Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Reflections on the crucible by arthur miller
The crucible arthur miller character analysis
The crucible arthur miller character analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Reflections on the crucible by arthur miller
The crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem witch trials and how people react to hysteria created from the fear of witches. In the play, after hysteria breaks out, the Salem government starts persecute and hang people it believes are witches. This prompts people to start to accusing people of witchcraft. Some people who accuse others of committing witchcraft are Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam. They do not accuse people of witchcraft to stop witchcraft, but for personal gain or to hurt others. Thomas Putnam, one of the many characters who takes advantage of the witch trials, is able to use the fear of witches to bend the court to his will. Hysteria causes people to believe claims that are clearly false. This allows Putnam to persecute his enemies. He and many other are able to get away with this because hysteria driven persecutions are not run like regular courts and the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime allows evidence to be made up. The theme of The Crucible is when any persecution is driven by fear and people can and will manipulate the system so they can gain and hurt another. Thomas Putnam takes advantage of the hysteria driven persecutions to gain more land for himself, but at the expense of others. Thomas Putnam is “ a man with many grievances” (Miller 14) and, because of this, he has a very bitter personality and cares little about others. This bitter and vindictive personality of his causes him to value himself far above others. This explains why Putnam feels little remorse for using the witch trials as a tool to for personal gain even though the in order to do so he must hurt his neighbor. In the beginning of the play while arguing with John Proctor over land, Putnam threatens, “You load ... ... middle of paper ... ...of desperation he confesses to having an affair with Abigail and then explains this is why Abigail wishes to kill Elizabeth. When the court still does not believe him he cries out, “I have rung rung the doom of my good name - you will believe me” (Miller 111). Even though John Procter ruins his honor to stop Abigail, Elizabeth is still sentenced to hang. Even though it is obvious Abigail is manipulating the court so she can murder her enemies, the court choses not to even investigate Abigail. This is because witch trials are driven by fear. Fear and hysteria causes people to believe things that are clearly false. Using this, Abigail was able to convince the court Elizabeth was a witch. Abigail uses the court system get rid of Elizabeth and sentence her to death. These developments are only possible because persecutions driven by hysteria are easily manipulated.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, both pride and excessive pride influence the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity and worth. Excessive pride is being overly confident of one's own self worth. Throughout, pride influences the actions, reactions, and emotions of the characters in such ways to establish the outcome of the story. Three characters are impelled by their pride. Hale, who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft; Elizabeth Proctor, whose pride makes forgiving her husband difficult; Proctor, whose excessive pride causes him to overlook reality and the truth.
In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.
The statement,“The Crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is proven true numerous times, throughout the play. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, about the true events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, between the years 1692 and 1693. The Salem witch trials consisted of many hangings, lies, and complete mass hysteria. The citizens of Salem followed the religion of Puritanism, and the ideas of predestination. The root of the mass hysteria comes from their belief in the sense that in something happens then it must have been planned by God. In Miller’s portrayal of the story, Abigail Williams was the ringleader of the witch trials, and she used the idea of predestination to cover up her own sins. Abigail was a very manipulative girl and ruined many lives. John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor were just a few of the victims in Abby’s game. John, Mary, and Elizabeth exhibit the traits courage, weakness, and truth, whether it was in a positive or negative way.
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 is an accurate representation of the time during the Salem Witch Trials. The play also shows how corrupt and unjust the society was at the time. Each one of the characters had a motivation for their actions. Thomas Putnam and Judge Danforth’s actions were unjust and inhuman. Thomas Putnam accused people of being a witch just to take their land, while Judge Danforth never fully investigated the claims of witchcraft by the witnesses. John Proctor, meanwhile showed the qualities of justice and nobility. Proctor stood up for his name and the rest of the accused’s names by not signing the confession and dying like the rest of the accused. Thomas Putnam, Judge Danforth, and John Proctor’s actions during the play portray the qualities of justice or the lack of
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
1692, mass hysteria and paranoia fogs over a small town in Massachusetts. A tale of greed, scapegoating and fear of the unknown leads to devastation and death. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible makes the effects of scapegoating, hysteria, paranoia, and greed evident through the actions of Tituba, Parris, the girls and other townspeople. Miller uses the hysteria as a way to validate the ignorance and gullibility of Salems townspeople.
Justice in The Crucible by Arthur Miller The question that I have chosen is Question 5, What do you think this play has to say to the audience about Justice? After a summary of the Crucible I shall answer that question. The Crucible, a historical play based on events of the Salem witchcraft trials, takes place in the small Puritan village of Salem in the colony of Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials, as Miller explains in a prose prologue to the play, grew out of the particular moral system of the Puritans, which promoted interference in other affairs as well as a repressive code of conduct that frowned on any diversion from norms of behaviour.
The word crucible describes an event that involves a test or trial of someone or something. In the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller, various characters endure a severe test of honestly, bravery, and goodness. Throughout the story, a series of events lead to tragedies, which involve these characters to make important decisions. If chosen incorrectly, it may lead to the death of another innocent person, or possibly even themselves. These events however, will bring out the true colors of everyone in Salem, whether they truly good or evil.
In The Crucible, the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials caused paranoia amongst the people of Salem. Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a symbol and allegory of the fear surrounding the spread of communism during the 1950s in America. The community’s sense of justice was blinded by the mass hysteria and for some, a desire for vengeance and personal gain. The Putnams
Thomas Putnam has a very large part in initiating the Salem witch hunt. He is the first character who blames unnatural causes for the illness among the children. Furthermore, he firmly believes in the existence of 'vengeful spirits layin' hands on these children';(15). 'There is a murderous witch among us,'; he vehemently cries out(16). His action isn't surprising because he has lost seven newborns and his Ruth is sick. He wants to hunt down the witch, but he needs some aid. He lays his eyes on Parris because Parris is the minister and Betty is also ill. Thus, Putnam tries to coerce Parris to witchcraft. 'Declare it yourself,'; Putnam tells Parris, 'you have discovered witchcraft';(16). At this point, Putnam captures everyone's attention, and then he strikes.
Setting, time, and place were among the most obvious of details in The Crucible. As with each time period, the era in which this book took place brought with it unique characteristics of the people and places associated with that decade. Through the use of cleverly constructed characters, Arthur Miller was able to capture the past and give us a glimpse of what it would have been like to live in the late 17th century. Among those characters include John and Elizabeth Proctor, spouse to one another, Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Reverend Thomas Hale. Through these five people and more, the customs and general aspects of the Salem community are represented. One way the town expressed itself was through the way its inhabits dressed. The clothing that the people of Salem wore seemed very conservative and down to earth. There were no bright colors, but rather dark reds and browns which matched with the altogether oddities of Salem in Autumn. John and Elizabeth Proctor’s clothes generally were designed to be rugged for the man and yet comfortable to the woman. Most of Salem’s women, like Abigail Williams, were dressed as ladies should have been during those times; her accouterments were designed so they would reveal nothing to those who may have been curious. Among the unique and industrial designs such as Abigail’s bonnet and dress, Judge Danforth was to wear an outfit just as suitable. His dress consisted of a long gown and wig which was typical for a Judge to wear at the time. Like most of Salem, Reverend Thomas Hale tended to dress just as comfortable and casual as any of the other men.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller. Initially, it was known as The Chronicles of Sarah Good. The Crucible was set in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. It talks of McCarthyism that happened in the late 1600’s whereby the general public and people like Arthur Miller were tried and persecuted. The Crucible exemplifies persecutions during the Salem Witch Trials. The people were convicted and hung without any tangible proof of committing any crime. Persecutions were the order of the day. When a finger was pointed at any individual as a witch, the Deputy Governor Danforth never looked for evidence against them or evidence that incriminated them; he ordered them to be hanged. This can be seen through his words “Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for those, weeps for corruption!” (1273), the people were persecuted aimlessly. The four main characters in the play, John Proctor, Abigail Adams, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris, are caught in the middle of the witchcraft panic in the religious Salem, Massachusetts in late 1690’s. Persecution is the most important theme in the Crucible, the leaders and citizens of Salem attacks and persecutes one of their own without any tangible evidence against them.
Arthur Miller wrote plays as a way of showing people the real picture of what life was really like during the Great Depression and after World War II. Before the Great Depression many Americans were living in a significant time period, the Roaring Twenties. People had radios, automobiles, and movies with sounds. Then it all suddenly came to an end with the Stock Market Crash, leading to the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, Americans faced poverty, and had no income because jobs weren’t available. Throughout his life Miller influenced many people with his plays, and his contributions to this day because people want to read and understand what was truly happening in past history. For example, “The Crucible” is a play about the Salem Witch Trials, giving a good understanding of the basics that went on in this time period. Another example of Miller’s influential work is “The Death of a Sales Man”, which is his way of showing what life was like when people were struggling financially during the Stock Market Crash. Overall, Arthur Miller is one of the leading American playwrights of the twentieth century.
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.