Also prominently featured in the novel, the Great Purge negatively affected society. Fear and brutality reigned while logic and decency disappeared. Fear held an important position throughout the novel and in the real historical events the story is based off of. When the police came to arrest Rubashov in the beginning of the novel, the other residents of the house were afraid. Wassilij “panted with fear,” on page 5. A woman had yelled after the men had started banging the door, but stopped abruptly after Wassilij shouted, “‘Be quiet…Here is Authority.’ (7)…The house was silent after the one shrill woman’s cry, but they had the feeling that all inhabitants were awake in their beds, holding their breath (8).” Everyone in the house remained quiet to avoid trouble for themselves. Richard also illustrated this fear through his heavy stammering when a bodyguard of the regime was close (39). Another important instance of fear occurred as Michael Bogrov was led away for execution—he shouted for help, screamed, whimpered, and hung like a doll (144). Hare-lip—Professor Kieffer’s son—provided one of the more significant instances of fear. While in the third hearing with Rubashov and Gletkin, Hare-lip had a haunted gaze, trembling upper lip, a white face, and a sunken head—he “quivered as though struck by a whip” and “in his eyes appeared the flickering of naked animal terror” (200-210). He was terrified and only gave this testimony due to a desire to stay alive. The book mentioned that
Although Perry is the one who killed the family, Dick plans the crime with ease due to his evil characteristics and guilt free conscious, therefore vulnerability can easily be molded by manipulation.
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
The Crucible Character Abigail Williams is a very unique person, with a confusing relationship with John Proctor, she very much connects to 1992 "Skinny Toddlers" by the Filthy Moustaches. In the story the Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Hale a reverend from out of town who came to the small village of Salem to exorcise the demons from it's people in the song "The mint is in my Armpit" by Alien Lawnmower, it suggest change in nature and flaw in character, this basically describes what Hale is there to do in Salem. Jerry Doughnut has a way of understanding people, he has the courage to pull himself out of the worst situation with the best attitude; Reverend Hale from the Crucible could have used that wisdom of Jerry many times during his struggles
In the book 1984, Smith is trying to be an individual in a society that is ruled by Big Brother. as a consequence of him trying to be an individual, he is testing the rules of the party. The individual in an authoritarian society is forced to follow the rules and beliefs of the rest of the society.
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.
To make the character Winston Smith, the main protagonist from the book 1984, complex, George Orwell had to give his character multiple traits to keep Winston from being another boring, vague, and 2-dimensional character. Winston is a complex character because he undergoes emotional changes throughout the book, he has a variety of personality traits to drive the plot, and he has significant interactions with other characters throughout 1984.
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 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.
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.
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
Rubashov’s character vacillates between embracing the individualistic traits of his nature to the pull exerted on him by the indoctrination of the ideology of the greater good, even at the expense of individual liberty and freedom. Rubashov, during his time in prison though shows a propensity to acknowledge the failure of the glorious tenets of the Revolution, for he has seen the horror of the totalitarian system in the purges carried out by the party leaders under the pretext of filtering traitors. In an acknowledgement of the folly of his and the Party’s ways, Rubashov states “…we are doing the work of prophets without their gift. We replaced vision by logical discussion…” and it is this acceptance of their shortcomings that shows the transformation of Rubashov.
Bad things happen from people making decisions based on lies and fear, but evil things
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
Throughout the novel, the theme of the contrasting old guard juxtaposed with the new guard holds an important position. It also held an important place throughout the purges and show trials. By underlining this idea throughout the novel, Koestler shows both the importance of this idea and of the prominent differences these groups had. The characters of Wassilij, Vera Wassiljovna, Ivanov, and Gletkin illustrate the idea of old vs. new that was underlined throughout the purges. First mentioned on page 5, Wassilij (initially called Vassilij) is the porter where Rubashov lives. He had fought with Rubashov’s regiment in the civil war and clearly respected him. Next to his picture of No. 1, Vassilij had hung a picture of Rubashov (6). Vassilij is clearly a member of the older group of Russian society. He was particularly religious, an idea that No. 1 had worked to stamp out. This idea was mentioned the first time he was mentioned—when he added a “heartfelt Amen under his breath, so that the daughter should not hear it…crossed