The Crucible Literary Analysis

They had no life; they were not allowed to have a life. They were isolated from not only the white race but also their own people. Mr. Michael Reed was one of those slave owners that treated his slaves that they were nothing more than a piece of property. In his files, Mr. Reed had a ledger of daily activities. This ledger contained an hourly and daily record of everything his slaves would do. In some of his recordings, Mr. Reed would write down very strange things for what activity his slaves were doing. He would make mention when they were sick, of course, so he could know how many hours they worked, but many of his recordings were not appropriate for him to be

he mood and situtation that he was in. At the end (Act ]I[) John Proctor was

Hook: Crucible is a book filled with mistakes and the outcomes of those mistakes. Every single action that a person commits leads to either a positive or a negative consequence, and this piece of literature provides readers with an opportunity to analyze some causes and effects.

Puritans had a strict and disciplined lifestyle that was live to achieve the grace of God. They believed that people that were sinners, liars, and adulterers were damned in the eyes of God. In The Crucible the main antagonist was Abigail. She showed tendencies to be spiteful, jealous, and vengeful.

How many people have you met in your life that is stronger because of a difficult experience they went through? Most people are because we take these difficult experiences and grow from them and become better people. This is the exact case is expressed in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The story begins in Salem, Massachusetts 1692 right in the middle of a period of witchcraft hysteria. During this time many people were accused of being witches and wrongly convicted by judges Danforth and Hathorne. The characters in the story are struggling because of a girl named Abigail who gets caught practicing witchcraft and then starts naming and accusing others so that she doesn’t get in trouble; one of these people being a well-respected farmer, John Proctor’s, wife Elizabeth. The title, The Crucible, refers to a test, trial, ordeal, formation by fire, and vessel baked to resist heat, and the entire story is an allegory meaning it has a hidden meaning. John Proctor symbolizes a crucible by embodying the definition of one, as he went through a test and was formed by fire.

(H)To be accused as a witch, was to be labeled for death by hanging, whether you are guilty or not. (Tr-TS)The label of witch or warlock what the townspeople use as a vessel to get their enemies and competition out of the way. (B)In the puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls were caught dancing in the forest by the reverend. To avoid any punishment for doing so, the girls claimed to have been bewitched. Soon, what began as a simple act of preservation to keep from being hung, very quickly turned into an opportunity to gain power over the other townspeople. (Tr-ThS)Slapping the label of witch was these peoples way of gaining said power. (ThS) (pt1)In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible,(pt2) Miller uses many literary devices, but most

Ad Hominem: Latin for “against the man,” and refers to the logical fallacy (error) of arguing that someone is incorrect because they are unattractive, immoral, weird, or any other bad thing you could say about them as a person. (https://literaryterms.net/ad-hominem/)

A crucible has two diverse meanings: a vessel used for melting substances that require a high degree of heat or a severe test or trial. The play, The Crucible, uses both definitions in unison to show the fiery atmosphere of the Salem Witch Trials and the severity of the trials. Three primary characters involved in the scorching environment of the Salem Witch Trials are Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor. Since The Crucible entitles that people are going to go through a test and receive knowledge from it, these three characters gain the most insight from the trials and tests that they endure.

When Logan walked out she saw the familiar face of her best friend. Connor’s shaggy brown hair was drooping over his eyes. He was in serious need of a haircut but Connor hated the idea because his wheat-like mane covered his peculiarly shaped ears. The tips of his ears were perfectly pointy. That wasn't the only thing odd about his appearance. Connor had humongous brown eyes that almost seemed too big for his face. He, also, was extremely tall for his age, almost two heads over everyone else. This made him look extremely lanky. When Connor looked up from his shoes some relief washed over Logan but also some shame,

Proctor. For the first and only time in the play we see Abigail as her

One of the many works written and driven by Puritan influence, The Crucible by Arthur Miller has continued to influence life and thinkings. Its story tracing the 1692 Salem Witch Trials has been widely read, received and understood, along with influencing the reader and their ideals. The play has manifested into more than words on a page and has become of the greatest influences, even sixty years after its publication. Though its story has not changed and is merely a retelling of the original itself, its themes have greatly impacted its universal and enduring state.

The text which I have chosen to analyse is from the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, just looking at Act One of this play. In Act One the scene opens in Reverend Parris’s house, in the year of 1692; the scene focuses on Betty being ‘ill’ in bed and ‘laying limp’, showing the powerful forces, they believe to be witchcraft has overcome her. This extract highlights the importance of the themes that are throughout the play and the ideas of townspeople’s lives in Salem, in which the characters portray. This play is set in a theocratic society, where the church and the state are one, and where the religion is strict and shapes their beliefs. Within this Act the narrator describes Salem town as having a strict Puritan way of life with an outlook on the rest of the world as one of “parochial snobbery”.

Your name doesn't mean anything if what is said about you is not true. In my opinion I do not think that a good name is more important than the truth. For me my said name or reputation is that I’m a slacker, or that I don't care about anything, which in reality is true. In some situations I do care, but in most I don’t.

Throughout American history, no matter what time period, humans have been categorized, discriminated against, and treated according to their class, financial status, and race. Many concrete and obvious examples of this have appeared throughout the years, ranging from the Salem witch trials in the late 1600’s, all the way to the recent civil rights movements in the 1950’s and 60’s. Social history uses personal stories to show how class/status and race played a part in the way people were treated in America.

A witch hunt can be defined as a campaign directed against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views. In American History, a slew of “witch hunts’ have taken place, concerning many different groups and many different views. A notable witch hunt in history is the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in Massachusetts from 1692 to 1693. These trials created a basis for society judging its peers from then on. In 1953, Arthur Miller wrote a play based on the actions of those during the Salem Witch Trials called “The Crucible”. In the period in which he wrote the Crucible, there was a historical uprising in which people left and right were being identified as covert Communists if they protested too strongly against the rise of European Fascism and anti-Semitism as the Soviet Union rapidly expanded as an empire. Miller’s writing of “The Crucible” is still important today because it reminds society of its faults, warns of the future problems that will rise, and unearths connections to buried public terrors.