The Crucible by Arthur Miller covers the red scare in a way of comparing it to the salem witch trials. This play can be read or watched live in a theater. The portrayals of the characters are drastically different in each version. The ways of expressing emotion and intensity also changes with each portrayal. Atmosphere and expression also plays into the experience as well. Each comes with its own pros and cons all depending on the watcher/readers preference. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, although amazing to read, is much better in performance. Reading the play is a much different from seeing it performed on stage in more ways than having a different reader. When performing the actors give an attitude and presence to the characters that simply reading in a class wouldn’t give. The theater can also add props and other components to change the watchers environment. Theaters use this to add to characters as well, for example whenever Abigail Williams would walk on stage the theaters temperature would go down. This emphasises her “evil” nature more so than in the written text. They also add props like gun John proctor used, this made a tense atmosphere and showed …show more content…
The performance expressed the coldness between John and his wife although they seemed to be more aggressive toward each other than they were in the written. The aggressiveness came from the portrayal of John, his actor would stomp and yell, actions that are not as well portrayed in the text. John wasn’t the only one who’s personally was exaggerated, Abigail williams was shown to be more sadistic and plotting than she was in the text. Her obsession with John was more pronounced by the way she’d try to grab him and her reactions to John's wife. Even the simple reactions from Paris expressed his fear and even put the audience on edge. These exaggerations help the play to click and become more understandable to the
The Crucible is a play that was written in 1952 by Arthur Miller. This play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, where witch trials were held in 1692. Miller is able to combine nonfiction and fiction in order to make this story dramatic and entertaining. A few decades after The Crucible play was published, a movie version was released. There are various differences between the book and the movie version. The movie added various scenes, elaborated on others, as well as omitted some scenes. The movie expressed Arthur Miller’s book in a very dramatic and exaggerated way. It made the reader have a better understanding of some points in the book and emphasized ideas more clearly, such as jealousy and hysteria.
The Crucible is an incredibly influential play no only in the fact that it displays many important themes, but it also portrays how a theocracy impacts societal actions. The Salem witch trials were the culmination of the problems with theocracy. The actions of society, not only are impacted by their personal thoughts, but also in religious undertones affect them. Act two in the play portrays not only all of these themes, but also some important events leading towards the witchcraft hysteria. Act two in the play portrays how theocracy ultimately leads to chaos.
In the Town of Salem Massachusetts, 1692, a group of adolescents are caught dancing in the forest. Among the adolescents in The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Mary Warren. The girls are horrified that they have been caught dancing, a sinful act, therefore they devise a story to evade punishment: they claim to have been bewitched. The first person who they accuse of witchcraft is a the black maid, Tituba. This results in her jail sentence as well as fearful suspicion throughout the town. Arthur Miller demonstrates the impact of lying as the girls recognise and manipulate their power in the town. Lead by Abigail, they go further, claiming countless others guilty and dooming them to exile. Miller demonstrates that there power is so great that even when Mary attempts to stand against her friends, she is quickly overwhelmed and once again plays along with their trickery. As the girls’ conspiracy continues, controversy arise over their truthfulness; people choose sides often lying themselves to support their side, further altering the lives of all involved.
All in all Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible was written to be a perfect allegory to the McCarthy era. Many of the events, strategies and people on both sides are similar in the play and the McCarthy Era itself. Many similarities can be drawn between the two including the basis upon which of the victims were persecuted, the strategy to lessen their sentences and the driving factor behind both conflicts, fear. The Crucible was written as a silent but obvious rebellion to McCarthy because during the McCarthy Era Miller was accused of being communist as well. The Crucible was a play, an allegory and a rebellion to and about the McCarthy Era.
What does the word crucible mean? The word crucible means a severe test or trial. Throughout the novel, The Crucible, many of the characters go through their own crucible. These trials have a major or minor impact on the characters life throughout the novel. These trials all come together creating the story based on the calamity in America around 1952, which inspired Arthur Miller to write this well known novel. In the novel, there are many different examples from various characters about life lessons and choices. Although the book and play are very similar they do share many differences.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, yet is as much a product of the time in which Arthur Miller wrote it, the early 1950s, as it is description of Puritan society. At that particular time in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote the play the American Senator McCarthy who chaired the ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’ was very conscious of communism and feared its influence in America. It stopped authors’ writings being published in fear of them being socialist sympathisers. Miller was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and that human beings were capable of such madness. In the 1950s the audience would have seen the play as a parallel between the McCarthy trials and the Salem Trials.
The Crucible – Characters and Changes & nbsp; Change is good for the future. " We hear the catchy phrase everywhere. From company slogans to motivational speeches, our world seems to impose this idea that change is always a good thing. Assuming that the change is for the better, it is probably a true statement in most cases. The root of this idea seems to come from the notion that we are dissatisfied with the state that we are in, so, in order to create a more enjoyable environment, we adjust.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller was published in 1953 as a metaphor to the (just barely ending) Red Scare. The play portrays the Salem Witch Trials that occurred in 1692 and 1693, where friends and neighbors started accusing each other of witchcraft. This refers to the Red Scare because people were being accused of being communist supporters or communist spies. Even today’s society could learn from this when dealing with problems and hysteria.
In the story The Crucible, the plot and structure add meaning to the play. Arthur Miller does this by connecting the events of the Red Scare to the Salem Witch Trials. He does this by making the comparisons of how easily it is to trust false things, jump to conclusions too quickly, and believe irrational fears.
“Well, all the plays that I was trying to write were plays that would grab an audience by the throat and not release them, rather than presenting an emotion which you could observe and walk away from.” by Arthur Miller. All great works provide a way to reach in and grab the audience through the reoccurring themes like, greed, jealousy, reputation and hypocrisy. Arthur Miller had one of those great works and it was called “The Crucible”. The play was based off of the witch trials that happened in Salem in the year of 1962. Some of the characters were actual characters involved in the witch trials. Arthur Miller wrote this play during the time of the “Red Scare”. Miller wrote The Crucible because he wanted to turn the The Salem Witch Trials into
In the crucible, I believe reputation and respect was interwoven in the term of the play the ‘‘crucible’’. Reputation and Respect can also be a theme or a thematic idea in the play, reputation is very essential in a town where social status is synonymously to ones competence to follow religious rules. Your standing is what enables you to live as one in a community where everyone is bound to rules and inevitable sequential instructions. Many characters for example, john proctor and reverend parris, base their action on the motive to protect their reputation which is only exclusive to them. People like reverend parris saw respect as what made them important or valuable in a town like Salem, this additionally imprinting to his character as a very conventional man.
In a society that demands conformity we see the effects on individuals who suffer in both The Crucible and Year of Wonders with their independence. The protagonist, John Proctor in The Crucible shares similar qualities with Anys Gowdie in Year of Wonders. Proctor’s disregard for social and religious customs creates a conflict between him and his community. He fails to conform to the teachings of society and is punished for his sins. He falters when recalling the ten commandments and commits the act of lechery. For this he suffers greatly, hanged for his confession of a lie. Much like Anys Gowdie who also does not attend church or any religious practices in complete disregard for the community’s religious views. For this she also suffers momentously as she is hanged on the accusation of witchery in the
American president Abraham Lincoln once said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years” (www.brainyquote.com). How long someone lives does not matter more than how they live. People remember actions more than anything else. Many people have two choices in a dilemma. They have to analyze different causes and effects the choices have. People have to choose the outcome they want to be known. Just as in life, literary characters have to choose between two opposite actions and live with the consequences. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor faces a crucible that causes him to question whether he will live or die. Because of his crucible, Proctor feels guilt, hopeless, and satisfaction.
Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, wrote the play based on the Salem Witch Trials, but related it to the “Red Scare”; a time of accusations and chaos. Even though it is not wise to believe everything you hear, many innocent people got accused and hanged because of the ignorant judges, believing what they heard from a group of girls.
Great events, whether they are beneficial or tragic ones, bring change in a person. These scenarios can give one an entirely new perspective on life, and turn around his way of thinking. Events such as the Salem Witch Trials show the people involved what they could not see before. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor gain valuable insight into themselves, as well as others.