The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay

The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller. In the town of Salem, the people’s obsession of trying to provide justice only caused injustice against the accused. The law of Salem was guilty until proven innocent. Their government was also a theocracy, and their obsession with religion also caused the injustice.

A crucible refers to a harsh test, and in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, each person is challenged in a severe test of his or her character or morals. Many more people fail than pass, but three notable characters stand out. Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor all significantly change over the course of the play.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Puritan Massachusetts in which religion, justice, individuality and dignity play a vital role. These factors define the characteristics of many of the most significant characters in the play. Some of them being John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale, Danforth and many others. The Salem witch trials were a result of the lack of expression of individuality and the fact that no individual could expect justice from the majority culture as a result of the deterioration of human dignity in the Puritan society of Salem.

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.

The Crucible, takes place in the small Puritan village called Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials grew out of the moral system of the Puritans. This split the town into two, those who were considered witches and those who wanted good.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, justice and injustice is portrayed through the characters of John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. It is also shown through the minor characters of Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis, followers of Abigail Williams, and through Danforth and various townspeople.

So today I and My family were going to a camp and we were packing and I find a gas lantern so I turn it on. then one hour later and my dad has my brother Asher picks it up and burns his hand. His hand looked a burnt marshmallow that you leave in the fire. Then with a long trip to a small hospital in Virginia. It felt very cold in the hospital. The smell of the place was like very old medicine. the doctor and she or him I do not remember, but he told us that Asher

The Crucible was based in 1692 in and around the town of Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The Salem witch-hunt was view as one of the strangest and most horrendous chapters in the human history. People that were prosecuted were all innocent and their deaths were all due to false accusation of people’s ridiculous belief in superstition and their paranoia. The Puritans in those times were very strict in personal habits and morality; swearing, drunkenness and gambling would be punished. The people of Salem believed in the devil and thought that witchcraft should be hunted out.

 The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a play that takes place in the sixteen nineties during the famous but tragic witch trials. The entire community is in pandemonium yet certain characters are also fighting internal conflicts. Miller uses three characters that manifest this internal battle ever so clearly: Mary Warren whose whole world turns upside down, John Proctor who must weigh the importance of his family against his reputation and Reverend Hale who must decide whether to do his job, or do what he knows to be right. 

Imagine living in a society where you are guilty till proven innocent, instead of innocent til proven guilty. Due to the bias preference of the word of “God” in the story The Crucible By Arthur Miller, it is greatly implied that many of the casualties such as John and Elizabeth Proctor to name a couple was due to the restricted theology of church and state. In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. These girls are who create most of the controversy, as they lie to get through most circumstances. A specific individual is Abigail Williams, playing the victim for example as she blames Tituba in page 43 saying “She makes me drink blood!” leading to Tituba to being pulled to the side in page 44 and yelled at “you will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death” making her give in, in order for him to spare her life. leading to further unjustifiable atrocities.

Arthur Miller writes about the tragic results of human failings in his play, The Crucible. He presents characters from the past and infuses them with renewed vitality and color. Miller demonstrates the horrifying results of succumbing to personal motives and flaws as he writes the painful story of the Salem witch trials. Not only do the trials stem from human failings but also from neglect of moral and religious considerations of that time. Characters begin to overlook Puritan values of thrift and hope for salvation. Focusing on the flawed characters, they begin to exhibit land lust, envy of the miserable and self-preservation.

“Honesty is the best policy.” Kids grow up hearing that from their parents and teachers and other adult figures. However, many grow out of listening to this advice, spreading bits of untruths as harmless as white lies to the more severe, like in the case of the Salem Witch Trials or the McCarthy trials during the Red Scare. Arthur Miller delved deeply into this topic in his famous play, The Crucible, in which he compared the Salem Witch Trials to the McCarthy trials as a comment on the self-preserving, rash, and gullible nature of human beings in order to open the audience’s eyes to the error of their ways. He wanted them to see the negative consequences of the Red Scare so they would put an end to it.

In the literary piece, “The Crucible”, we are able to analyze the play with multiple theories or lenses, The play, which was written in the 1956 by Arthur Miller, is a play full of lust, passion, and lies. It all started when a small village which was once all about religion and simplicity and became a one stop ride to hell and eternal hanging. Tituba, Abigail, and the others were originally caught dancing and evoking the devil himself by Reverend Parris. Hysteria was what Parris originally reported and that was exactly what it was. Many innocent young ladies were humiliated and accused of practicing witchcraft. This was the original spark to the conflict as a whole. Those girls were living an extremely trite lifestyle that they no longer found interest in. The girls brought up the whole hysteria controversy amongst themselves unaware of the consequences and how far and dangerous it could get.The affair between Abigail and John Proctor is what sets the main plot into action. These two including Elizabeth are the most important characters in the play. There are three lenses or perspectives that the play can be analyzed by: Psychoanalytical, Archetypal, and Feminist perspectives. The Psychoanalytical perspective or theory is based off Sigmund Freud, who was known as the “Father of modern psychology”. Freud said there are three components to the subconscious: the ID which is one 's basic desires, the Superego which is the opposite of ID to find guilt and all behavior related to

Analysis Of The Crucible And A Scene by Arthur Miller The Crucible was first produced in 1953 during the McCarthy political 'witch-hunt'. The Crucible is governed around, the corrupted degeneration of society during this sombre period. Arthur Miller saw many parallels in this period with the 'witch hunt' in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Most significantly the naïve yet extremely unjust accusations, the forced confessions and ultimately the growth of such a diminutive event into mass hysteria.

Arthur Miller is one of America's most well-known playwrights and authors will some of his best work including ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘The Crucible’. Most of Miller's works are timeless meaning that the lesson begin portrayed is applicable in many different situations and in different decades. Arthur Miller’s most relevant play is ‘The Crucible’ that depicts the famous Salem, Massachusetts Witch Hunts during the seventh century and its integrity. Miller shows a small village that has become divided after hysteria found the town because of the discovery of witchcraft. Witchcraft has caused people to turn on their friends in order to save their own name from tarnishing because people thought they were practicing witchcraft. However, Miller’s real intent of writing ‘The Crucible’ is not to show how suspected witchcraft destroys a small village, instead, Miller is portraying America during the Cold War. Miller uses the Salem Witch Hunts to represent America’s response to suspected communist living in America and the hysteria that it brings. In order to understand Arthur Miller’s motive behind writing ‘The Crucible', it is important to take into account Miller’s experiences and the time period he lived in to get the bigger picture of the play.