The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible, a novel/play by Arthur Miller displays the chaos of the witch trials within the small town of Salem, Mass. Of the many characters of the novel, John Proctor and Mary Warren are both characters that serve an importance to the novel. The two characters both interact in the stories in different ways. Even though both characters can be seen as minor characters because of their inferior power in the novel, Proctor and Mary Warren serve as important characters to the story line. One reason being the fact that they both bring about problems with and/or against antagonist Abigail Williams such as Mary Warren, who likes the feeling of have authority but gets into unwanted conflict often, and Proctor, who is an very aggressive person

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible show the hysteria that took place in Salem in 1692. Even though this play is fiction, Miller based the plot of his play on a real historical event which was McCarthyism in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. There’re many connection in The Crucible to be considered as an allegory due to similarities themes and how the characters are being portrayed. Miller does an excellent job of portraying numerals characters used fear for benefit and they showed selfishness and malfeasance. This is also similar to how Joseph McCarthy’s oppressive by using intense fear of the spread of the economic system called communism.

The play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, withholds many conflicts that arise resulting in many themes as well. Such as weight, Reputation, and Good vs. Evil. These themes form from the Salem witch trials. Repeatedly people become accused of witchcraft, throughout the play this continues to drag out due to the people of Salem’s accusations and deceit for one another. The play continues to move to a tense and moving climax resulting in the death of many prominent people of Salem.

“The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is a recurring feature of drama.”

Every day as humans we are pushed to our limits, these circumstances test are mental strength and how strong our morals are. In Arthur Miller 's, The Crucible, several characters in Salem, Massachusetts were tested internally by the Witch Trials. In his play he uses examples of how difficult situations can bring out a person 's true self. Using the word crucible has a significance between the characters and title since the definition is a severe trial. In The Crucible John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Giles Corey are characters who illustrate being tested during the severe Witch Trials. These characters all struggle against facing the deceitful court and their worst enemy, themselves.

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

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the citizens of Salem are accusing each other of witchcraft. The whole crisis begins as an effect of John Proctor 's affair with his servant Abigail Williams. After the affair, Abigail, who is jealous of Elizabeth Proctor, wants to get Elizabeth out of the way so that she can be with John. John Proctor realizes that it is up to him to stop the hysteria and save innocent people. Yet John Proctor waits to confess. John Proctor 's moral lapses propel his search for redemption, a decision that ultimately cost a man of integrity his life.

“Your reputation and integrity are everything. Follow through on what you say you’re going to do. Your credibility can only be built over time, and it is built from the history of your words and actions.” Maria Razumich-Zec put into words the importance that society places on reputation. It has become clear that what other people think of someone is far more important to that individual than what they may know to be true about themselves. In todays society is very rare to find people that are content with what they are, despite what the people surrounding them believe. This notion that in order to be validated there has to be external approval dates back to the seventeenth century and earlier. During the Salem Witch Trials, men and women were killed daily due to the thoughts of others. In Arthur Miller’s Crucible, it is clearly demonstrated that reputation is a huge role in the daily lives of people.

Arthur Miller 's, The Crucible, presented a theme of mass hysteria. The author states that when there is mass hysteria, many are suffering from it but some are also gaining from it. What started with a few girls playing around became a huge problem in Salem that changed its entire society. Starting off as a fear, which was caused by these girls due to their accusation of innocent citizens of witchcraft, it turned into mass hysteria as more and more people started believing them. It lead to wrongful accusations and hanging of many innocent Salem citizens. Fear could be used for many things; it can be used for personal gains; it can be used to increase your political power;

Humans are inherently drawn to chaos. Humanity is involved in an endless war between madness and logic. Though society attempts to preserve logic and maintain order, a single event can trigger chaos and lead to the deaths of thousands; this has happened several times in every civilization and in every time period, and will continue to happen in the future. One example of this is the Red Scare in the 1900s, which disrupted decades of peace and harmony. The fear of McCarthyism was tangible and widespread; people were accused of being Communists based solely on circumstantial evidence and unfounded suspicions. Reputations and careers were destroyed over simple rumors. In some cases, innocent people were killed. Arthur Miller drew a parallel between the Salem witch trials in the late 1600s and the Red Scare in the 1950s in his novel, The Crucible. Through careful exposition, Miller argues that mayhem and hysteria can occur in any society at any time, and that logic and truth are needed in order to overcome the dark evil in the world.

As defined, a crucible is a container where metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature or even melted. In these small canisters, extremely violent reactions take place. A crucible isn’t solely an object necessary for chemical reactions, but is highly symbolic. Arthur Miller, author of the play The Crucible, used this as a metaphor of mass hysteria during the Salem Witch Trials. Through this, Miller connected the Puritan trials to The Red Scare, a span of time in which Communist trials were prevalent. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller continually illustrated the ghastly consequences of “witch-hunts” based off of fear of the unknown. By doing so, Miller delineated what happens to a society, whether past or present, when fear arises in a society based on novel things or ideas, thus creating a polarized community.

Would an acceptable solution to get rid of a strange friend or neighbor whom you feared be reporting them to authorities as a murderer? Would you let someone go to jail or even face the death penalty on behalf of your fear of their “odd” behavior? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of young, Puritan girls is found dancing around a fire in the forests of Salem, Massachusetts. To prevent getting in trouble, the girls pretend to be overtaken by the Devil and accuse several other people in their town for conferring with the Devil. Consequent of these false accusations, more than a dozen innocent Puritans were hanged. Given the perception of the Devil by the Puritans, their fear of his powers and alliance with God drove them to the intense and harsh behaviors to eliminate individuality deemed as sinful conduct during the Salem Witch Trials.

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 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.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible takes place in a puritan 17th century Salem town, where a distinct line separates right from wrong. Puritan ideals define the individuals living in Salem, and John Proctor, the protagonist, finds himself struggling to realize and act on these ideals. Miller portrays Proctor in different lights throughout the course of the play, as Proctor often finds himself engrossed in the heat of the hysteria driven town. His character starts out lacking any heroic or admirable features, as his disloyalty to his wife is immediately apparent. Nevertheless, Proctor means to mend his marriage as he diverts his sinful relationship with Abigail Williams, and slowly his goodwill is depicted. In spite of his admirable personal growth, Proctor’s punishment through his wife’s coldness is not the end, as his punishment becomes far more severe. Abigail’s tactics to regain the love of Proctor result in the exposé of his adultery in the town, and her claim concerning witchcraft leads to Proctor’s trial—and eventual death. Proctor was given the choice to admit to witchcraft and spend his days in jail, yet he defends his friends and his name by choosing death over submission, and prioritizes righteousness over admitting to a lie. A metamorphosis of John Proctor lies first in his devotion to his wife, Elizabeth, and finally in his decision to choose honor over blasphemy, which undoubtably result from his bold, proud, and Puritan mannerisms through which he manifests a