The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, focuses on the inconsistencies and injustice of the 1692 witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. The restrictive Puritan society of Salem in the 17th century was based upon religious intolerance, where faith was demonstrated through physical labour and by strict adherence to religious doctrine. Material, physical and sexual desires were considered the Devil’s work and a threat to the very fabric of society. In summary, it is said that Puritanism discouraged individualism on all levels. The literal way in which the Bible was interpreted by the Puritans, provides a paradox within the play. This is because although the Bible says “thou shalt not kill,” the people of Salem are willing to sentence innocent

Augustin Eichwald Mrs. Hillsey English III-G 23 November 2014 Definition Essay: The Crucible Strange and peculiar happenings occur in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller. In this story of hypocrisy, guilt, and revenge, innocent people are accused of the bizarre crime of witchcraft. In Salem, Massachusetts, hysteria sets in among every person over fear of being accused of these shocking accusations. Each and every person experiences a severe test or trial in order to live to see another day. In addition to this, these people witnessed their own friends be sentenced to death over a crime in which many were found guilty. The morals of Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor are tested in the crucible of the Salem witchcraft trials.

Reverend Hale develops from a strong intelligent individual with no compassion, to kind & sympathetic as the story matures for example when he is begging women in prison to confess to save their lives.

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.

Everyone has someone in their life that is trying to take what they have. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, written in 1952, there are two women that stand out due to their conflicting personalities. The two women are Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. Elizabeth Proctor is a caring mom and wife that tells the truth, while the naïve Abigail Williams is a cruel adultress teen that lies to help herself, but both characters want the same thing: John Proctor.

Today there are kids and adults that wonder why the events of the Salem witch trials actually happened because everyone was blamed for no reason and all people did was make excuses. Those types of people also wonder how the people back then were tricked into believing that witches existed and they had to deal with everything that happened in a harsh manner because everyone was in a “I can’t get in trouble let me blame someone else” type of attitude. There are many beliefs today that witches like things in the past. Many people would agree that they are no longer existent today; however Arthur Miller, author of the play, The Crucible, shows the audience that people have not progressed that far from those days when people believed during the Salem witch trials. A common belief is that witches hunt for things in the past. Many people would agree that they no longer exist today; however Arthur Miller, author of the play, The Crucible, points out that society has not come very far from the days of the Salem witch trials. All throughout this play, Arthur used the trials to parallel to the McCarthy Era because he noticed that the events were the same from the late 1600’s. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to help everyone today notice that people back then weren’t going crazy they were just believing what they heard and they were all man for themselves attitude.

What is a reputation? Is it something you earn or is it something you are just handed? The dictionary describes it as a favorable repute; good name. One could conclude that one is given a reputation based on certain actions or characteristics. Also valid for argument is the importance of having a good or bad reputation. Having a good reputation can be for the sake of having others view you as a good person and someone that they can rely on. On the other hand, a person with a bad reputation would be treated with little respect and not taken very seriously. All of these factors based on what society chooses to name you as, a person with a good reputation or someone with a bad reputation. The birth of a reputation is created by society and it alone. If having a reputation were all up to one’s self we would all have superb reputations. The Crucible by Arthur Miller focuses on upkeeping a good reputation and showing the importance of having a good clean name.

With the absurd amount of corruption and chaos that was present in Salem during the 1690’s, it’s hard to put the blame for the witch trials on any one person. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, the reader is given a dramatized insight on the events surrounding the dark times that had befallen the province of Massachusetts Bay. The play begins by presenting that aftermath of a ‘ritual’ that had taken place in the woods in which Betty, the daughter of Reverend Parris is seemingly in a coma that everyone believes was brought forth by witchery. When the blame for Betty’s condition is turned towards Tituba (Parris’ slave), Abigail, Mary Warren, and the other girls who were seen by Reverend Parris dancing in the woods, Abigail claims to have only

Through the stories and plays in literature have helped people draw batter understandings of the problems they faced and different point of views. The Crucible tells the story of events that happened in 1600s, however, they very similar to those events in our present today. The crucible, written by Arthur Miller tells the story of the Salem witch trials that start off with a group of girls that blame others for the crime of practicing witchcraft to cover themselves. As a result this cost many people in the small town to lose their lives and other to lose the reputation in the pious town. Throughout the story the use of religion and personal judgment mix with a lack of evidence was not only the law, but the final decision on many of the cases. Arthur miller stated that the reason why he wrote the crucible was to show the similarity of Salem witch trial to the McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the practice of accusing of treason with little actual evidence .Abagail Williams is the puppet master in this chaos, she able to use little proper evidence and control the whole town. As one of the main characters of the play Abigail fits into Miller’s themes of Empowerment, hysteria, and reputation and jealousy.

Imagine being persecuted for something you had no control over. Ever since 1692 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts where the idea of “witch-hunts” originated, several groups across the world have been persecuted because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or other unsupported reasons. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the witch-hunts that took place during Puritan times are specifically targeted and serve as the focus point throughout the course of the story. Aside from the main plot points of the play, Miller also comments on a period in the 1950s during the Cold War when people who were thought to have been communists were persecuted against and deemed guilty without substantial evidence. These so-called “witch-hunts” stemmed from periods of fear and racism, and people were victimized with no way to prove themselves. Based on the outcome of multiple historical events throughout the course of history, “witch-hunts” are not justified or needed to achieve justice or establish order in society. One prime example of a historical “witch-hunt” is the Negro Holocaust, a period in the late 1800s and early 1900s where African Americans were lynched by white people based on their skin color.

E VERYONE KNOWS THAT OUR YOUNG, innocents need to be shielded from the big, bad world that envelops them on a daily basis. But are we taking this bubble wrapping too far? Has our initial need to protect our young become an irrational fear? Does the terror of having a paedophile lurking right outside our homes, roaming our streets eyeing our children escalated to an extent identical to the hysteria in The Crucible about witches? The answer is yes.

Lie To Live, Live To Lie In Arthur Miller’s historical fiction play The Crucible (1953), witchcraft surfaces in the town of Salem leaving everyone to fend for themselves. Generally, people will do whatever they can to save their lives. In The Crucible, a group of girls are found dancing in the woods and are caught by Reverend Parris, minister of the Salem church and uncle to Abigail Williams. One of the girls, Betty, faints and draws many to visit and try to find the source of her illness. Reverend Parris has Reverend Hale, a minister well versed in affairs of the devil, to come and cure Betty. Many people accuse Betty’s symptoms of witchcraft, including Hale. This witchcraft conviction starts the “witch trials”. Abigail and the girls are

Lucifer, Satan or his common name, the devil. From an English perspective, he is the first antagonist. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the Devil is the main cause of conflict. He is the root of Evil. Now the reaction to devilish behavior varies from person to person, possibly even society to society. The Puritan society combats evil doing with actions that could be considered worse than the Devil 's worst of deeds. This is demonstrated by Reverend Hale, whose importance starts initially as a figurehead of judgment, and his influence of judgment slowly dwindles. Another proof of imperfection in the Puritan society is the article McCarthyism. It projects the same sickening goose chase that ruins the lives of harmless people. Abigail is the ultimate icon of the mockery that is the Salem witch trials. Her “encounters” with demons in the courtroom are borderline comedic. The puritans justify all decisions with the argument that all drastic measures are necessary to remove the demons within the townspeople, for the greater good.

Between the years of 1692 and 1693, Salem, Massachusetts had a huge political conflict over religion. Spring of 1692, was the when witchcraft became the center cause of the Salem Witch Trials, thereafter spreading fear throughout the citizens by questioning their ways of life. Hysteria tortured the people located in Salem for the next year by means of having twenty-three people hung, pressed, or drowned. This essay is the understanding of how witchcraft attempted to create political order in Salem Town and Salem village and a way of achieving the knowledge of the main residents in Salem was by Arthur Miller’s famous playwright The Crucible. The first scene in the playwright is Reverend Samuel Parris calling the doctor to examine his daughter Betty and niece Abigail who claim to have been possessed by the devil from the use of witchcraft. From that moment on witchcraft was the number one subject of hysteria.

When eras of horrendous history are forgotten, along with valuable lessons learned from the turmoil, who suffers from the negligent ignorance? The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a compelling play about the undertakings of the Salem Witch Trials. Miller uses creative license to mold history into something literarily symbolic: the Witch Trials taught man no significance; the failure to learn from one 's mistakes caused history to repeat itself, the people that initially suffered having gone through their troubles for nothing. Therefore, the subsequent victims embody the consequences of the same unlearned lesson, and the cycle repeats. A product of the 1950s ' Cold War: a domestic struggle with the anxiety of communism, McCarthyism rooted from Americans ' suspicion of alien policy, a potential threat to their familiar ideals. The religiously intrinsic Puritans of 17th century colonial New England held firmly to their faith and disapproved of other ways to knowing God 's will, much like how Americans, dreadful of their government becoming something of the tyrannical enemies ' of Nazi Germany and communist Russia, held firmly to free will, democracy, and the ways of patriotic government. Thus, fear of foreign ideas that might endanger one 's safe and comforting standards puts those accused of such in a bind. To confess to witchcraft in 1692 meant life - and a blotched reputation; to deny, meant death. To confess in the 1950s meant an end to the relentless interrogation - and