Similarities Between The Crucible And The Scarlet Letter

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is an intriguing novel about the witch trials in Salem during the 17th century. During the Salem witch trials, innocent people were accused of being witches just so that others could take their land and farms. The main protagonist, John Procter, stands up against the corruption and greed that has infested the very heart of Salem, and tries to overthrow Abigail Williams, a corrupt young maiden who blames and kills the accused witches. This novel explores the depth of evil in human nature through these main characters John Procter and Abigail Williams. But despite the corruption of Abigail and the town, the just emerge to try and stop this evil from occurring. The characteristics of John Procter are

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.

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.

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

In the early days of Massachusetts Bay Colony, town settlements amassed to practice religion. The Puritan belief entailed strict guidelines to abide by. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Crucible by Arthur Miller are two works of literature that embody symbols that transform each work into two distinct stories. Puritanism also played a major role in both stories. Throughout both works of literature, the symbolism of the forests, sins, and consequences within the plots of the story further develop the books as a whole.

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.

The quote “To belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with” from Michael Ignatieff is explaining that with every group of people in society, there is a certain set of logical unspoken rules that are not written rules. The understanding and following of these rules will allow you to belong in most groups. Unspoken rules are what make a group who they are. The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter both have perfect examples for the relationship between unspoken rules and belonging. Also, these works take place in the 17th century around the same area. This creates almost the same setting for both stories where the unspoken rules will be almost identical. The knowledge and ability to follow the unspoken rules will lead to

The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter have several commodities in common. A basic summary of The Crucible is, it’s about a village, Salem, in the 1600’s, wherein witchery is loose and several conflicted souls must be captured, purified, confessed, or hung. The attempt to dispose of all witchcraft was tampered with by citizens of Salem being dishonest and deceitful. Lots of the deception stemmed from the jealousy, vengeance, and other personal vendettas. The Scarlet Letter summarized is that it is about a woman who had an affair, in the 1600’s, and must be condemned for it. While the husband is torturing the man his wife had an affair with. It included lots of death and suffering. With these two texts being summarized, there are lots of

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

Religion and law were two aspects that were hard to differentiate between within the societies in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Both readings were based in seventeenth century Massachusetts in Puritan societies. The Crucible play is based on hysteria occurring in a small town by the name of Salem over suspected witchcraft in the area. The Scarlet Letter happens in the city of Boston and is about a woman who has a child, but her husband has not yet arrived, so the community frowns upon her for having a baby from another man. John Proctor is a farmer in Salem who was accused of witchcraft and in the process of investigation, his past catches up to him up to the point where he is killed for not admitting

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in The Scarlet Letter, and Arthur Miller, in The Crucible, use the Puritan era in their works to meet their respective goals. Hawthorne creates a piece of romantic literature, while Miller writes a play that uses the aforementioned period in order to discuss the Red Scare and McCarthyism. In choosing the Puritan era, ministers play a key role in the works of both authors. Hawthorne effectively uses Puritan ministers in creating his romantic work, while Miller forfeits accuracy in order to achieve his goal of analyzing the Red Scare and McCarthyism.

One of the many works written and driven by Puritan influence, The Crucible by Arthur Miller has continued to influence life and thinkings. Its story tracing the 1692 Salem Witch Trials has been widely read, received and understood, along with influencing the reader and their ideals. The play has manifested into more than words on a page and has become of the greatest influences, even sixty years after its publication. Though its story has not changed and is merely a retelling of the original itself, its themes have greatly impacted its universal and enduring state.

Throughout all of American Literature, authors have used different techniques to relay a message to the reader, one way being by depicting how the community’s influence on the protagonist shapes the protagonists’ development. In The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, authors Hawthorne and Miller, respectively, use the social norms in Puritan society to express a common theme by portraying the positive and negative moral changes in characters. In Puritan society, individuals believed they were carrying out “God’s work”, creating a society where compromise was rare and harsh punishment was inflicted upon those who made mistakes that were deemed immoral to society. Because of the strict nature of the Puritans, acting in a manner that was completely out of the norm in Puritan society caused society to look down on those individuals. These characteristics of Puritan society are reflected throughout both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, in which both the protagonists and antagonists react differently; the protagonists attempt to atone for their sin because of the guilt they are unable to overcome while the antagonists do not attempt to atone for their sins and experience negative moral changes. Throughout Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Miller’s The Crucible, the depiction by both authors of protagonists who experience moral changes as a result of guilt originating from their committed sins, indicates the recurring theme in American literature that characters who exhibit

Thomas Brooke says the following, “Pride grows in the heart with the decrease of other sins and thrives on their decay. Satan is subtle. He will make us proud of our very graces. He will make us proud that we are not proud.” Today, there are many religions all over the world, spanning to Christianity to Buddhism to Judaism, all of those mentioned and all of those not mentioned have evolved over the course of hundreds to thousands of years as everything began here on Earth. A handful of them are different, while a few of them are so alike that the two religions might as well be the same from then on out, but everybody tends to separate themselves from others because, well, the sects believe in different bits of information than from the other one. However, in saying this, what was religion like a long time ago when the people were expected to follow a church because those were the rules, which cannot be broken. Puritans were the main focus when the British originally arrived in the Americas, Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants, so not exactly Christian, more of a Catholic type of people. For the purposes of analysis, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller’s “Crucible” will be compared and contrasted in the ways that are, adultery, witchcraft, and finally the symbolism of the forest.