What Are The Similarities Between The Crucible And The Scarlet Letter

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an iconic piece of literature that was published in the 1950’s. When Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, the United States was in the middle of the McCarthyism era where innocent people were being accused of treason without the proper evidence (“Joseph R. McCarthy”). As a result, Arthur Miller became involved and wrote a play to show his beliefs in response to the accusations and haywire going on. Miller used individual characters and portrayed them as a part of his protest. The Crucible was published as a play and made a film. The two are similar, but differences do occur. The play represents these characters with more historical accuracy and believability than the film because individually, the characters

“Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.” this is a quote by Walter Kirn. The Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials are very similar to the time of McCarthyism and it the most likely reason the why the book was written. “It was not only the rise of "McCarthyism" that moved me, but something which seemed much more weird and mysterious.” (Budick 1985) a quote by the author himself proving it was a factor that made him write the book. They were both witch hunts one literally one not so much a witch hunt as a communist hunt. Events in the play and events in McCarthyism are both very similar. A general thing that happened during both is hysteria, a mass feeling of fear in a way. They were both about people

The edgy tale of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is comparable in many ways to Arthur Miller’s haunting play The Crucible. Both are set in Puritan New England in the 17th century and revolve around the harsh law enforcement of the time. However, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of a woman as she deals with her heavy Puritan punishment, whereas The Crucible follows hysteria as it spreads throughout an entire town. Hester Prynne, the main character of The Scarlet Letter, was found guilty for adultery and sentenced to wear a red letter A on her chest to inform people of her sin. Similarly, The Crucible’s main character John Proctor admits to having committed lechery and is sent to jail for this and for being a

Arthur Miller, an American playwright and the author of The Crucible, explained the incident involving within the series of Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible and the Second Red Scare demonstrated a comparison in order to establish an allegorical parallelism between the two. Joseph McCarthy caused the fear of communism throughout the American politics and culture, which referred to the Second Red Scare. In the play, the innocents got falsely accused of witchcraft without factual evidence, similar to the situation when McCarthy indicted numerous well-known, innocent Americans for un-patriotism. The parallelism based on the two events can be embodied through the fallacious allegations upon individuals employed by Miller and McCarthy: the mass hysteria that overwhelmed the innocent civilians, leading to an outbreak which occurred due to its chaotic presence, and the act of integrity over reputation put forth on the individual.

Both literary works were written about the same time period, the Puritan era, hence their strong views on women and their roles in Puritan society, though one is a larger extreme than the other. Arthur Miller and Anne Bradstreet both have God as a main theme in their works. Though the writers have Puritan life as a major theme they also have many differences in their writing styles. The Crucible was not written in the Puritan era, the story was written as an allegory to Communism (The Communist Witch Hunt); because in the 1950’s Arthur was accused as a Communist spy. Rather than Anne Bradstreet who lived in this time period. Also in Bradstreet’s writings she largely focuses, with her Puritan-related works, on more of the familial side of the Puritan lifestyle. When Arthur Miller writes more closely relate to the Puritan woman's relationship with her husband and the corruptness of Puritan society. In Bradstreet’s portrayal of the Puritan woman in her poem Upon the Burning of Our House, is an attached woman, to her memories in her possession and with reason she figures out that God is the only that is constant and everlasting in her life. Arthur Miller portrayal of the Puritan are at opposite spectrums of the Puritan, the loyal Elizabeth’s; which her husband knows when he says, “ That woman will never lie, Mr. Danforth.”(Miller 85), or

Many people underestimate the powerful affliction that is guilt. People think that if they simply turn their back on what they have done and to the feelings of remorse over the wrongdoing, these feelings will eventually subside. However, this is not the case, as the moment one turns his or her back on feelings of guilt is the exact moment it sneaks up behind that person and eats him or her alive. In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter, which tells the story of two people who commit adultery and the aftermath of their crime. Almost exactly one hundred years later, Arthur Miller published the play The Crucible, also set in Puritan society, which tells the story of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Though written years apart,

In this paper, I will be talking about The Crucible, a story written by Arthur Miller in 1952 about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, and the Red Scare, a time in the 1950’s when Americans were scared that Communists were a threat to them. I will also talk about how Arthur Miller uses “The Crucible” to help the reader understand that similarities such as fear and nationalism occur in historical witch hunts such as the Red Scare still exist, and society persecutes those who do not fit into society because it fears those who are different.

In The Scarlet Letter our main character and protagonist Hester Prynne was sent to America by her husband and antagonist Roger Chillingworth who promised to follow her a little while later. He actually turned up after seven years, so Hester begun adultery with The Reverend Dimmesdale whom she had a daughter called Pearl. Furthermore her husband Roger follows secretly and finds out about these circumstances. As in The Crucible young girls are caught in the woods dancing and acting weird and are now accused of practicing witchcraft. The leader of these girls called Abigail Williams is now questioned by John Proctor with whom Abigail had an affair with while she worked for the Proctors house. On this hand John has also begun adultery towards his wife Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor and is still planning of how to get rid of his wife. In the two works The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, Roger Chillingworth and Abigail Williams are both driven by a force of revenge in order to regain contact to their old partners. In doing so, the authors create two-faced characters depicting the dual personalities and inner struggles of good and evil within the Puritan

The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are two stories both set in the early days of the Massachusetts colony. Both of these stories have many similarities between them, including setting, situations, and conflict. The two stories were also very different. The effects of sin on the characters, how they deal with their sin, and the consequences of their actions are different in each story. The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are different works and although they deal with similar conflicts the consequences and end results are very different.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller both used their writings to comment on the state of the world at their current times. Miller’s Play The Crucible and Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter both share several similar concepts, despite the fact that they were written just over one hundred years apart. The Scarlet Letter is about a Puritan woman by the name of Hester Prynne, who has an illegitimate child (called Pearl) with the religious leader of the town, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The Crucible is a play featuring the Puritan town of Salem, which is suffering through a hysterical, supernatural paranoia started by a vengeful adulteress named Abigail Williams. The similarities between these two texts have been compared and explored by many before, and three such explorations are investigated over the course of this paper.

How scary would it be to hear someone accusing people of something that they’re not and the people accused have the punishment of death? Well it has happened; in 1692 with the Salem Witch Trials and again in the early 1950’s with the Red Scare. How weird is it that those two events had centuries between them yet the same situations happened? Arthur Miller was a writer in the 1950’s who lived through the hysteric events of the Red Scare while writing “The Crucible”. This timing explains why the characters, accusations, and the outcome of the Salem Witch Trials can compare to the people, accusations, and the outcome of the Red Scare.

Rough draft Being accused of something you didn’t do isn’t fun right? That is what happened to people during the red scare on the 1950s and the salem witch trials. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the red scare in the MCcarthy era because of lying, the trials, and execution of people based on the word of others The red scare in the 1950s and the salem witch trials are very similar in multiple ways. “Critics of MCcarthy’s anticommunist crusade…”

The Crucible is an award winning 1953 playwright that was composed by American author, Arthur Miller. The play takes place in the time of the 1600’s Salem Witch Trials and tells a story of 17 year old Abigail Williams who has an affair with well entrusted family man, John Proctor. When Williams is caught in what seems to be a conjuring of spirits in the forest one morning, she faces accusations of witchcraft which would result in a hefty charge if pleaded guilty; death. Understanding the price for such a crime, Williams comes up with a lie to cover up her tracks. The playwright has had many runs in the production industry and even appeared on movie screens in the late of 1996. However, when looking at the movie and the play there are many differences that can be seen when looking at the two side by side. While the movie and the play do indeed have some similarities, they also have some differences that are very much apparent in terms of how the characters are portrayed and the scenes that had been cut out as well as the script having some altercations when transforming this playwright into a major motion picture. When zooming out and discovering the differences between the two it is obvious to see that the playwright is and always will be the better of the duo.

Most people agree that Nathaniel Hawthorne changed his last name from “Hathorne” to “Hawthorne”. This is one of the many signs that suggest that Hawthorne was ashamed of his Puritan past and tried to do anything to remove that “black mark” on his past. Furthermore, it can be seen through the themes and symbols in his play that Arthur Miller was no fan of Puritanism as well. Both Miller and Hawthorne take negative stances against Puritanism. This can be seen in their works The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter deals with the Puritan intolerance of those who committed a sin. In Hester Prynne’s situation, her adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale seemed to have sparked a particular hatred for her within her community. The Crucible deals with the Puritan fight against witchcraft. Many people in the town are accused of being witches and are forced to confess in order to save their lives. The intolerance that the Puritans show to witchcraft symbolize Miller’s complete dislike of Puritanism and their strictness. Both Miller and Hawthorne’s negative views on Puritanism are strongly seen in their respective works of literature. Also, both authors seem to think that the outsider is treated quite brutally. Miller’s take on the Puritan way of forgiveness of sins is somewhat painless compared to Hawthorne’s version of forgiveness. Hawthorne’s novel highlights hypocrisy and its detrimental impact. Miller similarly writes about hypocrisy and how it can destroy society as a

The Scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Crucible by Arthur Miller, are both two very breathtaking stories, that bring the fiction to life. Both in a sense use Pathos to make an argument of very distinct characters who know that their conscience is more important than their religion through emotion and power. All though many characters show the utmost ambition in the stories, some stand out more than others.