The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In the English dictionary, there are three definitions of the word crucible. One is a metal container in which metals are mixed and melted. Another is a severe test. But the third definition, and the one that I think fits the best for this book, is a place or situation in which different elements interact to create something new. In my mind, this fits because all of the characters had their little grudges and dirty secrets. But when all those seemingly little things interact, they formed something new and a lot bigger: a witch hunt. This strange transformation that happened, occurred because of people exacting revenge. Revenge is a theme in the crucible because Abigail Williams, Mr Proctor, and Ann Putnam acted out of revenge.

One may call self-preservation a natural, basic instinct. This will to survive is strong, but how far would you be willing to go to stay alive? In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a series of events unfold in the 1600s when a group of girls accuse others of conspiring with the devil. These accusations spread and the mass hysteria caused neighbors and friends to turn on each other. When unexplainable things happened, they attributed it to other performing witchcraft. The religious town of Salem took action against the accusations by making a court. This court prosecuted anyone suspected of being a witch or being affiliated with one. With little to no evidence, many innocent people were arrested and even killed in Salem. A recurring theme prevalent throughout The Crucible is self-preservation.

Hysteria can be defined as exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, this feeling disperses throughout Salem, Massachusetts, a Puritan town with a theocratic government in 1692 and 1693. In this play, Betty, the daughter of Reverend Parris, the minister of Salem’s church, is under an unconscious and unresponsive state. Her condition follows her father catching her dancing in a forest with her cousin, Abigail Williams, and other girls who live in the town. Many come to believe that the source of Betty 's condition is from witchcraft, an unlawful act in Salem. The discovery of the situation in the Parris household triggers people to accuse one another of

Long ago in the quiet town of Salem Massachusetts, witchcraft was of major concern. Throughout the chaos, keeping your name free from the attention of the village was what the townspeople wanted to do The varying degree of pride throughout the village was overpowering. If you could save yourself by throwing the blame on someone else.

Liu XiaoBo, a Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, human rights activist who called for political reforms and the end of communist single-party rule once said, “Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nations progress to freedom and democracy.” (www.brainyquotes.com) He asserted that hatred is what erodes and causes harm to a person’s own self-being, their friends and family, and the environment around them. Hatred can blind a person from seeing the truth, and instead of helping, they cause more harm. The Crucible, a playwright by Arthur Miller, illustrates the effects of what revenge, fear, and hatred has a role on hysteria. In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, a community of strict Puritan rules had to be obeyed. Playing around, having past times were strictly not allowed, as many thought doing these things were related to the Devil, or Satan. They were strong believers in Christianity, and anyone who showed signs of evil, would be placed in jail or executed for the whole town to see. Reverend Parris, a minister of Salem discovered his daughter, Betty Parris, and her friends including Abigail Williams, dancing naked in the woods. The woods were seen as the only place to still be inhabited by the Devil. Abigail was in fear of what would happen to her if people were to find out what she had done. Betty

The Crucible is a historical fiction play based on the Salem Witch trials. Throughout the book, Arthur Miller compares the Salem Witch Trials to the McCarthy Trials through intensive side monologues. Miller’s purpose in adding the McCarthy trials to the play is to show that history is periodic because of the reoccurring patterns within the two trials. The Salem Witch Trials, in The Crucible, and the McCarthy Trials show that history is periodic because of the reoccurring personality types, grave consequences, and trial proceedings.

The world is built around labels and categories. People get comfortable with their nice little boxes and wish to organize everything into their specific box. However, not everything is so simple. Not everyone is so black and white; in fact, no one is. Nobody stays the same either. Everyone is always changing and interacting with different people and engaging in different activities and making different choices. The reputation of a person, although changing in small ways, often doesn 't change drastically, unless something drastic happens. An exquisite example of this is in the play The Crucible. Due to the extreme circumstances of the Salem Witch Trials people cling stubbornly to their reputations. During the time period the play was set

“I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Miller 45). In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, residents of Salem habitually ‘cry witch’, driven by fear, paranoia, and vengeance. Under a strict theocracy, where the court’s ruling and religious beliefs are exclusively bound to one another, death is practically inevitable for those branded as witches, their names perpetually tarnished. From atop his high horse, one may look upon The Crucible and harshly judge the irrational actions of Salem’s community; however, human emotion drove these injudicious acts, the very raw emotion that often overpowers logic in today’s society. Though theocracy has dissolved in America, one can never rid the world of blind emotions or the mishaps that may follow them. Currently, fear, paranoia, and vengeance drive racial profiling in society, inciting scores of people to ‘cry terrorist’. Unjustified displays of racism, witnessed in the persecution of Muslims as result of the 9/11 and the Paris attacks, verify that society today is a reflection of The Crucible’s in unfortunate ways.

Our English II class approached Arthur Miller’s The Crucible from a way unique to any previous English assignment. We decided to operate as an unified ensemble to generate a singular and complete project that demonstrated our growth as readers, writers, and thinkers. Originally we were scared at the prospect of this unorthodox assignment; as Jada put it, “[we] thought it was gonna be a hot mess” (Jant). But in the end, I believe it was correct to do it as an ensemble. We were able to work as individual members of a group, each producing our own contribution to the final product. Our class eventually produced a completed project that emerged as a representation of our ability to analyze the play deeper than we could have as individuals.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller in a play based off of the Salem Witch Trials. The play ends with the town in mass hysteria. A girl is struck with lust, an innocent slave is accused, and a man struggles to do the right thing. Three characters that influenced the development of mass hysteria throughout the play are Abigail Williams, Tituba, and John Proctor.

The inhabitants of Salem use their animosity as a ploy to finally exact revenge on their enemies. The reader discovers Abigail Williams is briefly involved in a love affair with John Proctor, and continues to hold feelings for him despite his marital status. She views his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, as the obstacle standing in the way of being with the one she loves. Eventually, when the affair is uncovered, Abigail is dismissed from the Proctor household by Elizabeth, therefore further distancing Abigail from Proctor. When Abigail finally reunites with her unrequited lover, she snarkily says, “Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be--” (Miller 23). Abigail resents Elizabeth for restricting her from Proctor, and holds a bitterness toward her concerning the situation. Her jealousy, desire, and selfishness propel her to act on her grudge and devise the plan of the witch trials. Furthermore, Reverend Parris is an anxious and

The quality most necessary in a leader and a catalyst for hysteria is the ability to manipulate. The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller depicts the events that occurred in 1690s in Massachusetts best known as the Salem Witch Trials. These events center on a group of young girls who are found dancing in the woods with a black slave. Among them is Abigail Williams, a 17 year-old-girl desperate to conceal her affair with a married man and escape charges of witchcraft. In an attempt to pull the spotlight away from themselves, this group of girls, led by Abigail, begin to accuse countless people of witchcraft and as a result 19 people are hanged. The Crucible serves as an example of an individual’s ability to create hysteria, as well as the factors that are necessary for the rest of a society to participate in it. Despite the negative puritan perceptions of women, Abigail’s accusations are still acknowledged and believed by important members of society. Furthermore, the combined actions of Abigail as well as the rest of the girls spark a movement of panic and frenzy among all members of her society. The way in which Abigail manipulated people using the shortcomings of her society in The Crucible, the strict religious and cultural values of puritan society, as well as the ability of the people in The Crucible to oppose hysteria demonstrate the factors that allow for an individual to create hysteria and other people’s willingness to go along with it.

Nature dictates that survival is the key to life, improving one’s own situation is in higher consideration than improving the wellbeing of a mass. Humans are naturally corrupted in such a way that they manipulate events to their own liking and prosperity. In “The Crucible,” written by Arthur Miller, characters in Salem are driven by self-promoting ulterior motives through righteous justification. Consistently, Salemites undermine others in effort to establish self-gain. This dissembling triggers a mass adherence for a selfish cause. Righteous justification for self-promoting ulterior economic or social gains are not only exposed and characterized by Arthur Miller, but are still relevant throughout modern society.

The human mind can be a dangerous weapon; how it is used is a grave responsibility, one that, not everyone can control. Some see the mind as a commodity, a plaything to warp reality and torture others with, and while that might work for now, it will always turn on them. This perception is often mirrored in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The Crucible takes on the advantageous backdrop of Salem, Massachusetts during one of the darkest times in American history, the Salem Witch Trials. With swiftly changing times, the townspeople of Salem must prepare to defend themselves against Abigail Williams and the girls of Salem, for they are on a quest for revenge. With accusations being thrown at anyone with an opinion, one wrong move will most certainly mean death. Abigail Williams takes on the role of lustful greed that becomes her eventual ruin. This transformation is catalyzed through her ability to manipulate perception, her apparent control over Salem, and her narcissistic personality.

Published in 1952, during a period of cold war tensions, which culminated in the ideological "witch trials" of the McCarthyism era in America, the allegorical play, the crucible, by Arthur Miller, is set in Salem Massechutsets, in 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials. The author has intentionally used allegory to draw parallels between the two events and invite the reader to think critically about the persecution that occurred during both time periods. One of the themes that the author has used to position the reader to recognise the immorality and idiocy of both historical events is the representation of personal integrity. This is achieved through strongly contrasted characterisation through characters such as Abigail Williams and Rebecca Nurse , as well as the use of textual features such as irony,symbolism, and dialogue. In the play characters can be assorted into three distinct groups: those who have completely relinquished personal integrity in favour of personal interests, Those who have good intentions, but struggle to display integrity at times and those who continuously display integrity, even when faced with harsh punishment. In "The Crucible" Miller has utilized a multitude of textual features to create characters whose personal integrity ranges from being nonexistent to exemplary. The positive characterisation of Rebecca Nurse and the conflicted but developing characterisation of John Proctor positions the reader to sympathize with and view them in a positive