Theme Of Persecution Leads To Pride In The Crucible

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” This quote, by Saint Augustine, looks deeper into the idea of pride and the change it can have on something as innocent as an angel into a devil if not contained and used in a positive way. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, displays this similar theme of pride and the absence of humility in a community and the effect it has. The pride that multiple characters of The Crucible put before everything else drives them to knowingly do the wrong thing and for some, their own personal destruction.

Pride can be both beneficial and detrimental. Pride is the feeling of intense satisfaction because of one’s achievements. In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller shows different types of pride throughout the play. Miller shows examples of good pride, bad pride, and mixed pride through various characters in the play. He wants us to learn the difference between the good pride and the bad pride so we can focus on the good.

The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the year of 1692 and during this time, the Salem witch-hunts began. The Salem witch-hunt was one of the oddest and most fearsome epochs in human history. The numerous amounts of people that were prosecuted were all innocent and their lives were taken away due to the fallacious accusations of the Puritan’s belief in superstition and their paranoia that witches had walked among them. One accuser that is the reason this all started was Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is to blame because she possesses the evil qualities of being remorselessness, jealous, and also having the quality of vengefulness. These qualities that Abigail have are direct contributions to the murder of many people who were unjustly hanged to death.

Guilt is often one of the hardest emotions for a person to overcome. Guilt is one of the few emotions that can hurt someone long after their integrity was damaged. Lying about something or someone, majority of the time makes a person ask themselves “ Did I make the right choice.” However, guilt can be a blessing and a curse. Guilt can show someone the truth behind their actions and make them act upon it. In contrast of that sporadically it makes situations worse. For example in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible one of the main characters John Proctor feels as if he would feel too guilty if he signed his paper confessing his satanic works.He refuses to have this paper hanged on the church door, his emotions overtake him and he rips the document into two halves. Contradicting that statement, Abigail Williams a teenage girl, blames her use of witchcraft on a clueless slave named Tituba and she has no disregard for her actions. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller seems to prove that habitually people would rather hold other people accountable for their actions other than themselves.

Life in the 1600’s was arduous for members of Puritan society. Strict social rules, including defined gender-specific roles, mandatory attendance at church, no self-indulging activities, and limited personal freedoms, forced people to repress their feelings and opinions to maintain a good reputation. God was involved in every aspect of life, and punishment fell upon those who were seen as not doing God’s work and deviated from the norm. The Crucible, a play set during the events of the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts during this time, focuses on the mass hysteria which plagued the people and their reactions. A group of girls went dancing in the woods, and were caught by Reverend Parris. To avoid getting in trouble, the girls, led by Abigail Williams, claimed being the victims of witchcraft. John Proctor, who previously had an affair with Abby while she worked for his family, refused to believe the accusations of witchcraft. After Abby accuses his wife, Elizabeth, John does his best to prove her innocence, yet ultimately ends up being hanged himself. The events are tragic, and many people died as a result. Abigail’s “in the moment” survival is evident in her disregard for virtue in favor of reputation throughout The Crucible, whereas John Proctor ultimately decides integrity is more important than survival through his admission of guilt.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is based on actual events led to the Salem Witch Trials. These trials were a group of hearings to prosecute those accused of witchcraft. Pride influenced the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity. Excessive pride is the driving force behind arrogance. Throughout the play pride influences the actions of three main characters. The three characters that have excessive pride are, Hale, Elizabeth Proctor and John Proctor.

In Miller’s “The Crucible” the pride of the people of Salem leads to a massacre of innocent lives. Pride is delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship. One of the main characters, John Proctor, has pride in his beliefs of purifying the Church of England. His wife, Elizabeth, has pride in her ability to use the trials as an ultimate revenge against Abigail Williams. John Hale is the “expert” on witches his pride springs from his extensive knowledge, but later in the play he recants and loses all his respect. Hale is the chemical that cause the conflict to come into full swing between Elizabeth and John Proctor.      

In the play of the crucible by Arthur Miller was about the witch trial in salem, massachute. A teenage girl named Abigail fell in love with a married guy named John Proctor. Abigail is doing everything to win John Proctor heart and be john proctor wife. Everything went wrong and she started to lie by accusing innocent people for being witches. Innocent people are getting hang up because of Abigail and her friends lies. The author's purpose of this play is to inform the audience about what happened during salem witch trials.

The Crucible shows bravery and cowardice throughout the book. Abigail Williams is a cowardly girl who doesn’t want to get in trouble for her foolish acts, who is then is offered a way to blame others for her actions by giving the names of “witches” in the town. John Proctor starts out as a cowardly man who cheated on his wife and didn’t want to give away Abigail’s secret that her accusations were false, but he ends up being a man that will die for his friends and the goodness of his name.

The Crucible is a play that takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the year 1692 and in short contains Abigail the Reverend’s niece accusing several women of practicing witchcraft. This leads to a witch-hunt. John Proctor and his wife Elisabeth realize that Abigail, with whom John once had an affair with, started all this in order to get Elizabeth hung in order for her to be able to get back together with John. Trying to save his wife’s life John testifies in court about the affair. Elizabeth trying to save her husband, and not knowing he admitted to it, denies it causing John to be accused of witchcraft. John was offered the chance to sign a confession and save his life but refuses to do so as he is concerned over the innocent citizens

A classroom of children stood around a broken picture frame. The children all had a shocked expression on their face, knowing that they were about to be in serious trouble. The picture contained their teacher’s family, and they knew it would be a big deal when she found out. When the crash happened, none of the students saw what happened. It was too busy, because they were huddled around the teacher’s desk, putting the present they got for her on it. The smashing of the glass cued the teacher to whip her head around, and she demanded that class to tell her what happened as she began to carefully pick up the broken pieces. She then explained that if no one had anything to confess, they would all get equally punished. At this point, all the hands raised. Not to admit guilt, but to point fingers at other kids. In The Crucible, when the girls are dancing in the woods, they did not think it was a big deal, but when some of the girls started to get ill, just like the glass breaking, they knew they would get in trouble. This led to a witch hunt to avoid the persecution of playing in the woods. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the character’s accusation of others, rather than accepting fault, exemplifies the human tendency to avoid persecution at all cost.

Pride can be defined positively and negatively, it can mean a sense of one's own proper dignity or value or self-respect, or an excessively high opinion of oneself or conceit, respectively. In the play which portrays both sides of pride we are transported to the late sixteen hundreds and introduced to the town of Salem in the province of Massachusetts Bay during the time of witch trials, and it’s excessively superstitious habitants. Some of the fictitious but notable habitants of the town are John Proctor, his wife Elizabeth Proctor and Reverend Hale, all of whom show various facets of pride, its benefits and its consequences.

Throughout the play, fear led to a consequence of persecution. Many innocent townspeople were accused of witchcraft. There were only two roads you could go down, confess to being a witch or go to the rope. Many feared the fact of dying. This led to the confession of many accused and innocent people. Another character who had their fear lead to persecution was John Proctor. John’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor was accused of witchcraft by Abigail. John knew that the root of the problem was Abigail and his affair. He feared that his wife would hang because of his actions. John confesses his affair, leading to him getting arrested and hanged. John confesses his affair to the court because he wants all the accusing of neighbors of

Standing on the gallows with a rope around your neck with the people who condemned you for something you did not do is not the most ideal situation. John Proctor, in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is by no means a perfect man, but he is a truthful one. When members of the Salem community begin to be questioned for witchcraft, he soon learns that the accusers are girls and that one of them, Abigail Williams, he had an affair with-oops. Abigail is determined to have John to herself, so her and other girls start acting like people in the town are attacking them with witchcraft which they learned from the devil. Many people’s names are brought up, along with John’s wife Elizabeth. John knows that it is his fault his wife was accused and so he

“Vengeance is walking in Salem.” (------) This is an important quote in The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, for many reasons. The Crucible is a story about people of a town named Salem accusing and being accused of witchcraft. Since the conditions in the town are not good at this time the people use an excuse for why bad is happening to them. What other way to do this than to accuse others of being witches and causing harm. The most important reason is that John is expressing that witches aren’t even the main focus of what is going on. The main focus in Salem is revenge and the witches are just a gateway to be used to attack others. As much as The Crucible may seem as an entertaining story about witches to the average reader, if you look deeper one may see the deeper meaning being portrayed by the story itself. The main elements that are trying to be shown in the story are human weakness, hypocrisy, and vindictiveness. These three elements are shown continuously throughout the story. It may go undetected by the common reader, but with a little bit of an open mind, he or she may really see what Arthur Miller, the author of the story, was really trying to get across.