of the prominent Mr. John Proctor, a local farmer. As the tension rises in the

It was very dangerous for people in “The Crucible” because they were pressured into picking sides. There are several young girls in the book from Salem who jump onto the bandwagon by accusing anyone they think might be associated with witchcraft. All the girls in Salem did this because they knew if they got in Abigail’s way that she would accuse one of them. A perfect example of this is when Abigail begun to scream because Mary Warren was “sending her spirit at them” after she is called into court for having proof that she did not see spirits as she said to have, if she didn’t do this, witchcraft would not be a problem in Salem: “Abigail: There is- Suddenly from an accusatory attitude, her face turns, looking into the air

Paranoia and the fear of the unknown often serve as motives of characters in literature. These characters do whatever they deem necessary, no matter how unjust their actions may be when they feel threatened. In times of distress, some of these actions can become questionable. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, emphasizes people’s boundless reactions to anxiety and questions the morality of their rationale. In The Crucible, Miller makes desperation and fear the motivations for Abigail Williams’s action to illustrate how depraved people can become when protecting themselves.

The Crucible presents itself as one of the most controversial books of all time, seeing as its written by a man who got not just accused of communism, but asked by the FBI to change one of his screenplays because he got wrapped up the ‘witch hunt’ of his time. This books written not only to convey the messages and important lesson from the Salem Trials, but to also draw parallels to the modern events in the lives of the audience. Arthur Miller came up with the richly significant name of his book by sampling bits from linguistic, scientific, and biblical definitions of the word “crucible.”

The point of “The Crucible by Arthur Miller in 1952” is to point out how humans go through the thought and struggles that happen when they get scared, or when something happens and someone shows up and they take the blame. They force it onto someone to help relieve their fear of what's going on, in this case witches they force people into admitting to being witches otherwise they hang. The crucible is stating to the audience that humans react terribly when one person brings a claim that makes sense to people who are scared of things going on so they overreact to what happened.

The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller about the Salem witch trials, written in 1953 as an allegory to the McCarthy “witch hunts” against communism. Both the Salem and McCarthy “witch hunts” created a “mob mentality” through fear that led to trials against the accused. The girls in The Crucible, when they were discovered dancing naked in the woods and having fits, claimed that witches were responsible for their “sickness.” The powerful personality of one of the girls, Abigail, created a kind of hysteria in the other girls that led them to point fingers at specific women in Salem.

The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is an American classic rich in themes that are consistently pertinent to human beings regardless of time period. Betrayal is often a recurring theme in the community of Salem. In Salem, citizens are plagued by fear, acquisitiveness, and hate to betray others, one’s self and one’s ethics. Miller’s message is let the readers understand that it is imperative to separate what you believe from what society believes. It is important to remain true to yourself, and to not give in to fear, hate or greed.

The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller about the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts and the events leading up to it. Salem at the time was a very religious and strict community with very little to do. In 1692, some of the girls in the town fell ill, not being able to find a cure or reason for the sickness the people of the town turned to the explanation of witchcraft. Many people were jailed and hung on the accusation of witchcraft without proper trial. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays the theme that when hysteria sets into a community then that community can be destroyed and free of logic.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible features consolidated diverse themes to challenge the reader, including intricate concepts such as good and evil, individual versus community motives and, omission and commission. Every character has their own motivations and desires, whether they be positively or negatively driven, however, the motives of Abigail Williams are notable.

The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller about the horrific events that happened in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. The definition of the word crucible is a severe test or also known as a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. Arthur Miller picked this word as the severe test represents people being prosecuted and the high temperatures needed to melt metal in a container represents the high tensions in Salem. These horrific events are known as the Salem Witch Trials, where over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 people had been sentenced to death. All this corruption had been caused over hysteria. In The Crucible hysteria is what tears the town apart as people acted on their grudges and dislikes.

Webster’s dictionary defines a crucible as “a vessel of a very refractory material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat.” This means that since ancient times, something such as a pot of clay could be used as a container for melting metals or other materials under a great deal of heat, burning away any and all impurities to get a rather purified product. Relevant to our day and society, a courtroom may sometimes be referred to as a crucible. This is because a courtroom is where irrelevancies, lies or half truths are burned away under harsh questioning or scrutiny until the purest product, which in this case is the total and complete truth, is all that remains. Likewise, in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Miller uses an analogy between a crucible and the events that take place in the town of Salem, Massachusetts to exemplify the ‘severe tests or trials’ that occur as an entire puritan community, under mass hysteria, is facing a series of daunting trials that are meant to fish out any accused witches that supposedly have sold their souls to the devil.

Maximus Aurelius of Ridley Scott’s famous film Gladiator once said, “What we do in life echoes in eternity”, and this holds true no matter the time period. What we do in our lifetime will forever be remembered as it is documented by word of mouth or maybe on paper. This is not to say, although, that since what we do is remembered it can never happen again. The Crucible, By Arthur Miller is a timeless cautionary tale that warns the reader of the danger of greed, fear, and hysteria. Miller uses these as themes and conveys them through the power of example in characters in the play to caution us.