A book and a play, both are extremely widely read and interpreted in countless different ways. These two are thought to be prime examples of American Literature. Arthur Miller was born on October 17, 1915, and he published his play, The Crucible, in January of 1953. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, and his book, The Scarlet Letter, came out to print in March of 1850. These two types of literature were published roughly 100 years apart, so there are minute changes in the way they were written. Both are set in early 1700’s Massachusetts, but The Crucible is in Salem, and The Scarlet Letter is set in Boston. There are many similarities and differences between the two, the biggest three are how adultery plays a role in puritan …show more content…
Primarily the male protagonists in both stories are the ones who feel the most guilty. The woman feel guilty too, but this is where is seperates a little, In The Crucible, Abigail would never want her “good name” to be damaged from people knowing that she is a adulterer, but in The Scarlet Letter, Hester feels guilty for the first few years, but then gets used to the feeling, both the feeling of being an outcast and being guilty. John Proctor feels ashamed that he has done such a thing with another woman who he is not lawfully wed to, so he turns away from Abigail and towards his wife. He knows he has done a wrong, and it is over now, but he still does not want anyone to know about it. Dimmesdale is a priest in Boston, and that is extremely bad because he committed adultery with a married woman, he does not tell for the next seven years, but eventually does right before he dies and the end of the book. Massachusetts, in the 18th century, is the setting for both Miller’s The Crucible and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the way the community deals with matters of the law is very similar to each other. Both communities are extremely religious, and everyone thinks that if you mess up once, you will go to hell. You could say they are extremists with the Bible. In both stories, the man and woman both commit what is usually one of the most severe sins, adultery. The community rejects them, and things do not go well for
The literary works, The Scarlet Letter, a romantic work of an American writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Crucible, a play written by an American playwright, Arthur Miller both show two different narratives of the Salem Witch Trials. The Scarlet Letter is mainly on adultery, meanwhile, The Crucible is about witchcraft. Amongst these two literary works, there are several similarities and contrasts: setting, sin, reasons behind committing the misdemeanor, guilt, and loyalty of the Puritan people to their appointed officials. Although there are several similarities and comparisons, the greatest controversy is how the authors portray the female characters. Women get treated differently than men; it is the idea of women being inferior creatures and lesser human beings.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an iconic piece of literature that was published in the 1950’s. When Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, the United States was in the middle of the McCarthyism era where innocent people were being accused of treason without the proper evidence (“Joseph R. McCarthy”). As a result, Arthur Miller became involved and wrote a play to show his beliefs in response to the accusations and haywire going on. Miller used individual characters and portrayed them as a part of his protest. The Crucible was published as a play and made a film. The two are similar, but differences do occur. The play represents these characters with more historical accuracy and believability than the film because individually, the characters
The text and film adaptation of The Crucible complement each other, catching the essence of Arthur Miller’s central themes and messages. Although the film reiterates the theme and the basis of the play, there are many differences to contrast. The film featured scenes that were merely referenced in the text, allowing the audience to fully grasp the storyline. These additions are also necessary to convey emotions and accentuate important attributes of the characters.
In 1952 a play was written by Arthur Miller, about events that happened in Salem in 1692. The play was about affairs, accusations, and innocent people being accused of witches. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail and Mary Warren are introduced as two separate people. Although people might see Abigail and Mary Warren as two separate people and nothing alike, they are more alike than meet's the eye. Abigail and Mary Warren have three things in common; they are both are deceitful, they both dishonest, and they are both apprehensive.
The edgy tale of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is comparable in many ways to Arthur Miller’s haunting play The Crucible. Both are set in Puritan New England in the 17th century and revolve around the harsh law enforcement of the time. However, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of a woman as she deals with her heavy Puritan punishment, whereas The Crucible follows hysteria as it spreads throughout an entire town. Hester Prynne, the main character of The Scarlet Letter, was found guilty for adultery and sentenced to wear a red letter A on her chest to inform people of her sin. Similarly, The Crucible’s main character John Proctor admits to having committed lechery and is sent to jail for this and for being a
The Crucible is arguably the greatest pieces of American literature ever written by playwright Arthur Miller. But, in 1996 a film was created to put the words of Miller onto the big silver screen for many people across the nation to see. Although both works were received very well, the two of them have many different elements. These differences from the book to the movie include the setting, the execution of all the victims, the kiss of John and Abigail, where the girls run, and the discussion of John and Goody Proctor. These differences from the book to the movie have affected both in many different ways.
The purpose of my paper is to compare and contrast Arthur Miller’s The Crucible with the actual witch trials that took place in Salem in the 17th Century. Although many of the characters and events in the play were non-fictional, many details were changed by the playwright to add intrigue to the story. While there isn’t one specific cause or event that led to the Salem witch trials, it was a combination of events and factors that contributed to the birth and growth of the trials. Some of these events included: a small pox outbreak that was happening at the time, the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter by Charles II, and the constant fear of Native attacks. These helped in creating anxiety among the early Puritans that
Many people underestimate the powerful affliction that is guilt. People think that if they simply turn their back on what they have done and to the feelings of remorse over the wrongdoing, these feelings will eventually subside. However, this is not the case, as the moment one turns his or her back on feelings of guilt is the exact moment it sneaks up behind that person and eats him or her alive. In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter, which tells the story of two people who commit adultery and the aftermath of their crime. Almost exactly one hundred years later, Arthur Miller published the play The Crucible, also set in Puritan society, which tells the story of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Though written years apart,
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” What is fear? Fear can be a noun or a verb. In the noun form, it is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In the verb form, it is to be afraid of someone or something that is dangerous, painful, or threatening. If one person looks into fear, then that person becomes feared. But imagine a whole society or community looking into fear. The fear not only gets larger as it spreads, but it also gets more fearful than it already is. The power of fear can be displayed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and in Ronald Oakley’s “The Great Fear”. As fear moves on from one mind to the next, it leaves the
“The Scarlet Letter” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller are two pieces of literature written around the same era. They were written in the early days of the Massachusetts colony. Both of the pieces of literature have many similarities including the theme, setting, conflicts, and some major plot elements. But the two pieces of literature are also very different. They both use have a common theme but are completely different stories. Each of the plays tell a different portrayal of the effects of sin on the protagonist, how they deal with the situation, and also how they will be effected by their choices made throughout the play.
In the everyday live one repeatedly meets people who turn out to have a two-faced personality. In both The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, and The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, we get to know characters with split character traits. While The Crucible is a play and The Scarlet Letter a novel, both works have several points in common even though in the stories they tell they are so very different. Both of these literary works are set in the early days of the Massachusetts colony around the mid 1700’s. In this time period many citizens of both Salem in The Crucible and Boston in The Scarlet Letter were highly religious. So if anything happened that was not able to be solved with a believable explanation, the citizens believed
The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are two stories both set in the early days of the Massachusetts colony. Both of these stories have many similarities between them, including setting, situations, and conflict. The two stories were also very different. The effects of sin on the characters, how they deal with their sin, and the consequences of their actions are different in each story. The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are different works and although they deal with similar conflicts the consequences and end results are very different.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller both used their writings to comment on the state of the world at their current times. Miller’s Play The Crucible and Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter both share several similar concepts, despite the fact that they were written just over one hundred years apart. The Scarlet Letter is about a Puritan woman by the name of Hester Prynne, who has an illegitimate child (called Pearl) with the religious leader of the town, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The Crucible is a play featuring the Puritan town of Salem, which is suffering through a hysterical, supernatural paranoia started by a vengeful adulteress named Abigail Williams. The similarities between these two texts have been compared and explored by many before, and three such explorations are investigated over the course of this paper.
“All it took was a whisper.”(Winkler). Indeed, that was all it took for David Merrill and John Proctor to find themselves before a court, answering for unprovable crimes. Though neither man knew of the other, would never even have a chance of meeting each other (aside from the fact Miller is a fictional character), and were not even accused of the same crime, the situations these two protagonists find themselves in are unnervingly similar. It would be no surprise to then learn that The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written as an allegory of the very trials that David Merrill would have found himself in. Because they revolve around similar concepts and topics, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, and Guilty By Suspicion, written and directed by Irwin Winkler, despite being about two different looming spectres in two different settings, have strong connections and similarities to one another.
Most people agree that Nathaniel Hawthorne changed his last name from “Hathorne” to “Hawthorne”. This is one of the many signs that suggest that Hawthorne was ashamed of his Puritan past and tried to do anything to remove that “black mark” on his past. Furthermore, it can be seen through the themes and symbols in his play that Arthur Miller was no fan of Puritanism as well. Both Miller and Hawthorne take negative stances against Puritanism. This can be seen in their works The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter deals with the Puritan intolerance of those who committed a sin. In Hester Prynne’s situation, her adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale seemed to have sparked a particular hatred for her within her community. The Crucible deals with the Puritan fight against witchcraft. Many people in the town are accused of being witches and are forced to confess in order to save their lives. The intolerance that the Puritans show to witchcraft symbolize Miller’s complete dislike of Puritanism and their strictness. Both Miller and Hawthorne’s negative views on Puritanism are strongly seen in their respective works of literature. Also, both authors seem to think that the outsider is treated quite brutally. Miller’s take on the Puritan way of forgiveness of sins is somewhat painless compared to Hawthorne’s version of forgiveness. Hawthorne’s novel highlights hypocrisy and its detrimental impact. Miller similarly writes about hypocrisy and how it can destroy society as a