What would happen if power and control were held in the hands of people who were destined to get what they wanted? In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, a small Puritan town called Salem, based on Christian beliefs and the idea of good versus evil, takes a turn for the worse after the corruption is expressed in the people there. The main themes in the play prompt the outcome of the story to hold universal and enduring meanings. Hysteria, reputation, and empowerment between characters drive the main plot of The Crucible and are responsible for the actions of the people who found themselves in between the impure minds in Salem. To begin with, the people of Salem thought greatly about their status and reputation in the village and did what they could to keep their name clean. In act one, the people of Salem are informed about the daughters of Thomas Putnam and Reverend Parris becoming sick of unknown conditions. The people speak of witchcraft and begin to spread rumors about the two. When Parris is asking Abigail about the reasoning behind her actions in the woods, Parris questions Abigail about the pureness of her name in the village to which she recalls, “why, I am sure it is, sir. There be no blush about my name,” (Miller 1132). The people of Salem thought a great deal about each other's reputations and not only tried to keep themselves clean but also lived by these Puritan virtues. Later on, Parris is speaking with Mrs. Putnam who makes the claim that each of her seven babies
The play The Crucible, was written by Arthur Miller in 1953. It is a story he wrote after his own experience being accused of communism. This affected a lot of well-known people in the United States during this time, and was considered a witch hunt similar to the Salem witch hunts. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible about a man, John Proctor, who has an affair with Abigail Williams. She catches feelings for him and tries to cast a spell on John Proctor’s wife to kill her; this gets out of hand when Abigail’s uncle catches her and some other girls dancing during the spell in the woods. Suddenly, the whole town is living in fear of who is practicing witchcraft, who could be a witch, and innocent people are killed if they don’t confess to being witches. Overall, mass fear and panic, and false accusations are seen over and over throughout the play.
Jill Lepore addressed the historical question “Who Do We Think We Are?” . She talked about who the we in the we the people are and who even are the people. She expressed that she thought that was a political fiction, an act of make believe. The question of who even are the people has been a subject of controversy and debate. She talked about how the Virginia Declaration was rephrased to indicate who the free men were.
The witch trials in this play were based on actual events that happened in Salem in 1692. Arthur Miller’s 1953 The Crucible is a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials. His reasoning for writing it was because everyone was hysteric about the Soviet Union and communism trying to make its way over to the United States. It was like a modern day witch hunt. In the play, Abigail Williams and a group of girls get caught in the woods. They were dancing and doing other things that puritan’s looked down upon. The girls were caught by Reverend Parris, and soon after his daughter became ‘ill’. The girls then started saying that witches came to them and told them to do bad things. They sent innocent people to hang. After studying Arthur Miller’s
The Family Crucible is a story about the Brice family who is recommended by Claudia’s psychiatrist to go to family therapy due to the fact that she has not been making progress in individual sessions. The Brice family comes to meet with Dr. Carl Whitaker and Dr. Augustus Napier, who co-facilitate family therapy throughout the story. The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff.
The girls at the beginning of the play, avoided punishment by accusing others of the very things they were guilty of themselves. This desperate act of self-preservation resulted in the mass paranoia and atmosphere that gripped Salem for the continuance of the witch trials. By allowing audiences to see how dark desires and hidden agendas subsequentially drive people, Miller explores human motivation and the behaviour that results from it. Ironically, it is desire, sexual, material and physical desire that drives the people of Salem. For example, Abigail, full of desire for Proctor, seizes an opportunity to reverse fate and eliminate Elizabeth Proctor, by accusing her of witch craft. Elizabeth was the only person in Abigail’s eyes that was preventing her from marrying Proctor. In addition, Abigail’s status within the community is elevated and she gains power a young woman of her social status could have only dreamt of. Furthermore, the Putnam’s also seize the opportunity the witch trials create. Putnam has a hidden agenda, namely, land lust and his desire to elevate himself within the
In the play The Crucible many of the characters learn things about themselves as well as others. Discuss the insight gained by the characters of Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, it takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during colonial America. Throughout the story a group of girls makes accusations a mass of people of practicing witchcraft, one of the worst crimes to commit during that period, and people are being sentenced to hang for denying witchery. In the Crucible there are many lessons that Arthur Miller wants to teach you. To me a lot of the lessons that were taught in this story are important but I feel like one of them is the most important. Arthur Miller demonstrates that one of the lessons implied in the story is people’s character and how it affects those people and others. Examples of character are Giles Corey, John Proctor, Abigail Williams.
Can you imagine your life without your parents? Your parents are the ones who teach you about what’s right and what’s wrong, about growing up, about respecting others, about life and death; they are the ones who help you to become who you are today. Without them, you would be lost; you would stumble without their loving guide. It’s true; however, some parents do not have the best influence upon their kids, damaging the kid’s potential goals in life. There are also times when one parent can influence you more than the other, just like in Hugo Hamilton’s memoir, The Speckled People. In his beautifully vivid written memoir, we encounter a young boy named Johannes who faces many misconceptions due to his father’s teachings. Throughout his naïve
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, the protagonist, is a farmer in his middle thirties. The author gives little to no detailed physical description of him, but from Proctor’s speech, we can still picture him as a strong and powerful man who is able to keep every situation under the control, the kind of personality which earns him deep respect and even fear from the people in town. On the other hand, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, plays an inferior role as an orphan who has no social status in a place like Salem. Over the course of the play, John Proctor is absolutely awakened and transformed by Abigail Williams. In the end, he overcomes the crucible by releasing himself from his guilt of
In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller involves a character named John Proctor, an even-tempered farmer, who cared about how others saw him as. Procter was a married man to Elizabeth Proctor and a father of three as well. Throughout the book, Procter is shown as a man obsessed with his status to protect his name. The following quote says “... there is evidence to suggest that he had a sharp and biting way with hypocrites. He was the kind of man--powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led….”, this shows he was the type of a person to unleash his temper with people often, although it was good because he was well known for revealing hypocrisy. This gave him honor in his town and respect by his
The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This time in Salem, witchcraft was suspected of almost everyone in the town. Preserving one’s reputation becomes recurring concept throughout the play. The witchcraft accusations are usually made by people that have a biased view against others, which is why everyone tries to make sure their reputation looks well with the rest of the town. This concept is proven through the characters of John Proctor, Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale. These three characters go to great lengths to protect what the town of Salem thinks of them.
Bad things happen from people making decisions based on lies and fear, but evil things
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The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the Salem witch trials. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses revenge as the main theme throughout the playwright. Revenge is the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong done to someone else. Revenge is shown throughout the characters actions in the play. Witch craft is used to represent revenge. If someone didn't like another, they could accuse that person of witch craft and inflict harm on him or her. Many characters in the play are motivated by their desire to seek revenge. During the course of the play, revenge motivates the characters and has a huge significance in the play.
Parris’s concern to keep his name clean and his respect intact leads him to create the beginning of the witchcraft hysteria. Parris doesn’t want Abigail to do something crazy or something that is frowned upon because if they do something bad then his good reputation would be lost and all of his respect and power would be too. Parris is overly strict with Abigail and Betty for this reason, leading them to fear him. One example of how Abigail feared Parris is shown when they were discussing what happened in the woods. Abigail says, “But we never conjured spirits.” Parris furiously replies, “Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! It must come out- my enemies will bring it out. Let me know what you done, Abigail do you know I have many enemies?” (Act I pg. 10). Abigail and Betty know that if Parris finds out they did something to damage his reputation they would also be damaging his power. Parris would be absolutely furious if that happened. When Parris inquired about dancing in the woods Abigail made up a story because she fears Parris so much and she didn’t want to get in trouble.