The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Throughout the ages, media and society have been concerned over children. Instead of youth as folk devils, children nowadays serve as the victims of folk devils (Critcher, 2002, p.532). With these trigger events popping up, stereotypes are gradually formed. In recent British history, Paedophile had become one of the most terrifying folk-devils (Jenkins, 1992, p.99). Paedophile behaviour is a moral panic one legal case and the panic is generally fuelled by the sensationalism of media in

Hypocrisy plays an internalizing role in the first two acts of The Crucible. It reveals the true personality of a character. Almost everyone is a hypocrite in The Crucible, especially Parris and Abigail, but the most hypocritical is the court and church. The puritans in The Crucible are complete hypocrites; they engage in the same behaviors they condemn others for. All of the hypocrisy shown in the first two acts of The Crucible revels the true natures of the characters, their internalizing roles.

The Crucible is a complex and intriguing novel with events, characters and themes comparable to almost every period of human history. It is common for humans to fear change and what is unknown, in the play The Crucible this is witchcraft and the devil, in more recent times it can be seen in post World War Two and Cold War United States, through McCarthyism. The themes in the crucible are as important to people in the 21st century as in Salem in 1692. These include justice, reputation, hysteria, intolerance and empowerment. All of these are common themes throughout human history. The characters in The Crucible are also important to people of the 21st century as they can teach us a little bit about people around us and their reactions when

“In the 60s, the Catholic Church in Massachusetts began hearing complaints that Father James Porter was sexually molesting children. Rather than relieving him of his duties, the ecclesiastical authorities simply moved him from one parish to another between 1960 and 1967, actually providing him with a fresh supply of unsuspecting families and innocent children to abuse” (Ericsson 162).

‘The Crucible' not only addresses the issue of conformity, it attacks the poor balance of power that surrounds us everyday. Miller demonstrates how much power a sole in-dividual can have when the decisions made by that person effect a whole community. During the Witchcraft Trials in Salem, religion was, much more than now the answer to the unknown and the unexplained. As a result, the Church and the people in its service were people of prominence and power. They were the only people who could successfully interpret the Church's doctrine, often to their own benefit, without being accused of a wrong doing and what could be more powerful than this in a theocratic society like Salem? This corrupt hierarchy meant that nobody could question a priest or minister because doing so would be considered questioning God. As a result, a per-son of such power could say almost anything they pleased, people would listen and appropriate action taken. This is evidenced with the supposed ‘cleansing' of Salem. Although an event that occurred before the writing of ‘The Crucible', the Holocaust is a prime example of imbalanced power. Hitler, a man of great power, especially in Nazi Germany, basically accused a few million people of being witches. Action was taken and millions perished all

“So it is important to ask: why has there been a decline in clerical child sex abuse since the 1980s...? To me there are eight reasons for the decline: the social visibility given to the issue since about 1983; the better child protection mechanisms that we have in place; the greater vigilance of Catholic parents

This article interests me because they are eager to respond in this kind of situation by suspending the priest, whose mistake only is to used the product of modern technology as a way of reaching his young parishioners during mass, while the diocese authorities never suspend priests who keep molesting children.

The crucible expressed the Puritan strict beliefs of a ‘religious, moral and societal reforms”(1). They disbanded for England’s church to create their ideal society. When they arrived in Massachusetts they believed that god had gave them the land to build their society. Due to their strict religious views,

The Crucible perfect example of how beliefs could affect people in a negative way. For example, in The Crucible, the town’s government is a theocracy. The citizens made decisions based off of their religion. Once people were accused of witchcraft, the accused were arrested and hanged because the town were taught to believe they were committing serious crimes but in reality, there was no witchery. In today's society, individuals will do the same action of having certain beliefs that influences one’s actions or behavior towards something or someone. For example, a religious person being intolerable towards someone who is gay. The religious individual was taught by their religion to believe a certain way about those who are gay. The person could feel very strongly about their beliefs and act upon those beliefs such as hurting the other individual. In the play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale is summoned to Salem and explains, so

Groupthink is a pivotal role into comparing the plot of The Crucible to American society and human nature because it shows the natural human reactions to different situations. These sincere reactions reveal the hidden traits in the characters in this play, but even more about the American society. The most similar event other than the Salem Witch Trials is The Red Scare which inspired the writing of this play. The Red Scare was an event that followed the “Groupthink” traits. The concept of groupthink emphasizes human nature because it brings out the primal survival traits which have underlying hints of pride and greed. Which are the two characteristics most characters have in common. Arthur miller added “Groupthink” traits because it demonstrates human nature as it truly is, selfish. Groupthink allows people to distinguish the meaning of their actions. Selfishness, the cause for every reaction, is being the motivation for people’s

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, there are certain themes which are quite evident as the play progresses. The story focuses in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1952, when the witch trials began spreading and affected all individuals in the society. One of the burning issues that this play introduces is the nature of authority. Authority is the power or right to make decisions, give orders, and enforce will. When the begins, the audience can right away see and observe the power that the Church had on this society. Since this was a puritan society, there were extremely strict rules for every individual in that society and all their activities focused on God and religion. This is shown when it is written, "they did not celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer" (Pg 4).

Theocracy is a form of government in which the ruling religion is considered to be law. In the case of the setting of The Crucible, Puritanism is the belief system that is in power. Puritanism is not, as it should be noted, a pitiable ideology. Instead, the actual issue at hand is the use of it as a source of complete authority. The foremost problem with this government system is the lack of freedom of opinion and religion.

Fear and faith can drive a person to death or a divine life. The Crucible takes place in Salem during the Salem witch trials. The Crucible makes a point to include that the population’s main religion is puritan. The puritan religion has many distinct rules. People that are puritan have extremely strong faith and guidelines. Fear is another extremely strong force. The Crucible makes a point to include that the people accused of witchcraft are very fearful of death and this element drives the entire play. People get ear in their heads and start to lose their faith. The people want to live so when they are accused of dancing with the devil, they disobey their faith and lie and confess until they are set free. They all do this to save themselves

In 2002, on the wave of scandalous revelations and inaction, the Vatican issued guidelines specifying what to do with allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests. He urged that all cases be referred to Rome, but did not even mention the reports to local law enforcement agencies.

In 2002 the Catholic Church was rocked with scandalous reports of Priests sexually molesting young children and particularly boys. The scandal is the result of numerous investigations, allegations, arrests, trials, convictions and imprisonment of Catholic Priests. It became largely reported that once trusted and respected Catholic Priests were pedophiles. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) categorizes pedophilia as a mental disorder if the sexual fantasies or urges involve prepubescent children , if they last six months or longer, if the individual has acted on them, or if they cause marked distress” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).