Summary Of The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Thomas Putnam plays a major role in the Salem witch hunt in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Inheriting a handsome amount of property makes Putnam a wealthy person; however, it doesn’t seem to satisfy his ambition. After the town terribly rejected Putnam’s brother-in-law, Bayley, Putnam’s bitterness has increased. Finally his prodigious involvement in the relentless accusations places him in the center of the spot light, making him a salient character in both the play and the indignant period of the American history.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Puritan Massachusetts in which religion, justice, individuality and dignity play a vital role. These factors define the characteristics of many of the most significant characters in the play. Some of them being John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale, Danforth and many others. The Salem witch trials were a result of the lack of expression of individuality and the fact that no individual could expect justice from the majority culture as a result of the deterioration of human dignity in the Puritan society of Salem.

How many people have you met in your life that is stronger because of a difficult experience they went through? Most people are because we take these difficult experiences and grow from them and become better people. This is the exact case is expressed in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The story begins in Salem, Massachusetts 1692 right in the middle of a period of witchcraft hysteria. During this time many people were accused of being witches and wrongly convicted by judges Danforth and Hathorne. The characters in the story are struggling because of a girl named Abigail who gets caught practicing witchcraft and then starts naming and accusing others so that she doesn’t get in trouble; one of these people being a well-respected farmer, John Proctor’s, wife Elizabeth. The title, The Crucible, refers to a test, trial, ordeal, formation by fire, and vessel baked to resist heat, and the entire story is an allegory meaning it has a hidden meaning. John Proctor symbolizes a crucible by embodying the definition of one, as he went through a test and was formed by fire.

It is 1692 in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts; fear and hysteria are running rampant. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the residents of Salem are allowing their grudges and personal rivalries to distract themselves from the truth. The witch trials are escalating, more and more people are being accused, and the tensions are high. The Putnams have different motivations and grudges that are driving the accusations. Ann Putnam is using the trials to harm the women she deems responsible for the deaths of her seven children. In contrast, Thomas Putnam is driven by his greed for wealth and land to accuse those he is envious of. A young girl, Abigail Williams, is a devious teenager seeking revenge on the innocent wife of her past lover.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the witch trials in Salem were a devastating time. The entire community was in disorder and chaos because of personal vengeance. This included accusations of innocent town’s people being called witches, so they hanged and were jailed. Throughout the play certain characters help the rise of witchcraft as well as the disapproval of all the innocent people who were being convicted for no reason. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character whom comes to rid of the evil spirits in Salem, yet he later tries to end the trials. Hale realizes the accusations are false, attempts to postpone the hangings, and persuade the victims to lie conveys that he is a dynamic character and changes throughout the play.

The first argument between Giles and Putnam is presented when Mr. Putnam first enters the court. The argument is used to prove Putnam prompted his daughter to cry witchery upon George Jacobs who had been put in jail. Giles gives the judge his deposition. The argument is

A man 's reputation in many forms is his, life’s work. To have your reputation dismantled is like taking away one 's accomplishments and life’s work. Arthur Miller 's The Crucible is a play about justice and injustice, and how our justice system can be easily corrupted. The story revolves around a man named John Proctor, the tragic hero of this story. John Protector is a symbolic character created by Arthur Miller, because he faced the justice system head on. Proctor’s biggest flaw would be his great amounts of pride, which unfortunately led to his own death. In Arthur Millers’ The Crucible, he characterizes John Proctor as the tragic hero of the story because of all that he lost, through his relentless crusade to free his wife and exposing injustice, illustrating that no hero is perfect.

“The Crucible” is a play that takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The play starts in the woods, the characters Abigail, Betty, Tituba, Mary Warren, and Mercy Lewis were casting spells in the forest. Samuel Parris catches them in the woods and Betty passes out. They go to the Proctors house to make sure Betty is okay. Parris is contemplating on what the town will think of him when they find out what has happened. He tells Abigail to tell him what happened in the woods. Abigail tells him they were dancing.

The Crucible, a historical play based on events of the Salem witchcraft trials, takes place in a small Puritan village in the colony of Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials, as Miller explains in a prose prologue to the play, grew out of the particular moral system of the Puritans, which promoted interference in others' affairs as well as a repressive code of conduct that frowned on any diversion from norms of behavior.

The Crucible was based in 1692 in and around the town of Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The Salem witch-hunt was view as one of the strangest and most horrendous chapters in the human history. People that were prosecuted were all innocent and their deaths were all due to false accusation of people’s ridiculous belief in superstition and their paranoia. The Puritans in those times were very strict in personal habits and morality; swearing, drunkenness and gambling would be punished. The people of Salem believed in the devil and thought that witchcraft should be hunted out.

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, delineates many acts of self-indulgence and animosity. With clever accusations on one another for witchery, each character is able to derive the conflict away from themselves and appear innocent. A jealous and manipulative girl, Abigail Williams, falsely accuses Elizabeth Proctor for the sole purpose of seeking revenge, so she could have Elizabeth’s husband John Proctor. She is able to withhold her reputation by making herself appear as the victim in the court. Not only was Abigail a model of self cruelty, but Thomas Putnam is also a befitting example. Being a very acquisitive man, he accuses George Jacob for witchcraft to simply gain the land neighboring him. Both characters strive to achieve their goals, but they do it through many acts of greed. In society overall,

 The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a play that takes place in the sixteen nineties during the famous but tragic witch trials. The entire community is in pandemonium yet certain characters are also fighting internal conflicts. Miller uses three characters that manifest this internal battle ever so clearly: Mary Warren whose whole world turns upside down, John Proctor who must weigh the importance of his family against his reputation and Reverend Hale who must decide whether to do his job, or do what he knows to be right. 

She screams and writhes as, "Stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, [Parris] draw a needle out." (Miller, ) Envy even pushes Abigail to inflict pain on herself. To frame Elizabeth, she resorts to extreme and desperate means of proof. She casts away all shreds of morality, religion, and common sense to pursue her treasure. Anne Putnam exposes similar motives for accusing Rebecca Nurse. Francis Nurse quotes the arrest warrant for his wife, "For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies." (Miller, ) Goody Putnam envies the Nurses because they already have a large clan of offspring while they are left with one weak child. Envy and jealousy play a key role in Goody Putnam's decision to blame Rebecca. To obtain vengeance, they accuse Rebecca in hopes to solve their own misfortune. The Putnams envy her success and instead of celebrating their happiness and cherishing their only child, they choose the immoral action and strike back at their scapegoat, Rebecca. Abigail plays a cruel trick on Proctor to try to resolve her envy, and the Putnams condemn Rebecca Nurse to death for some false hope in their lives. Envy encourages ordinary people to feel disappointed, but it encourages the ones without strong ethics to strike back and take revenge. In The Crucible, this revenge takes the form of unreasonable trials of innocent people.

In the article Why I Wrote The Crucible by Arthur Miller, he explains his reasoning to his book. This article in mainly about when Miller wrote his book and what was happening with him during this time as well. It was stated in this article that The Crucible was an act of desperation. Miller was afraid to be accused of being a communist. Because he didn’t want to be accused, he couldn’t protest too strongly.

In every literary work, there are themes. A theme is a broad idea, moral or message of a book or story. One individual may construe the themes of a book or story differently than another, but that is the pure beauty of themes. One great literary work is The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller. Succinctly, the play is about the Salem witch trials that took place in Massachusetts in 1692. Throughout the story, the townspeople indict their neighbors of being a witch and practicing witchcraft. On the surface, this historical drama has a few universal and enduring themes. Themes are universal because regardless of where in the world, the ideas still relates to everyone and is understood. Themes are enduring because the ideas are found