Thematic Questions For The Crucible2

Miller choose to reveal information in “The Crucible” slowly was to show perspective. As the story goes he wants the audience to see the two different sides. Miller wrote in the introduction of Act I “They believed, in short that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world. We have inherited this belief, and it has helped and harmed us.” (line Act I) When reading this line there are no facts about the plot of the story. The quote tells the audience that the Puritans believed the were the light, that they were correct and that people should follow them. This foreshadows that there’s a character that is believed to be correct and should be followed. The audience doesn’t know anything about this character, whether they

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 Puritan town of Salem is corrupt when it comes to accusing innocent people of witchcraft. The town fears their powerful God and assumes that the Devil is punishing those that sin. Miller writes this play during the Red Scare time period which is also a time of questioning others on beliefs. Miller brings attention that people are questioning others if they don’t understand something and this leads the decision to be made without any background knowledge or ideas. Even if Education is not presented to someone, they should do everything possible to educate themselves on the topic before making a

One of Miller’s reasons for titling his play “The Crucible” was that the container for melting metals was a good representation of

A Crucible is a container that can withstand great amount of heat, such as one required for refining gold. It can also mean a severe trial. In the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, severe trails occur throughout the play, not just in the courtroom but also in people’s homes and souls. I believe Arthur Miller named his play “The Crucible” because it shows the trials and hardships people face within themselves, the courtroom and Puritan society.

Furthermore, Reverend Hale was pushed to change also. Hale came into Salem a stranger, but knew how to fix the problem the town endured. He never questioned that God had a plan and always thought that something was either good or bad, with no gray area in between. This thinking is challenged when Elizabeth, a pure person, is accused and then later when John confesses. He knows that these people are honest and leaves the court for a period of time. In the end, Hale is a desperate man, and even though knowing there is no witchcraft present, he urges John to admit that he is not the one that should be punished. He has to question all the rules he has lived by his whole life and pursue something he knows is incorrect. In essence, Reverend Hale is pushed to his limits and is turned into a man that will be permanently in suspicion of any standards he ever thought were true.

The year is 1692. Throughout the small, Puritan, seaside community of Salem, rumors and accusations fly like gusts of ocean wind. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and even the most holy church-goers are accused of being the devil’s servants. The Crucible details this real-life tragedy of the Salem witch trials, in which nineteen members of the Salem community were hanged for alleged witchcraft. Abigail Williams, a seemingly innocent girl, accuses dozens of Salem’s citizens of witchcraft through the support of her mob of girls and the complicity of the court officials. The title of this play gives significant insight into the experiences of several of these Salem citizens. Although a crucible is often used in chemistry for heating up substances, the title of the play carries a much greater weight. In his famous play The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the title of “crucible” to signify the severe and unrelenting tests of faith and character that many of the community members endure throughout the Salem witch trials, which he achieves through the use of figurative language and fallacies of relevance and insufficiency.

In The Crucible, Miller wrote about the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts who experienced their own crucibles on morality. A crucible can not only mean a severe test, but also a container that melts substances at very high temperatures. This meaning still applies to the play

Miller sets the whole of Act 1 in one room this conveys hysteria because they are all in one room and everyone is shouting each other. Also it will be quiet dark and crowded as the windows are all narrow so only little light comes through. I also think it is a metaphor for the narrow minded nature of the people in Salem. The fact that only a little comes through conveys that they have little knowledge of the outside world. The language used is very different and address woman as Goody and men as Mister. This contributes to the difference in society and the time.

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.

Both my partner and I had two vastly, differing opinions on Millers political motivations. However with lengthy discussion and productive debating we ended up with the conclusion that ‘political motivation in The Crucible may be ambiguous, but control and reason is the ultimate goal’. It was exciting to discuss our ideas of changing political perspectives throughout the play and how positions of power and authority were critiqued in accordance to Millers context of 1950’S America. By working on the speech I was able to reflect deeper on how Miller challenged the social models of his time, and how he shed light on the moral corruptness that government officials/HUAC leaders like Senator Joseph McCarthy were committing under the appearance of their supposedly ‘beneficial’

Knowing now that the court operates with error, he quits it and denounces its proceedings. John Hale no longer want to participate in the court’s murdering of the innocent, and feels guilty for the lives that he has already condemned through the judicial system. Hale now knows that he needs to think for himself rather than following the laws and rules of the judicial system he has lived by his whole life. Working separate from the court, the reverend says, “I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves.”(Miller 1325) Hale knows that the only way to rid the guilt from his mind is to convince the accused to lie and confess so that their lives may be saved. He has lost faith in the court system that will condemn innocent lives, and, throwing away his pride, puts out one last effort to save some of the lives he has condemned. His motivation has changed from condemning the witches in the town to attempting to save the accused. As his efforts are about to fail, he drops to his knees and says, “What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!”(Miller 1334) His efforts to defend the accused fail, and guilt overwhelms him. Reverend John Hale cannot live with the innocent lives he has sentenced to murder and is humbled as the accused are led to their death.

The word crucible can be defined as a severe ordeal or a set of circumstances where people are subjected to forces that test them and often make them change. The Crucible is a very elaborate story where characters are placed into complicated situations and are forced to make tough decisions. When one has to hastily make a decision, it may not be thought completely through. This is true for the characters in The Crucible because many of them make choices they later regret. The environment they are placed in as well as the harsh circumstances all contribute to the conflicts they face. It is made evident throughout the play that Arthur Miller chose a title based off of a few specific characters. The significance of the title is best illustrated

The fact that the characters win in the end over the Church-State imparts Miller’s view that the conflict between the individual and society authority is also an ongoing and timeless battle, one that should be won by the individual but never is. These individual characters and Miller himself can be drawn, that is, his conflict with the government own witch-hunt. Their desire for individual freedom of conscience is in conflict with the government which has become infected by paranoia, insecurity and fear. The authorities, for the sake of conformity and unity, are willing to cruelly crush any hint of rebellious thinking. The Crucible is timeless in that it will always reflect events that are occurring in the time that the reader is reading

In common vernacular, a crucible is used to heat substances in order to become more pure or perfect; however, when a town with strict theology and no tolerance is subject to the grueling torture of innocent lives dying for a false cause, the result is anything but perfect. Though John Proctor does find some relief in his redemption at the end, by no means does the drama have a happy ending. Though it is somewhat plausible to define Arthur Miller’s drama, The Crucible, as a comedy, there is overwhelming evidence in favor of the drama being labeled a tragedy. John Proctor’s inability to overcome his moral weakness of lust, the town’s tragic flaw of intolerance and jealousy, and Proctor’s inability to rationalize his life and the world around him combine in a heartbreaking way to form a tragedy.