Examples Of Corruption In The Crucible

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a tragic play set in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, where Miller uses the Salem Trials as a metaphor for the 1950s McCarthy hearings. In Salem, people value their good names. The Puritan community acts as a theocracy in which there appears to be no right to privacy, and people must conform to a strict moral code. The theme of reputation, lying, and deceit are shown in Abigail, John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Mary Warren, and other characters. In the play’s dialogue, Miller uses Biblical allusions, situational irony, and dramatic irony to develop these themes.

Purist Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 suffered from a rapidly increasing phenomenon: witchcraft accusations and trials. The Crucible is a play that recounts the times of this incident. For the most part, it follows a man known as John Proctor. He is a sensible, honest, and hardworking man who made the mistake of succumbing to lust which sets off a chain of events that leads to the witch trials, and to his own demise. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible’s protagonist John Proctor proves to be a flawed human being who struggles to make sense of his past relationship with Abigail, his love for his wife, and his pride.

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is set in Salem village where an atmosphere of enmity and mistrust has been created through the conflicts and disagreements many villagers experience throughout the play. Many of these are caused by or, similar to the conflict between Parris and Proctor, are inflated by the many accusations of witchcraft occurring in the village.

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.

Imagine being accused of something you never did just because someone had something against you. That is exactly what the characters in “The Crucible” were going through. The author, Arthur Miller, used the play as an allegory. He wanted to compare the Salem witch trials to the McCarthyism. McCarthyism, created by Joseph P. McCarthy, was popular during the cold war and it falsely accused people of being a communist with no evidence to support the accusation. It became popular because of the spread of communism in China and Europe. In the United States, anyone could accuse someone of being a communist and could ruin their lives. That is exactly what Miller was trying to portray in “The Crucible.” If someone accused another person of witchcraft their whole lives could be turned upside down. They could even possibly be hanged. Throughout the story there are an abundance of arguments. Most of the arguments come from Act III in the courthouse. The arguments are all different, but they all end up being the same in the sense that people are being falsely accused. The arguments that are like that include Giles accusing Putnam, Proctor accusing Abigail, and Parris accusing Proctor.

The tendency for the Salem community to believe “that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between” (87) clearly mirrors the persecution of “communist sympathisers” in the McCarthy era, and Miller draws this parallel to emphasise the importance of acknowledging moral ambiguity. In addition, Miller also raises the issue of “social compliance”, a phenomenon that often occurs when there is fear brewing within a community. As demonstrated with the Puritans’ willingness to persecute villagers even without any evidence, “is the accuser always holy now?” (73), as well as the lack of characters who dared to question the legitimacy of the witch trials, Miller successfully highlights the catastrophic effects of conforming to a society driven by fear. Hence, the play is able to raise ideas that are relevant not only to the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era, but also to many historical events that involved the persecution of a group of people without adequate

If someone told you that your light in your room is flickering, because of witchcraft and not the simple fact that the light bulb is burnt out, would you believe them? Well in Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible they did if something out of the ordinary happened and couldn’t be explained they turned to witchcraft. People were being accused without any proof which leads us to the theme of this play that is to not believe false accusations or accusations that have no proof. The author, Arthur Miller is trying to convey in this story that the government can sometimes get too powerful over the people and rule the people in ways just to benefit themselves. In today’s world there is a lot of debates about whether or not

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.

“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.

In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Arthur intrigues audience time and time again with the historical context, social implications, and the Salem, Massachusetts Witchcraft Trials of 1962. Most members in Salem feel the need to prove their authority in ways such as accusing those who have done nothing or hanging them without proving their innocence first. The thing is authority is not made up by an authority figure, but by society. Miller’s The Crucible, demonstrates how people misuse their authority for cruel purposes through a fascinating plot, well-crafted characters, and well-set theme. During the hysteria of witchcraft trials in Salem, there were multiple figures of authority or per say the community who abused their power, Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris and Judge Danforth.

The power dynamics in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, are based on corruption and manipulation. Multiple characters, including Abigail Williams, Reverend Samuel Parris, Deputy Governor Danforth, and Thomas Putnam, misuse their influence in the drama. This depicts how once one has been in a seat of power for an extended period of time, they are actively aware, or in Danforth’s case unaware, of their abuse of power. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, possesses characters that illustrate how excessive perversion of power corrupts the Puritan society.

Imagine living in a society where you are guilty till proven innocent, instead of innocent til proven guilty. Due to the bias preference of the word of “God” in the story The Crucible By Arthur Miller, it is greatly implied that many of the casualties such as John and Elizabeth Proctor to name a couple was due to the restricted theology of church and state. In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. These girls are who create most of the controversy, as they lie to get through most circumstances. A specific individual is Abigail Williams, playing the victim for example as she blames Tituba in page 43 saying “She makes me drink blood!” leading to Tituba to being pulled to the side in page 44 and yelled at “you will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death” making her give in, in order for him to spare her life. leading to further unjustifiable atrocities.

Arthur Miller writes about the tragic results of human failings in his play, The Crucible. He presents characters from the past and infuses them with renewed vitality and color. Miller demonstrates the horrifying results of succumbing to personal motives and flaws as he writes the painful story of the Salem witch trials. Not only do the trials stem from human failings but also from neglect of moral and religious considerations of that time. Characters begin to overlook Puritan values of thrift and hope for salvation. Focusing on the flawed characters, they begin to exhibit land lust, envy of the miserable and self-preservation.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, many people are convicted for witchcraft even though they were all innocent. Many people are also corrupted by power and think they are the only ones that can make the decisions. This power is shown to be a corrupting force because it causes the characters to think and make decisions that they think is right, even though the law or other people know it’s wrong. The main characters that are corrupted by power are Danforth, Abigail, and the girls that follow Abigail.

In 1692 mass hysteria struck Salem, Massachusetts. The hysteria was caused by accusations against others for performing witchcraft, and since no one knew the truth, the accused often were put to death. Witchcraft was seen as an act of the Devil, and though this play may seem like it is simply about witchcraft, it actually is not. It is about using the accusations of witchcraft to manipulate others and to establish power. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller wonderfully and dramatically displays these events, and subtly shows how people can be manipulated through jealousy, abuse of authority, and even by using the church’s influence to further their own ends.