The Crucible By Arthur Miller

It’s important to note why and how Abigail inherited her selfish behavior in the first place, and what caused her to act a certain way. Abigail claims that she is in love with John Proctor, and the two characters were discovered to have an affair with each other. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, finds out about the affair and

Abigail is a highly jealous character, concentrating her jealousy on Elizabeth Proctor. This jealousy is driven by lust and her desire for John Proctor. Abigail served as a servant in the Proctor household and after an affair with her husband John, Elizabeth fired her. She still resents Elizabeth for this as she is still in love with John. She clearly says to John, "You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!" Abigail is still in love with John and she assumes the converse. Her love for John only causes her resentment for Elizabeth to strengthen. She hates John Proctor's wife and in her conniving ways she attempts to inspire the same views of Elizabeth in John's mind. Saying things to him such as, "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me, She is a cold, sniveling woman." Abigail fabricates stories in attempt to steel John from Elizabeth. She is a manipulative liar that does and says as she pleases in order to get what she wants.

Arthur Miller has created John Proctor the protagonist of The Crucible to be a 30 year old farmer in Salem, Massachusetts, powerful of body, even-tempered and not easily led. John speaks his mind when he recognizes injustice. He is highly respected, even feared, by some in Salem. His name is synonymous with honour and integrity. He takes pleasure in exposing hypocrisy and is respected for it. However John is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time but against his own vision of decent conduct, he has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud. After admitting to lechery, John is accused of witchcraft, on this charge he is condemned.

With all that is going on in the world today, what is more important to you freedom or Safety? In The Crucible, Abigale choose her own safety over hers of her friends and family, and in Fahrenheit 451, Guy choose his freedom over the safety of him and his wife and, in Berlin you either live on West Berlin were you were free or you lived on the other side of the wall where you had no freedom but you were safe. So which side of the wall do you want to live on?

Page 1 of 3Hai Nguyen John Proctor and the McCarthyism “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller illustrates the reflection of the anti-communist hysteria in the United States known as McCarthyism. Miller uses the character John Proctor as a force in demonstrating the way lives were destroyed by McCarthyism. Throughout the story, while Proctor is respected in the community, he has conflict secretly with many people as well as himself. John Proctor is a perfect character because the readers are able to view him as a victim in the society where McCarthyism took place. He is also an adulterer, husband of Elizabeth, and knows what is happening in and outside of the Salem society. Proctor was having a conflict with his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth did not trust John because he had an affair with Abigail Williams. Elizabeth was supposed to trust John, but she refused to because he said he was alone with Abigail for a moment. John cannot say or argue against Elizabeth because of his guilt:” Because it speaks deceit, and I am honest! But I will plead no more! I see how your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!” Elizabeth tried to make John feel guilt, so John wanted to make sure she understood her cold nature may have prompted his cheating. He also has conflict with Abigail Williams which is his mistress. John Proctor was so angry because Abigail accused his wife to witchcraft. She sent Mary Warren with a puppet that has needle inside its

Abigail William is the biggest villain in the play tried to kill Elizabeth who was John’s wife. Also because she kept lying and getting many people kill. Abigail tried to kill John’s wife by drinking blood to get John Proctor. In Act 1, page 13 it state, “BETTY – You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that!... ABIGAIL- Betty you never say that again! You will never-… BETTY- You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!... ABIGAIL, Smashes her across the face: Shut it! Now shut it!” When Betty

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.

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, hysteria breaks out in Salem when young girls begin pronouncing accusations of witchcraft. One of the accused, Elizabeth Proctor and her husband, John Proctor, live on a farm where he provides and cares for their family. When Elizabeth becomes sick John is unfaithful and has an affair with one of the accusers, Abigail Williams. Through the course of the story, John Proctor moves from denial and deflection of his actions and their consequences in order to maintain his public dignity, to public confession and condemnation for his actions in order to soothe his conscience and maintain his internal sense of integrity. This progression is illustrated by his interactions with his wife, their accusers and the court, who ultimately condemns them.

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one of the many themes that stands out to most people is the importance of a having a good name and reputation. Miller uses certain characters outcomes in the play to prove that reputation was actually not the biggest concern. He consistently shows that reputation means nothing when it came to being accused during the Salem Witch Trials because many innocent people were killed. People began to use these accusations for their own benefit and that’s when it became chaotic. These random accusations of witchcraft could immediately cause someone’s admirable reputation to disappear. He provides evidence in the play through most characters that we would consider to have a good reputation such as: Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor.

Most people would not like to be known as a coward. Mary Warren was not aiming for that title, but that is what she ended up with. She gave herself this negative reputation. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a play about the undergoing of the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692. A group of Salems girls, are caught dancing in the woods. To take allegation off of themselves, they accuse other innocent townspeople of practicing witchcraft. Multiple victims are murdered or imprisoned. Mary Warren, one of the accusers, plays a big role in this play. Mary Warren’s character changes from cowardly, to brave, and back to cowardly, throughout the story which shows how she evolved throughout The Crucible.

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.

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail’s flaws- lust, jealousy, and mendacity- that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem. The Crucible focuses of the finding of young girls and a slave messing around in the woods, trying to conjure spirits from the dead. Rather than admit to their actions and face the consequences, the girls accuse everyone else of the crimes they were guilty of. Abigail Williams is the person who caused much of the drama in this story. She bears much responsibility for everyone meeting with Tituba in the woods. Once Parris discovers this meeting, Abigail attempts to keep her actions a secret because it would possibly reveal her affair with Proctor. Abigail lies to cover up her affair with proctor, and to stop the charges of witchcraft in order to prevent the terrible punishments that go along with the accusations.

Superstition is an irrational fear in which a person fears the unknown. Many times, superstition revolves around a religious belief and is not based on reason or knowledge. Superstition can sometimes involve fear, causing people to use fear to their advantage in order to achieve their goal. Their goal may vary from holding a grudge to obtaining revenge on someone that betrayed them. Arthur Miller displayed how a young girl named Abigail Williams used superstition and mass hysteria to her advantage in the book, “The Crucible”. Miller presents Abigail Williams as the most despicable character in the story. She is characterized as both cunning and manipulative. Abigail is driven by lust for power, jealousy, and cravings for attention. She is a character that cannot suppress her own desires and acts based on what she thinks is beneficial for herself. The author uses her to portray the typical weaknesses that humans face in their everyday lives.

What is history? Is it the study of past events to further understand the modern day, or is history merely an outlet to express one’s ideas by using past examples? History is both, and history is a powerful tool, such as when comparing two events to prove a point. Proving a point was a necessity for Arthur Miller during the 1950’s, and he proves his point through The Crucible, a play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller attacks the red scare, which was a time of fear of communism growing in America, and proves the how similar the two events were, and how they are important. As a political allegory of the red scare, Miller’s relatively accurate comparison between the red scare and the Salem Witch Trials through The Crucible demonstrates the theme of subjective reality versus objective reality, the dangers of lies and slander, and also allows for Miller to discover unknown beliefs in which he finds comfort while writing the play. Thus, all of these ideas and theories ultimately suggest the play as a timeless piece of art.