‘the Crucible’ and ‘the Island’ - Belonging Essays

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a rich and enticing play set in the late 1600’s describing the epic horrors and emotions through the events of the Salem witch trials. The Crucible, focuses primarily on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. The play begins with the discovery of several young girls and an African American slave, Tituba, in the woods just outside of Salem, dancing and pretending to conjure spirits. The Puritans of Salem stood for complete religious intolerance and stressed the need to follow the ways of the bible literally without exception. The actions of the women in

What is it to belong to a group? Is it really that simple when someone says, "Either you're with us or you're not"? Yes, it is that simple. Belonging and exclusion in any situation are two sides of the same coin - you can't have one without the other. In any organization or group, people are bound together by a community of interest, purpose or function and if you do not believe in these same things, then you are not a part of that group. In an organization or group, you have to ask yourself, "What is it to be a part of this particular group, what does it take to belong?" It takes following the rules of the group, agreeing with their purpose, obeying their authorities and the ability to go the length for their cause. In "The Crucible", if

In the book The Crucible there is a struggle within to have one have a sense of belonging to society. They want to be loved by that society no matter how much they may seem that they don’t belong. But they do want to show that to everyone, everyone that may not think that.

People have the longing to belong and to be accepted by a group or community. A sense of Belonging can emerge from the connections and acceptance we have with other people, communities and the larger world. These ideas of belonging are represented in texts which explore aspects of belonging and an individual’s potential to challenge or improve a community group. The film ‘Strictly Ballroom,’ directed by Baz Lurhman, the film ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ directed by Kate Woods and the exaggerated true story of an African American youth’s fight to belong in the song “dance with the devil” by immortal technique all represent ideas of belonging formed by life experiences.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, we are positioned to see belonging as paradoxical, in that the positive, human quality of belonging inevitably carries with it the negative and dangerous corollary of exclusion. By belonging, we are automatically excluding others and excluding ourselves from other groups. The Crucible achieves this complex presentation of belonging through a variety of interconnected techniques which will be explored in this essay. These techniques may be categorized into four main groups: conflict, characterisation, heightened language and juxtaposition; conflict being the foremost.

One of the three major themes that is brought upon in The Crucible is groupthink, a phenomenon where people in a group make irrational decisions in order to fit in with the rest of the group to stand out. In this play, witchcraft plays a major role in the fate of many, whether it be deemed real or not. The main ideology that makes this theme true is when the female characters in this story are encountered with being accused of witchcraft, such as Abigail Williams, and Sarah Good, etc. When caught dancing in the woods next to a burning cauldron, the ladies profusely try to deny and cover up their story, only to end up blaming innocent souls. Doing so, an ample chain of accusations spread rapidly through the church and the town, making nearly everyone insane. Abigail was one of the first to cause this by saying, “‘I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” (Miller 481). Another example, in the church/court,

Despite the fact that the theme of insiders and outsiders is a commonality worldwide, most people do not think about it enough and how affects so many different communities. In order to obtain balance, there should be both insiders and outsiders. The insiders are there to support the greater public opinion while the outsiders are there to question the rules and laws which helps maintain diversity. Lastly, standards and overall trends greatly regulate what is normal and what is not. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, although the Puritan town of Salem is supposed to be a united community under God, the strict societal norms and harsh expectations creates a major division between insiders and outsiders which ultimately forces many accepted members to become shut out as the culture progressively develops further from normality.

The Crucible Essay: Reason and processes For Abigail William’s proceedings and success in play “The Crucible” is authored by Arthur Miller. In Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” the character Abigail William influences the proceedings, and continually succeeds. It is because of her will of ambition to achieve her desires and that moves her to prepare such things to make her desires happen. She gives a pressure and threaten to the other town girls to act like there are spirits which are coming after her and the other girls.

For generations, the foundation of societies have ultimately stayed the same, with only ideas changing. To this day the voice of many remains unheard and unspoken as people are expected to conform to the standards of society. The idea of “Group Think” requires an exact mold for the members to shape to, but in reality Developed in 1972 by Irving Janis, “Group Think”, a psychological phenomenon, affects the choices of thousands of people unknowingly and deleteriously. The fallout of a group and its tragic aftermath due to the effects of “Group Think” is shown in The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller in which chaos has risen across Salem, Massachusetts with the appearance of witch trials. Tangled up in the trials, the characters are forced to undertake actions against their own will power. Key driving symptoms of Groupthink contributing to the Salem witch trial include, but are not limited to pressure, an in illusion morality and self-censorship.

In this play there is a wanting to belong that effects many characters. For instance Michael isn’t sure what he wants to be but he knows that he doesn’t belong on a farm. He wants to do something other than being a farmer. Carolyn at the start of the play wants to be taken seriously and succeed. This is shown when she ask her dad to stand somewhere else because she wants everyone to know that she raised the steer. Francesca Johnson wants to belong and has convince herself that she does for so many years. She has forgotten who she is. Robert Kincaid reminds her of the person she was long ago and has forgot. For the first time he wants to feel a since of belonging to someone and a home.

In The Crucible, how fear forces individuals to comply with the collective’s standards and beliefs are displayed through the characters’ struggles with their moral values and the belief of witchcraft in the community. When John Proctor demands that Mary Warren proves that Elizabeth Proctor is innocent by revealing that Abigail Williams stuck the needle in herself, Mary Warren protests, saying, “I cannot, they’ll turn on me---” (80). Even though Mary does not want Elizabeth to be hanged and knows that the spirits that Abigail and her friends claim to

A second theme revealed in The Crucible is empowerment. During the trials in the play, many characters were given power, which they never had before. These characters were the women. Women in Salem are generalized to be governed by the men and have no choice in anything. The women either work as servants to men or get married and have children. An example of this theme is Abigail Williams. She’s seventeen-years-old and has a great amount of power with the witch trials. In one scene with Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, Abigail, Mrs. Putnam and Tituba, Abigail is explaining to Reverend Hale about the incident with Betty. Once she sees Tituba, Abigail points at her and says to Reverend Hale, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” Abigail also says, “She sends her spirit on me in church, she makes me laugh at prayer!”With these serious accusations, Tituba is imprisoned just because Abigail accused her of practicing witchcraft. The idea of empowerment is universal and enduring because anyone in the world with no supremacy, can suddenly have all the power. Today in modern society, people all over the world set aspirations in order to gain authority and be ahead of everyone else. Furthermore, many people in the world have power and authority over others. Empowerment will always be in societies around the world.

In “The Crucible”, a play about people being accused of witchcraft in 1692, both class and race played a part in who was accused and executed. The play began when the minister, Parris, catching local girls including his daughter, Betty, dancing at night with the black slave, Tituba. As soon as Betty became ill, Tituba was the first to be accused of witchcraft, and eventually executed. Soon, Tituba and Parris’s niece, Abigail started pointing fingers at many others in the community. Meanwhile, men with wealth or power such as Reverend Parris and Thomas Putnam, were trying to gain wealth and property by accusing others of witchcraft. An example of this was when Thomas Putnam wanted his daughter to accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft so Putnam could get his land. Judge Danforth, the person with the ultimate power, did not seem to seek justice for the powerless who were falsely accused. (Miller)

The 1985 film ‘Witness’ displays the concept of “No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is an island, entire of itself, a part of the main.” This means that every man has a place within society/community and cannot make one by himself. Peter Weir explores this in the film with belonging and not belonging, and is shown through the narrative, context, camera angles, soundtrack etc. From different perspectives, in the film, it may or may not be possible to successfully withdraw from mainstream society and belong to a closed community.

An individual’s sense of belonging can be shaped by numerous elements of their interactions with other people and places. To obtain a true sense of belonging, these elements must work to support and accept the individual in their discovery of a fulfilled and contented existence. These essential concepts of belonging are displayed within William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It, Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A.B. Patterson’s poem Clancy of the Overflow. Through the composers’ use of dramatic, language, poetic and literary techniques, we are able to explore the various aspects and ideas which lead to a deep sense of belonging.