The Mixture Of Heroism In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Few people are willing to stand up to the overwhelming power of authority, especially during a time like the Red scare. Hardly any authors are able to recognize meaningful similarities between the present times and an event that happened many years ago—and write about it effectively. Only one has had the courage and intelligence to do both. Arthur Miller was an American author who wrote plays, essays, and stories and has published works dating from to 1936 through 2004. The Crucible, one of his most famous plays, premiered in New York on January 22, 1953 (InfoTrac). It is a historical-fiction story set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witch hunt described in this play is similar to the Red Scare, an anti-communist movement led by

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.

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, focuses on the inconsistencies and injustice of the 1692 witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. The restrictive Puritan society of Salem in the 17th century was based upon religious intolerance, where faith was demonstrated through physical labour and by strict adherence to religious doctrine. Material, physical and sexual desires were considered the Devil’s work and a threat to the very fabric of society. In summary, it is said that Puritanism discouraged individualism on all levels. The literal way in which the Bible was interpreted by the Puritans, provides a paradox within the play. This is because although the Bible says “thou shalt not kill,” the people of Salem are willing to sentence innocent

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the witch trials in Salem were a devastating time. The entire community was in disorder and chaos because of personal vengeance. This included accusations of innocent town’s people being called witches, so they hanged and were jailed. Throughout the play certain characters help the rise of witchcraft as well as the disapproval of all the innocent people who were being convicted for no reason. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character whom comes to rid of the evil spirits in Salem, yet he later tries to end the trials. Hale realizes the accusations are false, attempts to postpone the hangings, and persuade the victims to lie conveys that he is a dynamic character and changes throughout the play.

As stated by the great Irish philosopher, Edmund Burke, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse” (braniyquotes.com). Burke’s words are proven true in many facets of the human experience. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, a shift of power is portrayed through Abigal’s sly manipulation. Arthur Miller takes a historical context, that of the Salem Witch Trials, and shows how simple actions can alter the course of history. The disintegration of an orderly Puritan society into one that is governed by chaos and hysteria is caused by a radical change in the normally male dominated power by a woman whose pride has been bruised.

A hero is a person noted for brave acts or goodness of character. A person who face the danger and combats the evil. Heroic leaders have the purpose of achieving the goal, regardless of the challenging difficulties. Often sacrificing their own personal concerns for a greater good Some qualities are passion, integrity, honesty, confidence, patience, selflessness, courageous, and humble. An example of a hero is John Proctor. He is a tormented man. He believes his affair with Abigail irreparably injured him in the eyes of God, his wife Elizabeth, and himself. True, Proctor did surrender to sin and commit adultery; however, he lacks the capacity to exonerate himself.

“Hale: Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws away for pride” (206). Reverend Hale’s eye-opening words make Elizabeth realize that John Proctor should do the right thing for God, even if that includes lying. This quote relates to the Salem witch trials because during this time, the court was getting involved with the town, so everybody had to constantly tell the truth. Overall, the play gives a feeling of the Salem witch trials by using facts and events relevant to the time period. On a similar topic, Arthur Miller feels that everybody is vindictive, manipulating, and betraying each other; therefore, Miller uses his troublesome experience to commemorate the demeaning investigations of witches. Miller’s high disapproval of the American government, especially how the court handles situations, is greatly represented in his play. The characters change throughout the story, and they start to realize that it is not all about what the government wants for their life. They soon enough start thinking and speaking for themselves which leads to big decisions and disapproval from the American government. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he artistically manipulates the authentic facts of the Salem witch trials’ victim John Proctor to fiction in order to similarly represent his interrogation during the Red Scare while also putting a spin on the trials through his style, characterization and tone.

Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. In society it has been something you are taught as toddler to respect authority, your elders. There are plenty of rules that as children we follow because it has been enforced in our minds that those are the rules and we must follow them. The rules do not tend to be questioned until someone disobeys them and did not think their actions were wrong. It is then that we being to question authority and resist the majority rule. No matter how unfair the laws of the governments might seem, it does not change the fact that people in society obey them. Henry Thoreau, Stanley Milgram and Martin Luther King have all considered the reasons as to why we obey authority and what the struggles of resisting majority rule may be. As a society there has come times that people themselves disobey the law and even in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the people being to resist authority. Authority may play a major role in society but when people being to come to a realization of the rules that are unjust, they being to resist and protest against them.

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.

Have we ever witnessed a student receiving undeserved cruelty? Had we ever act upon it? Whether we have or not, try putting ourselves in that equation. Imagine getting verbally abused for no reason as we ponder to ourselves, “Why must this happen?” Unknowingly to us, our aggressor acts like this as a way to bring out their frustration out from upon their hidden suffering. To them, we are their only “rightful” outlet for this pain. With that perspective in mind, we must understand what human cruelty is. To sum it up, it is basically any harmful act committed by a human being. The intent of knowing this is that similar to our bully, there are numerous illustrations of such acts and worse in the categories of literature and real life. The objective of this paper is to display cases of human cruelty in the name of righteousness through pieces of work like “The Crucible” and “The Lowest Animal”, as well as a personal experience to demonstrate what we can learn from it.

Archetypal figures throughout literature play an integral role in the development of sympathy within the audience. The author of The Crucible demonstrates a comprehensive grasp of literary devices throughout the play, strengthening the use of characterisation, setting and imagery to construct characters that insight sympathy. When viewed through an archetypal perspective, Miller’s text constructs a dynamic archetypal representation of John Proctor throughout the text. The development of John Proctor’s identity throughout the text explores the character’s cross-cultural representations; evolving from an archetypal loner to the heroic figure of the text.

I chose Arthur Miller’s The Crucible because of the plot’s dark history and suspense. Also because of the play’s reflection of McCarthyism. The so called “witch-hunts” for communist brought on by Senator Joseph.

For the duration of the play, The Crucible, the author, Arthur Miller at best tries to convey a “lesson about life” or a theme which is included in almost every literary work existing. The story dates back to 1692 Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials were a series hangings after many citizens were accused of practicing witchcraft. These many people were hanged because practicing witchcraft was frowned upon in the Puritan community due to the belief of ones who practiced witchcraft, conspired with the devil. Similar event were of occurrence in the 1950s, when the play was written. At the time, multiple americans feared communists because they could diminish the democratic government set in the United States. Many who were accused of having communist beliefs or sympathized with them faced not an actual death, like in the history of the story, but a career death. This career death either consisted of a loss in their job or no one wanted to hire them. The main character in the tale, John Proctor lived in Salem with his wife, Elizabeth and his two boys. Family and church was highly valued during these times which becomes clear throughout the telling of the story. John Proctor best represents the “lessons about life” which are the importance of integrity and reputation is crucial in Salem.

A common character archetype in tragedies is that of the tragic hero, an individual who is neither completely good nor bad and has a character flaw that results in the eventual downfall of that character. Traditionally, the character of John Proctor has been stereotyped as the tragic hero in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, a story which dramatizes the events of the Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts in Spring, 1692. While John Proctor is made out by Miller to be the hero of the events (as he attempts to show the court the error in their decision making), his heroism is subjective in the viewpoints of his fellow characters. To some, such as Rev. Parris, Abigail Williams is the true hero, using her affliction to further the will of God. In many ways, Abigail can be seen as the tragic hero of the play rather than John Proctor. Contrary to popular opinion, Abigail Williams better embodies a tragic hero through her high regard in the community, selfish character trait, and her eventual deposition and departure

play takes place in the 1690’s in Salem, a small Puritan community based on a rigid social