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. Afraid of communism, Americans looked for “hidden” communists, just like the secret “witches”. He was also speaking to his 1950s audience here by explaining the paradox today: “It is a paradox in whose grip we still live […].” “Keeping the community together” also refers to Americans in the 1950s when the government tried to purify America from communism in order to keep Americans “together”. Response: I think that neither communism nor puritanism are good, because both of them are restrictive in many ways- anyone who comes out of the set frames becomes guilty. This can only lead to trouble. It is so banal to say that by purifying a nation, people would stay together. I think the point should be to make people have different opinions, but not allow extreme actions such as communism. Context: This comment can be found in the l Act, where Miller explains the theocratic nature of Salem’s society. In Salem heresy was punishable by prison or death. Just like in Salem, lack of patriotism in the U.S. automatically made people think of communists. When people were being accused with no evidence to back the claim, even the... ... middle of paper ... ...n whether to confess to witchcraft or not. His unwillingness to sign his name to the confession is because of his desire not to dishonor his fellow prisoners’ decisions to stand firm. Proctor concentrates on his name, because it would be destroyed of he signs. He finally comes to a true understanding of what a good reputation means, and his defense of his name enables him to muster the courage to die heroically. This shows us how important reputation and good name were back then. But even in the 1950s people wanted to keep their good name. That’s why people were afraid og being accused in communism. Response: This sentence is my favorite and was the one which stayed in my mind long after I was done with the book. It is very emotional and shows us how important a persons name is and how we shouldn’t attach false statements to it, because we cannot really change it.
Sometimes people are so narrow-minded that they do not see the whole picture. People see what they want to see because they cannot handle the actuality or do not like the truth. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Danforth refuses to come to the truth that the witch trials in Salem were the result of a cover-up, and that the court hung a handful of innocent people because of a lie. Miller once said, “The tragedy of The Crucible is the everlasting conflict between people so fanatically wedded to this orthodoxy that they could not cope with the evidence of their senses.” In other words, the tragedy of The Crucible involved the theocracy’s failure to control Salem’s witchcraft mania. At the time, Salem was governed by a theocracy, in which the ministers also had judicial power over society. Because the judges were ministers, religion took precedence over realism and pragmatism; they were unable to come to their senses and realize that the accusations of witchcraft were out of human emotions.
In that point of history, the public did not feel threatened due to communists but the public's own government. For some of the smaller groups of the 60’s, blame seems to blend over lots of different categories. The blame for everything can be discussed starting in the 60’s. Lies and secrets were brought to public light during the 60’s. I found new insight over this quote because it explains how in the 60’s there was no right or wrong.
Arthur Miller's portrayal of Salem, Massachusetts can be juxtaposed with Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. While the motivations differ, societal similarities exist and both teach us that when a whole society of people have a fear so great that it can be used against them, the society will try to do anything and everything in their power to prevent this from happening. Even when the means of prevention involves innocent people dieing and the judiciary system becoming corrupt, the society will act upon this fear of wickedness and the devil.
And so there goes a silly little man, bent by pride, forth to the gallows and whatever fate may await him beyond. Indeed, what legacy did John Proctor leave to his wife, left homeless, without a husband? What legacy did John Proctor leave his children, abandoned by their father in a fit of selfish vanity? What message was left for his children who would forever live in the knowledge that their father cared more for his good name than for his own sons and their welfare? What memory would he leave to the world which could not save him, what legacy to the world? There goes the silly little man, bent by pride, striding away from the family that needs him, towards his fate.
He learned over some time, that it is possible for one to retain separateness but keep individuality, and one can be a public person as well as a private person. He says that at first he wanted to be like everyone else (fit in), and only when he could think of himself as American it was than okay to be an individual in public society. He speaks of a man from Mexico who held on to Spanish: "For as long as he holds on to words, he can ignore how much else has changed his life" (35). The message is to not take words for granted and not to misuse words because they certainly do have meaning. For example, `brother' and `sister' is becoming a public repetition of words. The meaning will become lifeless. Words mean something when the voice takes control "the heart cannot contain!" (39). It forms an intimate sound.
The first, the importance of personal integrity, is brought to light through John Proctor, who finds himself facing personal conflict when making the decision of whether to lie and 'confess' to the court, saving his own life, or to tell the truth and be condemned by it. Upon first deciding to confess and live, Proctor acknowledges he has given his soul to the devil, but refuses to also tarnish his name by allowing his confession to be stuck to the door of the church.
Just as it was a sin drift on to the side of the devil in the time of the crucible, it was the same to drift on to the side of communism in the 1950's, when Arthur Miller wrote this play. In the 1950's Senator Joe Macarthy set up a campaign to rid the United States of all communist supporters. These communist trials would be broadcast on national television. It would involve the accused to admit their guilt even though they were completely innocent, and give the names of 10 other would-be communists or face exile, torture, invasion of family privacy etc. Arthur Miller uses the events of the Salem witch-hunts to represent and show what the communist trials of the 1950's were. They were both based on false premises and paranoia, and as more people got involved, more people suffered, this can be summarised by calling it the 'Snowball effect.
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 play, set in the 1600’s during the witch hunt that sought to rid villages of presumed followers and bidders of the devil is a parallel story to the situation in the US in the 1950’s: McCarthyism, seeking the riddance of communist ideologists. Miller sets this story more particularly in a village called Salem, where the theocratic power governed by strict puritan rules require the people to be strong believers and forbid them to sin at risk of ending up in hell. However, the audience notices that despite this strong superficial belief in God, faith is not what truly motivates them, but it is rather money and reputation.
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 they are essentially breaking their relationship with God. Like everyone else in Salem, Danforth draws a clear line to separate the world into black and white. The concurrent running of the “Crucible” image also captures the quintessence of the courtroom as Abigial stirs up trouble among the people that have good reputation and loving natures in society. In a theocratic government, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the Devil.
Schrecker, Ellen. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 1994. Print.
One of the subjects on which Miller commented was that of the notion that there is only pure, white goodness and cruel, unbending evil. In the play he shows us how people chase what they think is evil, (For example: not going to church, not knowing the Commandments, etc.) persecuting basically good people while the truly evil escape and are even seen as the innocent victims. The people of Salem condemned many based on the few things that were considered 'ungodly' and since they committed one sin, then it was assumed that they were committing many others.
It is seen countless times in the text that he defends his ‘name’, one prime example of this is the fact that he vowed not to touch Abigail again, in fear of losing his name in the town “I will cut my hand off before I reach for you” or even him not admitting to adultery at the earliest stage of the witch trials, which essentially could have ended the madness. However this point maybe invalid as he may be trying to protect his children’s and wife’s name rather than his. In my opinion this factor is still relevant – if he admitted to adultery as soon as possible in the witch trials, many lives would have been saved which in turn would have made him be seen as a hero by the reader.
...ely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next” (Miller 1). In the 1950’s the Witch hunt seemed unnatural and silly, but now-a-days, the Red Scare and hunting down communists seems silly and unnecessary. A parallel to the play is when Miller states in his article, “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties” (Miller 4). It is also stated in the article that “naturally to turn away in fear of being identified with the condemned. As I learned from non-Jewish refugees, however, there was often a despairing pity mixed with ‘Well, they must have done something’” (Miller 4). This frightening time in American history when neighbors turned on neighbors was documented in the book. When Rebecca Nurse is charged and Elizabeth claims that is outrageous, Hale replies, “Women, it is possible” (Miller 64).
“the witchcraft accusations of 1692 moved in channels which were determined by years of factional strife in Salem Village”