The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is set in Salem, Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. The chaos around the witch trials and the background of how the people were affected was depicted explicitly. Arthur Miller, went through a period of fear during the Cold War when the American people who believed in democracy, feared that Communists were planning to throw democracy over. Miller was accused of being associated with the American Communist Party so he got sent to court just like many others who were falsely accused of witchcraft. To warn people about this time, he wrote the famous play, The Crucible. Arthur Miller addresses important themes throughout the play to express the pain people experienced during this time. “Fear” is one of the main themes that can be discussed in The Crucible. The people that were living in this time period experienced extreme cases of being fearful. Their lives were surrounded by people who were fearful of getting persecuted or possessed. People were also fearful for their own friends and family. One of the main forms of fear was the fear of evil. The townspeople in the play are afraid that the Devil was in the forests and surrounding their village while trying to look for an opportunity to catch the citizens. In the play it is shown that Ruth becomes ill. It's automatically assumed that the Devil has possessed her. This shows that people were always afraid of being possessed. Mary Warren was a woman that was very fearful of
Arthur Miller is considered one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century. He has written many acclaimed plays, including The Crucible. Written in 1953, The Crucible uses the historical perspective of the Salem Witch Trials which took place between 1962 and 1963. A lot of the inspiration for the events that take place in the play were from the McCarthyism era that was taking place at the time. It is evident that The Crucible is a critical look at the way the Communist hunt was handled, and used the hysteria and madness of the witch trials to show how history repeats itself. The relationship between men and women and the way the woman in the society is treated is also a prominent theme throughout the play.
Fear. Most people have it and in a single moment it can turn a normal person insane. In the play, The Crucible, they use Fear and Hysteria to coax the town into believing in witches, the power of fear can make the average person do unusual things, go against people, and make them go against themselves. In certain situations Fear and Hysteria can be used in good ways as a natural protection against the dangers that occur, but sometimes that same fear can lead to death. Arthur Miller portrays this in the Salem Village when a large amount of the village is accused of being bewitched.
Fear in 1692 In Arthur Miller’s “ The Crucible” fear changes a lot from the start to the end. At first, fear manifests itself as worry, but as the story goes on, fear is viewed as a scary thing. People fear to show fear because it shows they are weak, or guilty. Leaders in Salem use fear to control everyone, making false accusations. What starts as a minor concern becomes a powerful force breaking the town apart.
Inside us all there is a deep dark fear this is what grabs us by the thresh hold of life. It controls the most important aspects of our lives. This is found within the deepest and darkest chasms of our souls. The very creature that wreaks havoc in our minds we cage and never confront we lock this beast away to afraid to overcome it. If the beast is not confronted it begins to contort and change who we are as a person and how we interact with others. Even the very decisions we make as a person to affect those around us and are loved ones to also suffer the consequences of our actions. Such as the crucible and how each person was warped into their own monster by greed.
Fear drives the actions of the people in Salem including, Betty Parris, Mary Warren, and Abigail Williams. Each character's actions are influenced by their fear of getting in trouble. This fear of getting in trouble causes people to create false stories trying to save themselves. That is why fear is the most destructive force in The Crucible written by Arthur Miller.
Chaos. Whether or not the town will be able to pull itself from this chaos, is entirely up to the townspeople. Authority is disregarded, distrust breaks out among the people, and the town if left in this manner, will crumble to destruction. The theme “the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work” (Elements of Literature 5th Course) of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is; Fear and suspicion can destroy a society. Miller uses several characters to represent and exemplify the effects of his theme. Mary Warren, Elizabeth Proctor, and her husband John represent the disregard for authority that takes hold when a great fear is present within a society. Reverends Hale
The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller written in the 1950’s. It was set in the 1690’s in Massachusetts. The play is about the witch trials and how something like a group of girls in the woods could lead to about 200 people being hanged and accused of witchcraft. The people of Salem were new to Massachusetts as they were puritans who went off to America to set up a new religious colony . The people were new to their surroundings had the Native Americans as enemies because they took their land. Although the Crucible is about the witch trials, it is thought to be a metaphor for the McCarthy Communist trials
The play is set in 1692 and is based upon the outbreak of accusations in Salem, Massachusetts. Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible, using the 17th-century case of witch trials (and fictionalising it) to comment on a 20th-century phenomenon-the hunting of communists as if they were witches. In 17th century Salem the inhabitants feared witchcraft, like America feared communism, both were exaggerated and both
The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is a chronological narrative including a large cast of characters with a constantly moving setting.* The Crucible is a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and an allegory of the McCarthyism period. Throughout the play, Miller explores the destruction of freedom by the ignorant and tyrannical society in which his characters live.* By exhibiting how easily a member of the community can become an outcast, Arthur Miller displays social criticism in the Puritan society as well as in today's society in The Crucible.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a famous play which was written in the early 1950’s. The Crucible is a play based upon the events in 1692, which led to the ‘Salem Witch Trials’, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft. This was due to the hysteria caused by a group of girls accusing innocent people of witch craft. The play was set in Salem, Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. Salem was a very isolated and puritanical community, so their biggest fear was the devil and witchcraft. A person being accused of witchcraft was the worst thing possible in this society.
In The Crucible, the townspeople are afraid of witches and will punish anyone that is potentially one, even if they are innocent. “I have seen too many frightful proofs in court—the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!”(Hale). The people of Salem will take every chance they get to eliminate a potential witch, and all they
Fear can lead to a lot of things, but unfortunately, in humans it usually leads to something bad. Throughout history, fear has lead to some of the most violent actions by man, and some of the biggest collapses of organized society. In early American history, the people of Salem experienced this for themselves. Arthur Miller shows this in his book. The society of Salem that Miller creates in The Crucible shows how fear can slowly cause rational thought to deteriorate, leading to mass hysteria and eventually the breakdown of civilized behavior.
At times, fear motivates people to behave unscrupulously. Personal fears instigate some characters in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible to cry witch. Reverend Parris fears losing his job, Abigail fears prosecution and losing John Proctor, and Tituba fears physical retribution. Fear induces people to defend their personal whims and use their power to harm others.
Fear is definitely not always a harmful emotion. Fear influences people to take extreme measures and act irrationally emotion. While fear is one of the main emotions people face, fear is not a always harmful emotion. In the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows us how fear and suspicion can destroy a community. As the play develops, Miller shows us how fear and suspicion increase and destroy the community. Throughout the play it becomes apparent that the community gets more and more divided as time goes on. In the beginning there were arguments about ownership of land between some of the villagers. As the story progresses people fear for their own safety and begin accusing their neighbours of witchcraft in order to escape being hanged. Salem became overrun by the hysteria of witchcraft. Mere suspicion itself was accepted as evidence. As a Satan-fearing community, they could not think of denying the evidence, because to deny the existence of evil was to deny the existence of goodness; which was God. In the 17th century a group of Puritans migrated from England to America - the land of dreams - to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. As Arthur Miller tells us in the introduction to Act 1 'no one can really know what their lives were like.' We would never be able to imagine a life with 'no novelists' and 'their creed forbade anything resembling a theatre or vain entertainment.' 'They didn't celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate
As represented in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, fear played an important role and is exploited by the characters in the play. The Crucible beings with a group of girls accusing people of witchcraft for their selfish benefit.Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to inflict pain , or a threat. Fear is an emotion that is capable of overtaking and controlling one’s state of mind and well being. However , fear can be used as a motivation factor. Fear influenced these people to take extreme measures and act irrationally. Additionally, fear is a master of suffering capable of haunting those who patronize it Moreover, in The Crucible this erratic emotion causes people to fear being labeled