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Puritans in the crucible
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Although a strict society composed of high morality and disciplinary laws may be necessary for safety, it causes internal conflicts within the individuals. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller a theocracy in Salem rules and guides the citizens into doing what is “right”, but eventually backfires due to issues of reputation and jealousy. Society has a lot of influence on the citizens, and with a bad reputation, it is nearly impossible to live in a Puritan society. Salem’s strict Puritanical social structure causes personal struggles for the individuals involved in the events of The Crucible, and then eventually these personal struggles affect the society overall. Abigail’s struggles come from many of her personal desires that are forbidden in her society, causing her to lie. However, this also creates further social problems, such as the initiation of the witch trials. After Betty is stuck in a coma, Reverend Parris questions Abigail about the night in the woods, because he is suspicious and she denies that it had anything to do with witchcraft. Abigail replies to Parris saying, “ We never conjured spirits” (24). Abigail lies to Parris, denies the statement that witchcraft ever occurred, and says that all they did was danced. Witchcraft and dancing both are sins in the society, and she knows that her reputation is at stake and finds the need to lie to look innocent. Parris wants to be sure and calls Reverend Hale to look further into the issue. Once Reverend Hale comes into town, he questions Abigail about the night, and she once again denies everything he asks her. Abigail is being questioned by Hale, and once Tituba enters she screams, “ She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!” (45). Abigail denies every... ... middle of paper ... ...Proctor deals with issues based on guilt which eventually are brought up in court. Although the individuals’ personal struggles in The Crucible are brought by society, ultimately they affect society as well. Abigail’s personal desires were forbidden in society which brought her struggles, ultimately causing her to lie, and then initiating the witch trials. Mary Warren is unable to keep her personal commitment to John Proctor because of her fear of Abigail and the girls, eventually harming John Proctor. Lastly, John Proctor deals with his guilt over his affair with Abigail, and he confesses in court, but Elizabeth testifies he has not had an affair. All of these personal and social struggles are relevant to our society today because the witch trials are still a very controversial Works Cited Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: the Penguin Group, 1995.
Abigail’s mendacity is a driving force throughout the play. It becomes clear early on in Act One that Abigail is hiding something. Her reactions to her uncles questioning of her name and reasons for discharge from Goody Proctors service are curious. The stage directions indicate that she answers “with an edge of resentment,” “with ill concealed resentment” and “in a temper.” She defends herself by slandering Goody Proctor. When she and her friends were together and realized that they could be in serious trouble she told them exactly what to say and threatened them if they did otherwise. When pressed with questions about the night of dancing in the woods and drinking blood, she tells blatant lies about Tituba by saying, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (1154). This is known to be a lie because earlier when the girls were discussing their alibi, it came out that Abigail drank the bloody charm to kill John Proctor’s wife. Tituba says that
Context: This part of the text is included at the beginning of the drama, telling the audience about Salem and its people. The author explains how a theocracy would lead to a tragedy like the Salem witch-hunts. This is the initial setting and is based on the principle that some people should be included and some excluded from society, according to their religious beliefs and their actions. This is basically the idea that religious passion, taken to extremes, results in tragedy. Miller is saying that even today extremes end up bad- communism, like strict puritans, was restrictive and extreme. It only made people suffer.
Abigail is wicked and confident and is not afraid to take control of situations. This is shown when she is with Parris, Abigail is respectful on the surface but she hides her resentment and disrespect. She talks back to defend her name and in Act One, she suggests to Parris," Uncle, the rumour of witchcraft is all about; I think you'd best go down and deny it yourself." She is also aggressive and forceful, the other girls are afraid of her. When Mary Warren suggested that they should confess to dancing in the woods. Abigail threatens them,."..I have seen some reddish work done at night and i can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!"
Explore Miller’s dramatic presentation and development of the theme of power and authority. Even though The Crucible is not historically correct, nor is it a perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, it still stands out as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance, hysteria, power and authority is able to tear a community apart. The most important of these is the nature of power, authority and its costly, and overwhelming results. “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or against it,” says Danforth conceitedly. With this antithesis, Miller sums up the attitude of the authorities towards the witch trials that if one goes against the judgement of the court
Many years ago, the culture and atmosphere was amazingly different. The expectations of people and communities are extremely high. During the Puritan times, many laws and regulations existed pertaining to government, religion, and witchcraft. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the one word that best describes the Puritan beliefs and the community structure is strict.
Without a doubt, Abigail convinces the group of girls to not speak about the night, or she will make them regret it. Clearly, Abigail makes them lie to save herself. As Betty whimpers in bed, she says “You drank blood Abby! You didn’t tell him that… You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”(Miller 18). Abigail uses the threat of violence to manipulate Betty when she says “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night…”(Miller 19). This shows Abby’s personality is manipulative and evil. As the reader can tell, Abigail says this because she knows there will be consequences for her. Additionally, Abigail lies another time when she plants revenge on Elizabeth Proctor. With this in mind, Abigail claims Elizabeth stabbed her
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright, Arthur Miller. In the play lies told by the characters add numerous conflicts, ultimately leading to the self-destruction of Salem. A lie that is tied between John Proctor and Abigail plays a big role throughout most of Johns decisions in the play. John had an affair with Abigail, the reader learns about this affair in a conversation between the two characters in act 1, “Give me a word, John. A soft word.” “No, no, Abby. That’s done with.” In this quote the reader can understand that both John and Abigail have lied about their relationship throughout acts 1 and 2.
In every conflict there always seems to be at least one person to blame. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many problems arise that deal with live and death. Many innocent people in this play were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there are many people that may be blamed. In The Crucible, one may find Abigail Williams, The Putnams, and Mary Warren to blame. Abigail was manipulative, The Putnams were very jealous, and Mary Warren was weak-willed.
Vengeance is the main theme of The Crucible. The people of the town of Salem were not united, but instead, distrusted and disliked each other. During the court trials, the girls started accusing certain people that they didn't like of dealing with witchcraft. For example, Abigail Williams couldn't forget John Proctor even though their affair was over. She believed that if his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, was out of the way, Abigail and John would be together again. Therefore, she told everyone that Elizabeth's spirit was trying to kill her and accused Elizabeth of being a witch.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, women are constantly looked down upon. This play shows the sins of everyone in Salem, but it highlights the sins of women. In Salem, some of the townspeople, mostly women, are accused of being witches; however, these accusations and trials show how crazy society can be. The Crucible is both written and critiqued in a way that makes men look better than females. Critics point out all the flaws of women, but they do not highlight the just as guilty men in the play. The men should be just as criticized as the women for their mistakes throughout the play.
Weakness, courage and truth these important concepts of humanity. They also play a large role in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Throughout the play you can witness these three traits with multiple characters. The Crucible is a very interesting play in American Literature. This essay will discuss how weakness, courage and truth is seen and how it makes an impact on the outcome of the play’s events.
A crucible refers to a harsh test, and in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, each person is challenged in a severe test of his or her character or morals. Many more people fail than pass, but three notable characters stand out. Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor all significantly change over the course of the play.
Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation. Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured to death. In the crucible, people were persecuted because of alleged witchcraft.
The Crucible – Human Nature Human nature was fully to blame for the disaster which took place in Salem in 1692. Human nature is what your character is made of in trying situations, and in 1692 scientific knowledge was extremely poor by today's standards and so all reoccurring problems were blamed on an evil force, whether it be the devil or witches or anything the imagination could conjure, hence human nature was being tested regularly. The decisions people made were critical to the disaster's progression, in today's scene in would have been dismissed within minutes, but the paranoia floating around in the town kept the ball rolling. People were so terrified of the thought of evil that any suggestion of it would create a preordained judgement in the mind of anyone, especially those who made judgement of the accused. To get to the supposed
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, it has a variety of different themes that could come from the novel. The one specific theme that stood out to me was hostility. This theme stuck out to me because hostility happens a lot in the real world as well as it happens in books, plays and movies. I have found many news stories of things that have recently happened, and a lot of it has to do with hostility and violence.