Salem Shannon L. Alder once said, “Sometimes painfully lost people can teach us lessons that we didn 't think we needed to know, or be reminded of---the more history changes, the more it stays the same.” Salem has been teeming with rumors of witchcraft since the 1600s, which is evident in the different sources and stories about witchcraft that supposedly took place there along with the intense and lethal trials.Throughout the different articles and the novel centered on Salem and the witchcraft trials that occurred there, a recurring pattern is apparent, those within Salem have quickly turned on each other and resorted to mayhem and chaos when there are not reasons for strange events. 1. Arthur Miller discusses in "Why I Wrote The Crucible" …show more content…
Arthur Miller develops the feuds and relationships between the main characters in Salem in “The Crucible” Act 1, which sets the platform for the rest of the story. 2. Miller reveals the deep connections the main characters share that go back a few generations and their opinions of each other, which could range from, “Oh, she’s only gone silly somehow” to, “I never thought you had so much iron in you.” 3. Miller creates a tense background where many of the characters from Proctor to Giles are beginning to turn or suspect one another of different crimes or mischiefs. 4. Miller portrays each character in a different light in order to differentiate those with secrets and those without with an objective …show more content…
In the well known novel “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, hysteria is exposed from its roots within the courts of Salem with shocking confessions and accusations. 2. Miller uses vivid descriptions of, “...black mischiefs” and, “...a misty coldness climbin’ up my back and the skin on my skull begin to creep…” to paint the odd displays in court that are responsible for the hysteria throughout Salem. 3. Miller sets up a scene of chaos and panic in order to foreshadow the extreme measures townspeople will commit in order to end this period of oddity. 4. “The Crucible” displays how easily a normal town can be transformed into a place of hangings and false
The focus of Miller’s The Crucible is an appalling witch trial that morfs the once-peaceful town of Salem into a cutthroat slaughterhouse. As a lucrative playwright and a not-so-subtle allegory author, Miller is a seasoned wordsmith who addresses people akin to himself, and is not secretive about that information. The Crucible best serves its purpose as a learning device and a social statement, especially at the time of its publishing. Miller‘s piece showcases the appeals in an easy-to-identify manner that is perfect for middle or high school students who are new to the appeals, or for English majors who have no problem pinpointing them, making this play ideal for a classroom setting.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is about mass hysteria of witches being in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. An educated man named Revered Hale arrived in the town with his exclusive knowledge of witches to help the town eliminate the presence of the Devil. He became a member of the court and aided in putting innocent people in jail or hung. As Hale started to see the consequences of his actions, he struggled with fixing his mistakes. The change in his perspective of the witch trials caused his overall personality and attitude to change as well. Hale’s dialogue, stage directions, and other people’s perceptions of him reveal a man motivated by good intentions; furthermore, his mission to help Salem destroyed evil in the beginning and his attempts
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.
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.
Hysteria is a mental disorder marked by excitability, anxiety, or imaginary disorders. It can play an important role in people’s lives. Hysteria supplants logic and enables people to believe that their neighbors, whom they have always considered highly respectable, do things they would never expect them of doing. In “The Crucible”, hysteria causes people to believe their friends are committing deplorable acts. The townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious piety but also because it gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to seek reparations from grudges. Hysteria suspends the rules of daily life and allows the acting out of every dark desire and hateful urge under the charade of righteousness. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the hysteria due to the paranoia of witchcraft causes Abigail to lie in order to save herself, Danforth to ruin the community, and Proctor to be convicted of witchery.
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, justice and injustice is portrayed through the characters of John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. It is also shown through the minor characters of Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis, followers of Abigail Williams, and through Danforth and various townspeople.
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
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.
The Crucible is a story of when the town of Salem, Massachusetts became dominated by hysteria and foolishness during the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Influenced by the McCarthy Era, when many people (including Miller himself) were accused of being communists, Arthur Miller accurately depicts the widespread insanity of the accusations and the trials themselves in his play by using stylistic elements such as stage directions; imitative, period dialect; and allusions. Miller starts each of his acts with a narration in parenthesis and in italics. First he gives the general setting of the scene. Next, in a new paragraph, (still in parenthesis and italics) he gives more specific details about the environment. Lastly, also in a new paragraph,
Authors often have underlying reasons for giving their stories certain themes or settings. Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, The Crucible, is a work of art inspired by actual events as a response to political and moral issues. Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, The Crucible proves to have its roots in events of the 1950’s and 1960’s, such as the activities of the House Un-American Committee and the “Red Scare.” Though the play provides an accurate account of the Salem witch trials, its real achievement lies in the many important issues of Miller’s time that it dealswith.
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.
Humans can only take so much until they reach a certain breaking point. People will crumble filled with rage and commit many immoral acts. Once they execute these evil motives they must be punished. “You will give me your honest confession in my hand, or I cannot keep you from the rope.” (Miller,1272). A great example of this is the Salem witch trials. A few individuals may know it because of The Crucible. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he conveys the corrupted decisions and processing in the justice system. Miller clarifies this through the irony of the characters involved in the court, who are presented adequate evidence, and are blinded by their reputation and self worth.
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.
A group of teenage girls were secretly dancing in the woods with a black slave, named Tituba. When they were discovered of what they were doing, the girls started accusing certain individuals in the village of dealing with witchcraft. Within a blink of an eye, the entire village is controlled by a devil that exists within the fear of each person. A drama of suspense and impact, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, explores through the individuals' vengeance, fear, reputation, and quest for power.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, include similarities to its historical context which lie in the attitude of Salem. Du...