The Crucible By Irving Janis

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.

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 by Arthur Miller takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It all started when Reverend Parris discovers a group of girls dancing in the woods. After he found the girls in the wood, his daughter Betty fall ill. Since Betty wouldn’t wake up, people become paranoid and started believing that witchcraft was real. Fake accusations were made and innocent people kept dying. In The Crucible there are many people to blame for all for everything that occurred, characters such a Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams is to blame because she accused everyone else just to protect herself. Reverend Hale is also blame because he was the one who got people to think that witchcraft was real. Lastly Reverend Parris is to blame because he was just worried about himself and his reputation in Salem.

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.

Arthur Millers “The Crucible” was written in 1960 and is based on true events about the Salem Witch Trials that occurred back in the 1650’s. Throughout the play, many themes are present such as, reputation, religion, ideology, and accusation. The theme I have chosen is peer pressure as I think it is the most relevant. Peer pressure is a re-current theme throughout the play. It underpins the motivations of at least three of the main characters – Abigail Williams, Mary Warren and John Proctor - and it is the core sociological force that binds the “religious community” and drives their actions both towards a vision of “moral perfection” and towards the persecution of those who do not fit that moral vision; those of whom were accused of witchcraft.

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.

As the various characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller interact, the dominant theme of the consequences of women’s nonconformity begins to slide out from behind the curtains of the play. Such a theme reveals the gripping fear that inundated the Puritans during the seventeenth century. This fear led to the famous witch-hunts that primarily terrorized women who deviated from the Puritan vision of absolute obedience and orthodoxy. Arthur Miller presents his interpretation of the suffering by subtly introducing women who strayed from convention and paid the consequences. Throughout The Crucible, Arthur Miller delineates the historically austere Puritans’ perception and punition of women who differ from expectations, all while unraveling, through the characterization of Tituba, the harsh truth of how women were vided as lesser than men and feared if deviating.

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.

In the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the story was based on McCarthyism. This book is based on a real story and real people. John Proctor tore up his confession and goes to his death because he can’t lie about himself and ruin his reputations. He also doesn’t want people to think he is a bad person by confessing a lie just to save his life.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, written in 1953 the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts around 1692. The most despicable character in The Crucible is Abigail Williams because she is the reason for many peoples’ deaths. Abigail’s lies and manipulative actions lead to pain for others characters in the play. Abigail’s lies caused destruction and harm to the Proctor family. Such as when Abigail convicted Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft just so Abigail could be with John Proctor. Abigail’s main goal is to see Elizabeth dead because she and John had an affair seven months prior to the play. These points demonstrate that Abigail is the most despicable person in The Crucible.

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.

The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is an American classic rich in themes that are consistently pertinent to human beings regardless of time period. Betrayal is often a recurring theme in the community of Salem. In Salem, citizens are plagued by fear, acquisitiveness, and hate to betray others, one’s self and one’s ethics. Miller’s message is let the readers understand that it is imperative to separate what you believe from what society believes. It is important to remain true to yourself, and to not give in to fear, hate or greed.

The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, depicts the hysteria that came to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Miller attempts to combine the idea of witchcraft illustrating a similar modern day example, called McCarthyism. In the mid twentieth century, Senator John McCarthy, an advocator of the Red Scare, used similar tactics to hunt communists and send them into exile. These communists then used the same defense mechanisms as citizens in Salem, to clear their names and put the liability on someone else. In the play, a young orphan, named Abigail Williams, felt inclined to attack others in order to dismiss the accusations made against her, and she did so successfully. In order to clear her name, Williams framed many people and victimized herself. As a result of her cruel tactics, Abigail is characterized as a selfish, merciless, and destructive villain. Abigail Williams is the antagonist of the play because she manipulates the other young girls, the court judges, and the life of John Proctor through malicious lies.

In Arthur Miller’s short play The Crucible, one is swept on a world pool of adventures through the rampant society of the Puritans. As the plot begins to unfold, the reader is able to detect a shift in the society as the fear of witches living amongst the community compounds tensions already formed. Tension occurs in various occasions throughout the play such as neighbors arguing over one another for land, Abigail’s group of followers foreshadowing her every move and following through with her surplus demands, or even Abigail sparking the commonality of lying about seeing people with the devil. On numerous accounts one can see characters such as Abigail, Proctor, and Putnam disregard the outcomes that stem from their actions and the punishments endured by others as a result. It is evident that the effect of one’s actions on another is irrelevant and discarded when attempting to escape a problem prevalent within one’s life.

There are many examples of these topics in the world that connect to those in the play. Peer Pressure is prominent in schools through behavior, parties, grades, and social status. When a school year begins, many students are dealing with new classes, sports and other school-related activities; these activities cause stress, which can lead to pressure to cheat or lie to get through a class. There are good ways to be pressured and wrong ways; In a podcast by Brett Laursen, he explains more in depth about how peer pressure is started, as well as its benefits and disadvantages. “We see it over behavior problems where one set of peers will influence another to act badly.” (Laursen,Brett). In The Crucible, bad behavior by Abigail influences the girls to help her do the wrong thing. There are also ways to influence bad choices with parties and drugs. The podcast speaks about how kids can see bad actions and think it is okay to do the same. Although there are disadvantages of peer pressure there can also be benefits to this topic as well. “We also see it over academic achievement where friends do better when they're paired with other kids who are doing better in school” (Laursen, Brett). Seeing others do well inspire others to benefit from those achievements during school and life. In The Crucible John Proctor sees that Rebecca Nurse stood her ground on not confessing, which could have stuck in Proctors mind while he made his decision to not lie. Decision making is an essential part of everyday life, such as deciding about college, majors, jobs, friends, and religion. Decisions are made up throughout someone's life and making the right one is important to be successful in love and in other aspects of life. “However, when they have to make decisions in the heat of the moment or in social situations, their decisions are often influenced by external factors like peers”(Scholastic). Although this