The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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?

TV shows and Movies with a focus on cliques, either in high school or in the work force, are popular in our society today. For instance the movie Mean Girls is about a teenage girl moving to a new school and being recruited into a high school clique. In this clique, the members exhibit the behaviors of people experiencing the psychological phenomenon, Groupthink. Groupthink is the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility. There are eight symptoms of Groupthink- Invulnerability, Rationale, Morality, Stereotypes, Pressure, Self-Censorship, Unanimity, and Mindguards. Groupthink has also taken place in our history a a country. The play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about a the real-life Salem Witch Trials that happened in 1692 - 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts. Some symptoms of Groupthink found in the Crucible are Rationale, Pressure, and Self-Censorship.

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.

Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” is one of the most controversial, and famous plays he has ever written due to its representation of the clear similarities between witch hunts of the past to the ones that where ongoing during the red scare of the 1950's. The play is specifically set during the Salem witch trials/hunts that occurred in 1692. While portions of the play are fiction, the play itself is historically accurate, especially when it comes to identifying who the villain is. It is unequivocally clear that the villain in this sad story is the young girl, Abigail Williams. While the case can be made that there where obviously other villains that had a more direct role in the injustices that occurred during the witch trials, at the end of the day no matter how you look at it Abigail was the main/real villain because she was the initial instigator of the witch hunts, practiced deceit and deception, influenced her vengeful will upon others, and lied; without hesitation nor remorse. These dishonorable qualities that Abigail possess combined with her own motives to gain vengeance(kill) against Elizabeth Proctor and assume her place as John Proctor's(her love interest) wife is enough evidence to make an educated claim that Abigail Williams in fact the main antagonist, and ultimately the villain.

It’s 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, an extremely pious Puritan settlement in the New World. You are a woman in this strict society, and you are expected to keep your mouth shut and please your husband. You have virtually no power and your opinion is often overlooked, even when you are permitted to express one. This ideal for a woman is what was present in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. While the women of Miller’s play are diverse, they were generally treated as inferiors and expected to be subservient, although most of the women were adamant to express their opinions when given the chance, and some even went to great lengths to attain power. Some of the key female characters that embody specific archetypes of women are Abigail, Mary Warren, Elizabeth, and Rebecca Nurse, and Miller uses these characters to convey both a message within the play as well as a larger message about society as a whole.

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is based in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1692 Puritan era. In the Crucible, Abigail Williams is viewed at the antagonist. She is a young manipulative lying, girl with a terrible reputation. Abigail is held responsible for the charges of many women in Salem at the time. While many people view Abigail Williams as a saint, she is actually motivated by selfishness.

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

“I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Miller 45). In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, residents of Salem habitually ‘cry witch’, driven by dismay, suspicion, and retribution. Under a strict theocracy, where the court’s ruling and religious beliefs are exclusively bound to one another, death is practically inevitable for those branded as witches, their names perpetually tarnished. From atop his high horse, one may look upon The Crucible and harshly judge the irrational actions of Salem’s community; however, human emotion drove these injudicious acts, the very raw emotion that often overpowers logic in today’s society. Though theocracy has dissolved in America, one can never

Arthur Miller 's, The Crucible, presented a theme of mass hysteria. The author states that when there is mass hysteria, many are suffering from it but some are also gaining from it. What started with a few girls playing around became a huge problem in Salem that changed its entire society. Starting off as a fear, which was caused by these girls due to their accusation of innocent citizens of witchcraft, it turned into mass hysteria as more and more people started believing them. It lead to wrongful accusations and hanging of many innocent Salem citizens. Fear could be used for many things; it can be used for personal gains; it can be used to increase your political power;

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

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.

Humans are inherently drawn to chaos. Humanity is involved in an endless war between madness and logic. Though society attempts to preserve logic and maintain order, a single event can trigger chaos and lead to the deaths of thousands; this has happened several times in every civilization and in every time period, and will continue to happen in the future. One example of this is the Red Scare in the 1900s, which disrupted decades of peace and harmony. The fear of McCarthyism was tangible and widespread; people were accused of being Communists based solely on circumstantial evidence and unfounded suspicions. Reputations and careers were destroyed over simple rumors. In some cases, innocent people were killed. Arthur Miller drew a parallel between the Salem witch trials in the late 1600s and the Red Scare in the 1950s in his novel, The Crucible. Through careful exposition, Miller argues that mayhem and hysteria can occur in any society at any time, and that logic and truth are needed in order to overcome the dark evil in the world.

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible develops characters that portray problems with their identities. This inner struggle is clearly seen in the main character John Proctor. He is the man Miller has chosen to struggle with “the dilemma of men, fallible, subject to pride, but forced to choose between the “negative good” of truth and morality, and the “positive good” of human life.” (Internet, Arthur Miller Home Page) In order for this character to develop, Miller had to create Proctors wife, Elizabeth. She would be the catalyst in making John Proctor deal with his inherent identity dilemma. With out her, Proctor would not be a central character, and would have never needed to deal with the inner

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.

A prominent and influential twentieth century American playwright from Harlem, New York, Arthur Miller was a dramatist whose works are focused on human purpose. Some of his most famous works include Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, and The Crucible. Miller 's play, The Crucible, is based in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. Throughout Salem in the spring of 1692, a wave of hysteria, fear, and panic fell on the settlers of the town caused by an increase in the belief of witches in the village. The tension of the situation increases when Reverend Parris catches his niece and the former servant of John Proctor, Abigail Williams, dancing and singing naked in the forest with about ten other girls from the village. Parris now suspects Abigail is a witch and attempts to get to the bottom of what was going on in the woods that fateful night by inviting Reverend Hale, a famous exorcist in the region, to help out. The appearance of Hale sets off a chain reaction in Salem which eventually results in the trials and hangings of many people who are falsely accused in the village. Throughout the entire process of these trials, many of the characters under go changes caused by the heat and pressure of the situation brought about by the mass fear of witchcraft in the village. John Proctor constantly changes as the play progresses moving from a guilt-ridden, independent farmer, to a person completely open to confessing his sin, and finally to a defiant man who has great