The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a play about the Salem witch hunt trials. Accusations of witchcraft made by townspeople against their neighbors led to confessions, by the accused, in order to save their own lives. As a result, hysteria ensued because the townspeople were suspicious of one another. Miller tried to point out the similarity between the fear during the Salem witch trials and the fear of communism in the 1950’s. John McCarthy, a politician, falsely accused government officials of supporting communism and, as a result, American citizens became afraid that communism was corrupting the US government. Both events were characterized by hysteria. Abigail Williams, a townsperson in The Crucible, contributes to the spread of

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 Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller during the era of McCarthyism. This time period and person experiences helped influence the outcomes and aspects of the play written to mimic the Salem Witch Trials. Many characters were accused and even tried for witchcraft, while the audience is clear of whom the guilty party is the entire play. Elizabeth Proctor, the wife to John Proctor the wrongly one wrongly accused and executed, had many conflicts in this play as many others did. Elizabeth Proctor was met with conflicts of wrong accusations, adultery, death threats, and eventually, losing her husband. Elizabeth Proctor endured an incredible amount of pain and conflict throughout the play, The Crucible. She was met with many conflicts that involved many the people she loved, or once trusted. Elizabeth Proctor ended one of the only characters that would feel the pain of the trials forever.

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.

“And they feel if only they can demolish that person, then everything’s going to be okay.” -Margaret Atwood the author of “Half-Hanged Mary”. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, ¨Why I Wrote The Crucible¨an essay by Arthur Miller, and ¨Half-Hanged Mary¨ a poem by Margaret Atwood, it shows that a society under stress will always scapegoat a person or a group of people. Defending this statement, people from each of these sources have felt betrayed by being blamed and persecuted for actions they have not done. In The Crucible, Abigail and her friends choose to scapegoat people in their society to push the attention away from them. In “Why I Wrote The Crucible”, Arthur shares with us about the communists and how it was a scapegoating society. In “Half-Hanged Mary”, Mary is blamed for witchcraft and hung for having land and being an independent woman.

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.

Drama is around us every day, everywhere people go no matter what is happening it is there. That is what The Crucible is about; Teenagers starting drama and spreading false rumors. Abigail is responsible for the witch hunts in Salem because of her immaturity, obsession with John Proctor, and for being a liar. This story takes place in small town Salem where you worked and went to church, until some teenagers of the town said some false things about the most innocent people of the town.

By the standards of virtually any society, lying is an act that is almost certain to result in some form of contempt, hatred, or even ostracism. However, not all liars are regarded in the same way- there is an obvious difference of morality between a fraudulent politician and one lying to protect his own life. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates the moral and societal differences between and consequences of different types of lies: A liar’s virtue is determined primarily by intention, and while some forms of dishonesty are more acceptable than others, truth under all circumstances is vital to true morality. Miller’s stance is a rational and realistic one and can be seen not only in his play,

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.

“Honesty is the best policy.” Kids grow up hearing that from their parents, teachers, and other adult figures. However, many grow out of listening to this advice, spreading bits of untruths as harmless as white lies to the more severe, like in the case of the Salem Witch Trials or the McCarthy trials during the Red Scare. Arthur Miller delved deeply into this topic in his famous play, The Crucible, in which he compared the Salem Witch Trials to the McCarthy trials as a comment on the self-preserving, rash, and gullible nature of human beings, in order to open the audience’s eyes to the error of their ways. He wanted them to see the negative consequences of the Red Scare so they would put an end to it.

“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.

Thomas J. Watson once said, “If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.” Due to the fear fueling in the atmosphere during the Salem witch trials, a numerous amount of citizens allow themselves to be trampled on by conformity. Consequently, nineteen innocent citizens were hanged, and one brutally crushed to death. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible stages the theme of social conformity through the characters Reverend Parris, Abigail Williams, and John Proctor as they venture on a journey throughout the Salem Witch Trials displaying that joining society’s assembly of deceivers may preserve their lives, though not their integrity.

A twisted part of American history is well explained throughout the play. The Crucible by Arthur Miller. After a group of young girls got caught dancing around naked in the forest by Rev. Parris all kinds of crazy let loose. In turn of the girls being caught, Rev. Parris wants to protect his family name by covering it up and accusing others of witchcraft.The girls go on and on listing people who were ‘involved’ in the act of witchery. Abigail Williams, the heart of most of the problems that came about in Salem. Her wanting of Proctor leads to vengeance towards Elizabeth. Rev. Parris calls for Rev. Hale of Beverly to come and help remove witchery from the town of Salem. Once time to do the trials judge Danforth immediately starts the hanging for punishment. Mary Warren and John Proctor try to go to the court and tell them that it is all a lie and that the girls were just accusing others so that they wouldn’t be hanged. There are four main keys in this play that bring out different sides to all the characters. Hysteria being Abigail Williams, reputation being Rev. Parris, intolerance being Elizabeth not letting John lie to her, and lastly empowerment being John in Act III. The events in the play show the true colors of some who try to keep their name as clean as it was before the witchery came into the town of Salem.

A recurrent reason for inflicting pain to another is for the benefit of getting even. This is considered acts of revenge. Most rationales for this is to get a point across to the opposing person. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, revenge is a focal force that drives throughout the play. Abigail Williams, the reverends niece and John Proctor, a farmer who lives outside of town committed a sin that unknowingly escalated into a historical catastrophe. The relations between these two characters caused an out rule within the religious community. Revenge grew within those who were vulnerable, turning lies into the suspicion of witches thus known as the Salem Witch Trials.