Witchcraft In The Crucible

American playwright, Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible (1952), suggests that witch hunts still exist in American society. Miller supports this claim by drawing parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and the Senator Joseph McCarthy Trials. His purpose is to warn his readers of the dangers of mass hysteria. He uses emotional appeals (pathos) and logic (logos) to convince the reader that mass “hunts” are still a danger to Americans today. The main way, however, that Miller achieves his ultimate goal of demonstrating the dangers of individuality vs. ideology is through the vivid characterization of Mary Warren. Mary Warren is an example of an outwardly conforming character because in the play she tells Abigail that she wants to tell

“The Crucible” takes place in the late 1600’s in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. At this time, people believed that witchcraft existed and that commonly people practiced it. The town of Salem was a very religiously based settlement and was very strict about its rules towards witches and witchcraft. The play is based off of an actual time when multiple girls lied about practicing witchcraft, and about people using witchcraft to force the girls to use it. Throughout the play, the lie continues to escalate because the girls do not want to get in trouble and the trials and panic gets very out of hand. Three major factors that caused the Salem witch trials to escalate so far

You are guilty of witch-craft, and you will be hanged immediately! In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, written in 1953, was written during the Red Scare when people would get blacklisted for being associated with Communism. Arthur Miller published this book in order to get the message across of what was happening with McCarthyism, but instead this book deals with witch-craft in Salem. People were accused of being witches and allying with the devil. Many of them were being executed till they confessed or gave them a name of the people dealing with the devil. Innocent people were being punished due to people having more of an authority as others, especially if they have a good name in the village like Abigail. Elizabeth Proctor is a woman of God and is accused of witch-craft by Abigail. Also Elizabeth is motivated by anger and jealousy, after she finds out her husband has been cheating on her with Abigail, she decides to make him feel guilty, which leads him to confess to witch-craft.

How do the characters respond to the accusation of witchcraft? Why do you think they act this way? Does their religion have anything to do with their reaction?

In The Crucible the hysteria in Salem started in 1692 when a group of girls began to display strange behavior. The only explanation for the girls dancing in the woods must have been that they were bewitched. The Puritans believed that the unusual events that were happening was the work of the devil. Also, sudden droughts and floods caused the people of Salem to be more afraid and it spread

Mary’s inability to faint on command for the members of the court was because she tries to make a point that witch accusers are not in fact what they seem. She tells the judge that “HATHORNE: And yet, when people accused of witchery confronted you in court, you would faint, saying their spirits came out of their bodies and choked you, (Miller 106).” “MARY: That were pretense, sir.” (Miller 106) based off this she tries to persuade the judge that the girls got carried away and just don’t want to get into trouble from the dramatic scene where they were dancing in the woods and doing other demonic things. The judges get into the mix of this and claim to have seen her faint before, “PARRIS: Why not? Now there are no spirits attacking you, for

In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is the cause of the accusations of witchcraft. Abigail starts the witchcraft when she invites the girls to join her in the woods to have Tituba put spells on them to get the boys in the town to like them. Abigail asks Tituba to put a spell on Goody Proctor to kill her. Abigail is will to do anything to get John Proctor to herself, even accusing people of witchcraft. Many people were hung or put in prison because of her. The decisions made by Abigail Williams were not justifiable because she accused Elizabeth of stabbing her in the stomach and accusing innocent people of being witches and putting spells on the girls in the town.

There was time in history where there was Salem Witch Trials that occurred. However, there were events that occurred in the book, The Crucible, that did not happen in real life. The Crucible is best studied through its exterior background, but sturdy and enduring as a depiction of how narrow minded and frenzy it can shred a community away from each other. Early in the year 1962, in a miniature Massachusetts village of Salem, a throng of adolescent girls fell ill, falling victim to seizures and illusions. The incomprehensible sickness induced terror of witchcraft, which caused many locals of Salem to accuse other locals of associating with the devil and summoning spells.

The Salem Witch Trials were prosecutions of accused witches. It took place in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 to 1693. Too many people died from accusations made by other people to save themselves from the rope. Many of the accusations were false, let alone 3 characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller also had a huge part in the accusations also. There are many people in Salem that their actions and manipulations directly led to the cause and/or added fuel to the fire, to the witchcraft trials. Hales naive self, Mary's lies and Abigail's love for Proctor lead to many hangings in Salem.

After eight births and only one child to survive, the Putnam’s cannot bare the fact that their babies have died for no obvious cause. The only resort is to blame witchcraft for the killing of their babies. The gossip is hot in Salem, and no one wants to be boiling in it. The “witchcraft” in this town is causing everyone to turn against each other. To get the spotlight off of them, they take turns continuously throwing each other under the bus.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne references many people and things to sources of evil power and evil influences. One of main characters is a little girl named Pearl, who is looked upon as an elvish child by everyone; and she is very abnormal, mystical, and strange, as she runs about wildly and freely, contained by no one and no thing, as an unruly elvish earthling. In the story we read, “The unlikeliest materials—a stick, a bunch of rags, a flower—were the puppets of Pearl’s witchcraft” (Hawthorne 65). From this reference, witches can be perceived to use these materials in their sorcery as well as using them for other rudiments in their practiced religion. Witches were commonly found to be dressed in a rugged appearance of rags, often very

In the late 17th century, women in puritan societies were viewed as subservient beings created for the sole purpose of obeying the men around them. They were powerless in most situations, and women who chose to claim some of their power back were viewed as witches who could only have had these ideas with the help of the devil. The women in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are able to successfully take power from a male-driven society on a grand scale, within their family lives, and on a personal level.

Witnessing first hand real life “witch hunts” during the McCarthy era gave Arthur Miller a knack for pinpointing motivations for people to lie, and the ability to create compelling scenes in which characters rely on, in varying degrees, circumventing the truth.

Not only was the mixture of the law in the church and society complementary to the theme, so was fear. Witchcraft was forbidden. To have been unknowingly associated with it seemed frightening to a lot of characters such as Reverend Parris. He did not sign his daughter up to play a part in this sinful game . Reverend Parris just found his daughter and other females "dancing like heathens in the forests" (Miller 10). When voiced to the opinion of Thomas Putman, Reverend Parris became too sensitive to consider there being an "element of witchcraft" (Miller 14). He was concerned of what people might think of him. Although Parris had a half priced reasoning for not wanting to conclude witchcraft, he had a good point. "Witchcraft was an easier way

During the time The Crucible was set, the community of Salem was awry. It did not have the solid characteristics of what a healthy town should look like. Instead there was no trust between people, everyone was watching out for only themselves, and most of the townspeople were turning their backs on the disastrous deeds of the court. The people of Salem feel like they have no one to turn to, so fear crept into their minds and hearts. They developed hysteria which caused the town to slowly disintegrate. This panic allows other people in their community to take advantage of them and manipulate them for their own purposes. In his play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows how vengeance and greed destroy the community through the characters of Abigail Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, and Reverend Parris.