The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. Based on the Salem witch trials. The Crucible contains the lust, greed, false accusations, and lies of this time period. Preserving one’s reputation is a prevalent theme in The Crucible. If one of your loved ones were accused of witchcraft would you be genuinely worried about their well-being or more concerned with preserving your reputation? Reverend Parris, Judge Danforth and Abigail Williams were three characters who were more concerned with their reputations staying good than the well being of others and the truthfulness of the court. Reverend Samuel Parris is the forty year old widower and father of Betty Parris and uncle of Abigail Williams. Parris is the Reverend of Salem. At the beginning of Act 1, Parris is upset about his daughter’s condition and the possible connection to her inappropriate activities in the woods. When the rest of the village started talking and rumors started going around about the girls possibly participating in witchcraft, Reverend Parris starts to worry more about what people will think about him and how this event will change his name in the village. Parris states, “Now tell me true, Abigail. And I pray you feel the weight of truth upon you, for now my ministry’s at stake, my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life” (Miller 170). Deputy Judge Danforth was called in to oversee the witch trials in Salem. He believes that no innocent person should fear the court, and that he and Judge Hathorne are guided by …show more content…
Samuel Parris, Judge Danforth and Abigail Williams were three ideal characters who were more worried about preserving their reputations. One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. How far would you go to preserve your reputation in a town built on good
Danforth and Hale are involved in an argument over the Salem witch trials now that the court is now in session. Danforth gets angered and fiercely tries to imply (without proof) that the “fear” in the county is being caused by the witches and nothing more. According to Danforth, the goal of the witches is to overthrow the belief of Christ in Salem. Danforth’s use of words was a combination of all rhetorical devices. Logos was used to structure his argument, the vivid language led to the use of pathos, and lastly ethos was associated with his authority and confidence in yelling out the true “problem” in Salem. Danforth clearly states that he thinks the daughter was the “villain” and in his mind he is the hero for realizing that the use of witchcraft
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.
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is set in Salem village where an atmosphere of enmity and mistrust has been created through the conflicts and disagreements many villagers experience throughout the play. Many of these are caused by or, similar to the conflict between Parris and Proctor, are inflated by the many accusations of witchcraft occurring in the village.
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.
Reverend Samuel Parris is one character from "The Crucible" who changed drastically throughout the course of the play. In the beginni...
The Crucible is a play with many underlying messages and themes. One of which is the idea of power. Power is a very important term in this play in that whoever holds the power, holds the fates of others. The hysteria within Salem has directly effected society. Everything has turned upside down and has gotten distorted. Arthur Miller is telling us that all the power in Salem is given to those who are corrupt and their abuse of it is directly shown through: the actions of Abigail throughout the play, the corruption and desires of Parris, as well as the witch trials held by Judge Danforth.
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.
Judge Danforth was extremely problematic many innocent lives to be taken by his hand. The first problem we will look at is Mr.Danforth's way of analysis and judgment in court.
“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
Danforth is the most responsible for the demise of innocent people during the Salem Witch Trials.
Judge Danforth is responsible because he is not concerned about justice, all he cares about is being correct about the witch trials. Lastly, Thomas Putnam is guilty of causing the witch trials because he was able to have people accuse other people so he could claim their land for himself. The witch trials were a senseless massacre and all because Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Thomas Putnam were only concerned about themselves, not the innocent ones around them. Abigail Williams started the witch trials in Salem because she and a group of her friends wanted some attention from their town. Abigail thinks she is superior to some people, specifically Tituba, and has no problem accusing people she feels superior to.
To encapsulate, the character of Judge Danforth, initially thought off as the voice of authority. A person on whom Salem depended the most, for justice. His inappropriately actions due to his misconceptions and self-righteous mentality wiped off the communal trust and social bonds of the people of Salem. Thereby making him the most responsible for the tragedy Salem.
Reverend Parris stems from this dark path mainly due to his profound insecurity with his leadership role in the community. In Parris’ eyes, he is constantly under the constant judgement of God and more importantly the people of Salem both of whom could deem him unfit to be a Reverend, so he displays many instances of urgency in all instances of displaying superiority, “In meeting, he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door without first asking his permission” (Miller 3). For Parris, any outlet power over others reassured himself that he was qualified for his position, so when the trials emerged and his societal peers continued to dwindle, even more feelings of entitlement fell upon him because now no one could challenge his authority. Parris only benefitted from the destruction that the trials brought onto the town and sought to continue it even if it meant lying to the court, “I can only say, sir, that I never found any of them naked” (Miller 105). Instead of revealing the corrupted nature of the girls and possibly putting an end to the senseless killings, Parris decides to spare the girls in order to save his
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.
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.