The Crucible Character Analysis

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.

As human beings, we each display specific traits and qualities that define our character and shape our personalities. The way in which we carry ourselves establishes our reputations, as well as how others identify us. We are each prone to making mistakes, and unfortunately, the mistakes we make can affect the way people see us as well. The struggle to regain a good name can be difficult and uncertain once someone’s reputation is tarnished. In Arthur Miller’s timeless play, The Crucible, a well-respected man named John Proctor betrays his wife and struggles to gain her forgiveness and his good name in the village of Salem. Although John Proctor betrays his wife, he

Christophe develops this guilt because he believes if he had done things differently, the family would still be alive. This becomes evident when he states, “this is my fault. I did order the gates closed, fearing an unseen enemy […] Why didn’t I leave the gates open for stragglers? What if there are more out there, frozen in the snow? What did I do in my haste and fear? Sick with guilt, I can barely keep myself up. I’m responsible for that family” (Boyden 399). Identical to Anna May, Christophe was also forced to endure his guilt through the dreams that haunt him. This is clear when he states, “when I sleep, it’s fitful, and I see Satan’s face peering in my window, looking down at me and grinning” (Boyden 399). Christophe finally begins to

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.

Mel has mixed feelings about her parents, believing they couldn't care less for her, yet she cherishes them all the same. “It seems like my parents gave up magic when I figured out the Santa lie… It broke their hearts” (Anderson 70). Mel spoke up and said that she knew Santa was a lie. When she recalls their pained expressions she feels it would’ve been better if she had lied. Additionally, Mel contemplates internally, "I bet they’d be divorced by now if I hadn’t been born. I’m sure I was a huge disappointment” (Anderson 70). This shows Mel not only thinks ineffectively not simply of herself. She also thinks that her parents have a relationship. Finally, when Melinda receives her Christmas gifts she can’t believe it, thinking, “They give me

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.

The town now thinks that he is a witch, but still, somehow do not want to believe that John could be and do such a thing. He is forced to confess to being a witch. The court asks him if he had seen people with the devil and John says no. Still, this is not enough for the court. They want to nail the confession to the church doors. Doing this would blacken the Proctor name and ruin John’s children and their lives. John is innocent, but now his life is ruined and does not want his family’s life to be ruined. “How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

Abigail Williams is the most manipulative character in The Crucible. Her disposition allows her to threaten, lie, and act to get her way. After the girls were caught in the forest dancing, singing, and participating in charms, Abigail threatens all the girls to say and go along with the witchcraft accusations. If they said anything she would deal with them, like she dealt with the chicken. The purpose she started all this was to get Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, dead. Abigail wanted to be Abigail Proctor, she wanted to marry him, but Elizabeth was in the way. This was one step closer to getting Elizabeth executed and one step closer for Abigail to be John’s wife. The final step into getting the court convinced that Elizabeth was compacted with the devil was when Abigail was

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

Parris finds out about it. He says, "And what shall I say to them? That my

Redemption is defined as atoning for a fault or mistake. Therefore, the idea of a redemptive character emanates from that character committing a perceived wrong and then overcoming the subsequent consequences with his actions. The Crucible, a famous play by Arthur Miller, incorporates this idea of redemption into its plot through the personal journeys of major characters in the Salem Witch Trials. One such character that displays these qualities of redemption is John Proctor. In the beginning of the play Proctor presents himself as a man full of honor and integrity with a loathing towards hypocrisy. Eventually though, his adultery is revealed and he

Pride can become something that will lead a man to shame and destruction. In The Crucible this happened to one of the main characters, John Proctor, which also is the one of the Tragic Hero in the book. The Crucible is about when some town people in Salem was accused of being witches after four girls were found dancing in the woods. After 200 people were accused of being witches in 1963, 20 people were either hung or crushed by many stones. In the Crucible John Proctor, the tragic hero had a weakness as pride eventually forcing him to face a serious decision and suffering more than he should.

American playwright and theatrical figure in the twentieth-century, Arthur Miller, once said, “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” Though he did not include this quote in the context of his famous work, The Crucible, his wise words can also be relevant in this play. The play takes place during the era of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. In his composition, he includes the story of Mr. and Mrs. Proctor, a married couple living outside of Salem in the time period of the trials. Abigail Williams, the family’s servant, has an affair with Mr. Proctor, which becomes a greatly kept secret before prior to the events of the play. Proctor then fully experiences the consequences of betraying his wife, which include shame of betrayal and fear of

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.