The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale’s attitude and beliefs are changed completely as the play progresses. After Reverend Parris is a witness to girls dancing in the woods and also when his daughter becomes very ill, he calls Rev. Hale to Salem. Hale’s job is to find any form of witchcraft and to get rid of it. Over the course of the play, Rev. Hale experiences a transformation in his beliefs from the beginning of the play to the end. Reverend Hale has three different emotions throughout the play. When Hale is introduced in the the beginning of the play, he is passionate and very confident about finding witchcraft and getting rid of it. In the middle of the play, Hale is frustrated and he does not know who to trust nor

“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.

Humans and the basis of society have always been inherently flawed from the beginning of

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community” (Proverbs 6:16-19). The seven deadly sins are named as pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth, and among all of them, pride is claimed to be the deadliest. In Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch Trials, “The Crucible” pride also finds it’s way to be the most important theme of the play. Almost every character displays pride in oneself just as every person does in reality, but a select few not only condemned themselves but others. Reverend Hale, a christian man, demonstrates pride in his knowledge, the Proctors express pride in their good name and would rather die than lose their honor, and Judge Danforth is never wrong in his eyes and wants to be known as the judge who always makes the right decision. Arthur Millers “the Crucible” shows that in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1962, pride will kill you; if not, arrogance will.

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

“Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective” (Pratibha Patil). Reverend Hale has been accounted for making many statements inspired by devout faith. His beliefs and hope lead his actions throughout everything he does and everything he thinks. This is not inherently a negative thing, but his faith can lead to him being very ignorant at times, and arguably, corrupt as well. “Theology is a fortress. No crack in a fortress shall be considered small” (Miller 64). What if this statement was actually completely true? What if Hale was not being naïve when saying this? In order to defend this statement, the truth of the situation in Salem, Massachusetts needs to be accurately assessed. Theocracy- You are truly the one to blame for all of the chaos that occurs in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and here are all of the reasons why.

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 does it mean to be a victim of society? A victim of society can more or less be defined as someone who is harmed by their surrounding environment. But being a victim of society is not nearly as it seems as people may easily play the victim in order to manipulate others, and that scenario holds true in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In this play, a crisis regarding the question of witchcraft is introduced in the village of Salem, a town ruled by a theocracy of Puritan beliefs. The dilemma first emerges when Betty, the daughter of Reverend Parris, the minister of Salem, is not responding after having danced in the forest with Abigail Williams, Parris’s niece, and many people around the village begin to believe it as an act of witchcraft.

Once Reverend Parris suspected witchery in the town of Salem he called upon Reverend Hale of Beverly. Reverend Hale is considered an expert in detecting witchery as he executed one in his town. Hale comes to Salem young, eager, intelligent and insightful. In Act I, Hale is described as “a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual.

The movie, The Crucible, was produced in 1996 and portrayed the dramatized play written by Arthur Miller in 1953. The movie story deals with the Salem, Massachusetts hysteria in 1692 with an irrational fear of the devil. Witch hunts and false accusations resulted. Trials took place and resulted in the hanging and associated death of more than 20 people and the false imprisonment of many others.

Our choices define who we are, but what many don 't understand is that our life experiences have lead us to the path we’re on. Sometimes bad things happen that torment us daily and effect our decisions and actions; however, this does not justify our behavior. In the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, Abigail, a young girl that lives in Salem, has done many crucial things that have affected many people of her village. She has experience trajec situations but this does not excuse her from being guilty. Abigail Williams is indeed the person to blame for all the horrible things that occurred in this play, but not fully responsible.

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a very dramatic and partly fictional play written in 1953 about the Salem Witch Trials. Which took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay between 1692 and 1693. Arthur, got inspiration for this story from McCarthyism, which is when the U.S. government blacklisted implicated communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of compete of Congress for denying to identify others present at meetings he had appeared at. The play had been performed at Martin Beck Theater on Broadway in 1953, on January twenty-second. This play starred E.G. Marshall, Beatrice Straight, and Madeleine Sherwood. But, Arthur Miller felt that the

In the text The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s, the characters are usually motivated by the same themes. Three characters in the text that demonstrate this well are: John Proctor, a very honest upright man who had an affair with Abigail Williams. John also is the tragic protagonist of the play. Reverend Hale, a witch-craft identifier expert who spent almost the entirety of his life educating himself about evil spirits, and finally Reverend Parris, a church Minister, hated by most of the towns people.

In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller the line between faith and truth becomes quite blurred during the development of the drama. Even though the line is blurred by the events in the drama, Arthur Miller is making very clear statements about the line dividing faith and truth. Miller’s The Crucible is an allegory meant to be understood through various mediums as criticism of the 1950’s era of McCarthyism. The language and tone of characters in The Crucible through several settings and situations make it very clear what Arthur Miller 's feelings are regarding truth and faith throughout the progression of the play. Miller uses specific language when trying to get across his feelings. Furthermore, faith and truth are prominent themes that deal with McCarthyism, which is what the play itself alludes to.

The performance of Arthur Millers drama, The Crucible, put on by the WolfPack Players is one that has taken a fair bit of polishing to go from an average high school show, to a great show; the director, Patrica Scarborough, can certainly attest to such a bold claim. While we were held back by petty issues such as lines, we were, as a company, able to pull it together, just in time for opening. I can honestly say, in my heart, that this show could have gone better. In no way am I marking this a shameful show, nay, in my opinion, the show is quite good. I, for one, love the cast that had been assigned to perform this drama. But the basic act of line memorization had bogged us down, and I primarily attribute that to the language of Arthur Miller's piece; The Crucible is indeed a heavy show, the Director had announced to us that many times before. Even for myself, The Crucible is a dense, heavy story. From my transition from the auditions to the performance, I can say that personal growth had happened, not continuously, but in small spurts. At the audition, I had felt like this wasn't really my show. That feeling I had made me nervous and uncomfortable about auditioning, but I had decided to keep at it; I put on a straight face and acted happy to be there, auditioning, even though I was unsure about the show. I had learned, later on, that even if insecurity strikes during an audition, that its always better to act like its not there at all. Keeping a straight face, as opposed to