The Crucible Character Analysis

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.

To conclude, in Miller’s The Crucible, each character goes through a change or transformation that leads to the insight that leads them to learn more about themselves and the people around them. The character that goes through the most significant change in the play was John Procter. His insight leads him to realize his mistake of trying to hide his adultery from society in order to save his public face. By trying to hide it, however, he puts the life of his wife, and many other people at risk. By finally

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

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

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 Crucible is set in the seventeenth- century Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trial. It starts of with Reverend Parris, a man very concerned about his reputation, accusing his orphaned niece Abigail Williams of taking part in witchcraft after his daughter is unconscious after dancing in the woods. A technique used by Parris is characterization, which utilizes the thoughts, actions and dialogues in the construction of characters. Arthur Miller uses characterization to build the character of Reverend Samuel Parris as arrogant , selfish, and deceptive.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was based on the Salem, witch trials when the people of the town where accusing each other of witchcraft and those held for questioning would stand trial had a choice to be valor. In Miller’s portrayal of the ghastly, sickening inquiry of witchcraft many people in the 1690’s were people of the township were maintaining guard for their beliefs; while others of the community of Salem were cowards who took the easy out of the accusations they were on trial. The townspeople of Salem are going through a day people are courageous even in a way others could not be or were never suppose to be. Those characters display their courage in the town at the time of need, John Proctor is a selfless man when only stating

      Abigail Williams’ main cause for her wild accusations is a selfish one. It is to be with John Proctor, a married man with whom she has an affair. She is sent away but all she thinks of is being reunited with him. Abigail drinks blood, wishing to be with John Proctor, which could happen only if his wife Elizabeth died. She then, after committing adultery and contributing to the breaking of a marriage, is not through. Abigail pursues John and does not recognize that the affair is over. She conveys this in saying “I have something better than hope, I think!” (22). Abigail does not just miss her love, she becomes ruthless to get him back.

Abigail Williams is the seventeen year old niece of Rev. Parris, as well as once being the Proctor’s old servant. Abby runs into trouble with her uncle after her and the other girls in the town go into the woods one night and Parris finds some of them naked. After the incident Abigail decides to remove the attention off of herself by accusing the small minority in Salem of witchcraft. As the trials continue Abby decides to use the people’s support to her advantage by condemning people she doesn’t like, one being Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail believed that John still loves her even though he broke off the affair.

Abigail Williams, the niece of Reverend Parris, is one of the girls who led the accusations in the trials. The Crucible shows her selfish desires when she speaks to John Proctor, “And now you bid me to tear the light out of my eyes? I will not! I cannot!” (Miller, 1110). This example shows a desperate want Abigail has towards John Proctor. She is denying living in a world where she cannot be his love and one where she cannot love him. Here is her main motivation that the reader can see throughout the entire play. When showing Abigail's desperate motivations, Miller gives causes for her future actions. One action that was a response to this motivation can be seen from Elizabeth, John Proctor’s wife, when she learns of Abigail’s action against her, “She wants me dead. I knew all week it would come to this” (Miller, 1127). Here we see Abigail’s motivation to be with John Proctor into action. Her selfish want leads he to purposely accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft. One can see the Abigail wishes to get rid of anything that stands between her and John Proctor. She hopes that Elizabeth can be executed so she may join with John without any consequences. She does not care about how John feels, which ties into her selfish

She wanted people to believe she led a life of propriety, as her own ideology, but behind closed doors Abigail was naught but a smirched little girl playing make believe. In addition, Abigail craved for her community to view her as a covenanted pilgrim who lived in providence, however, she broke charity with anyone who did not defer or submit to her. In Act Two, when Danforth confronts Abigail in court she explains, “I have been hurt, Mr Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin’ out! I have been near to murdered every day because I have done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people - and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a -,” where Danforth replies “Child, I do not mistrust you -.” Manipulation is of clear importance to Abigail agenda as that if someone has dares to have a disputation with her incredulously, she is quails to protect herself. Therefore, Abigail is all pretense in order to elevate her own social status and preserve her

In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller which was written in 1692 about the severe Salem witch trials. The play incorporates a great deal of generally good people and an abundance of evil actions. Miller tells a story of those who experienced the trials first hand and played important roles in the time period. Many of the main characters in the story play both sides of good and evil which makes this a morality play. Throughout the play, we never truly understand if the evil actually comes from the devil or from the minds of the individual.

When John Proctor is first introduced, he is seen as a well-respected man through the village. Proctor’s secret affair with Abigail Williams is evident in his decision to not mention anything that may ruin his good name. In a town revolved around social platform, reputation is very important in court ruling. The importance of reputation causes John Proctor to not reveal his affair with Abigail in order to protect his name. A mention of an affair will cause different outlooks from the public. Abigail puts Proctor’s character in risk by bringing up the affair. Abigail proclaims,”I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” (Miller 24). Proctor wishes to inflict the affair into the past to maintain his good standing, but Abigail is driven by emotions and does not intend closure. This utterance by Abigail displays that Proctor dismissed the affair to keep his name well in town. Proctor starts with possessing values of the public opinion, but he then prides upon his own reputation and self-respect rather than the publicity.

           During the beginning of the play, John Proctor is hesitant to admit to his affair with Abigail even though his feelings for her are no longer existent. He knows how substantial the consequences could be if Abigail reveals to the town of

In conclusion the Crucible is an elucidation on specific flaws of humans that are exemplified by personas in the story. Arthur Miller creates these characters with certain attributes and put them in unique situations to help explain the natural aberrations of humans. The crucible magnifies these weaknesses so it is more obvious to the reader. We are able to identify these imperfections and incorporate them into the real world. The Crucible is less of a melodrama