In every literary, there are themes. A theme can be explained as an idea or message of a narrative. In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to reveal how easily people can be drawn into a kind of crowd mentality which ultimately hurts guiltless people. The Crucible has published long ago and still it is being read all over the world. Themes of reputation, hysteria, and empowerment have been analyzed as both universal and long-lasting. The first theme analyzed in the play is reputation because many characters are concentrated on maintaining their public and fine reputation in Salem. Most of the characters worry more about reputation than their comfort. “Abigail, I have fought here for three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you …show more content…
Many characters can assume that their fellow citizens have been supernaturally worshipping the devil. "I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you...I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down (Miller).” This quote shows that if someone was blamed and contradict the accusation, they are hung right away but if they confused, they will ruin their name. The theme of hysteria is enduring and universal because there are similar things in modern life, for example, the racial profiling. Finally, the theme of empowerment has been developed in this play. Abigail Williams has a great amount of power with the witch hearings and she was only seventeen-year-old. “Now look you…I will come to you in the black of some terrible night… bring a reckoning that will shudder you…I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down (Miller).” This quote shows that Abigail Williams is in charge. She has no power at first, but then became empowered over the group of
In this essay I will talk about two main central ideas. First, some people accuse innocent people for witchery. Secondly, there is a lot of hatred in the town of Salem.
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a rich and enticing play set in the late 1600’s describing the epic horrors and emotions through the events of the Salem witch trials. The Crucible, focuses primarily on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. The play begins with the discovery of several young girls and an African American slave, Tituba, in the woods just outside of Salem, dancing and pretending to conjure spirits. The Puritans of Salem stood for complete religious intolerance and stressed the need to follow the ways of the bible literally without exception. The actions of the women in
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.
In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts a small group of girls joined together to go in the woods at night to meet a slave woman name Tituba. Tituba is a slave of Reverend Parris. During their meeting all the girls are dancing
Lastly, logos is an important factor for developing the theme in the play. To illustrate, “My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!” (Miller, 12). Abigail uses her credibility of being a reputable person to justify her actions and decisions; she benefits from the fact that others in the town are misinformed. Miller uses this display of an appeal to the reader’s logos to build the theme as exemplifies how Abigail uses the reputation she has built, to charge others of witchcraft. To further illustrate, “I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus!” (Miller, 48). Using her confession and
Today, we plaster death, relationship drama, and corruption in Holy places everywhere for our enjoyment. During 1953 when the author Arthur Miller wrote a play called The Crucible, it had all of those components. This play had the drama of infidelity, lying, murder, and corruption of a church; all of the fun things that make us laugh, cry, and fear for a character's fate. The Puritans did not allow entertainment, only work and pray, so when they received entertainment they took to the extreme. The play will have Miller playing with your emotions in the same ways that the Puritans played with life and death. Throughout this play, Miller will create pathos through the conflicts of infidelity, religion, and injustice.
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses themes to display thoughts throughout the book. The theme that seems to be the center point of the story is religion. Religion is on the character’s minds with every action they do. When something goes wrong in the town, religion is sought out as a cause. When the witch trials begin, the devil is supposed to be the source of the troubles. Arthur Miller vividly uses religion to show the readers how important religion is to the people of Salem.
pull it down and so denounce God and place a whore in God’s place is
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” ( Dr. Seuss) “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalm 23:4) “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” (William Shakespeare) These quotes, found throughout many different time periods of history, all say the same: “Be who you are and don’t let anything change that.” These are great words to live by, but, in time of weakness, does one stay true? Can even the good be twisted? This is a theme that is represented throughout The Crucible many times. Characters such as Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale had good intentions
All throughout the play,The Crucible , Arthur Miller uses various themes to get his message across. A motif that made an enormous impact in the Puritan community would be demonization. Demonization could be described as marking an entity as evil, due to having the polar opposite beliefs as one's own. In Miller’s play demonization caused instability in the community by creating chaos, fear, and false accusations. It allowed people to create scapegoats, and it revealed repressed social conflicts in both the Salem witch trials and in the era of Mccarthyism. Demonization plays an important role on how characters in the play live, and associate with one another. Miller in the play describes the lives of the people living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the witch trials, that occurred during the late 1600s. Much of these characters are a representation of what was happening during Miller’s lifetime.
Jumping to conclusions, bad assumptions, and false information can cause much hysteria within a society. This can be surely bad if you are dealing with people who are hypochondriacs. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller displays how hysteria is used to cover the truth, but can cause suffering for many of those who are innocent. The play strongly illustrates the hysteria that brushed through Salem because of the fear that Satan had haunted the town. When you have an entire society in an uproar it is usually because of false information being spread and people who are just reacting without thinking about what could possibly be happening. There are some people
There are multiple types of conflict in The Crucible that forwards the plot, these types of conflict are in the play and most characters have some type of conflict with another person, the town, or themselves. The Crucible is a play that is absolutely filled to the brim with conflict and is set in the time period of the Salem Witch Trials that lasted from February 1692 up until May 1693. In the play, many people were deceived, accusations were thrown around town, and people were hung or burned at the stake.
For this book review I decided to read The Crucible. In this play there are a wide variety of themes from hysteria, conformity, empowerment, reputation and many others. Each aspect of these themes within the play comes with the idea of witchcraft. So I decided to pick apart the topic of witch craft and decided to see where the idea of a witch trial originated, and I found that it started in early Europe.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is less of a play and more of a commentary on the power and affects of fear. In the town of Salem in which the play takes place, Abigail Williams sends the entire town into chaos and madness. She does this with fear. She uses fear to make the townspeople turn on one another. She creates fear by accusing people of witchcraft. With this exertion of fear Abigail elevates herself to the height of power. As Abigail ascends she pulls people who once held power to the ground, making them powerless. This is the theme of the entire play.
People change, but is it always for the best? Mary Warren, a shy, quiet, and pushover girl is put into some difficult situations that will show everyone just how weak her backbone really. Mary was a good girl, but was influenced by everyone and made wrong decisions. Then she became extremely indecisive and couldn't choose whose side to be on. To then becoming exactly like Abigail, a guileful profligate of a girl. Mary is a dynamic character, who is bound to change in the drama, The Crucible written by Arthur Miller.