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Analysis of the conflict by proctor and elizabeth in.the crucible by auther miller 1915
The crucible conflict of proctor and elizabeth
The crucible conflict of proctor and elizabeth
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Both couples have the same levels of closeness and intimacy in their relationships but they contradict in some ways. In The Crucible, Proctor feels a burst of passion and intense love towards Elizabeth as he says ‘I will fall like an ocean on that court… Fear nothing’. The simile ‘ocean’ symbolises purity and cleansing which could portray him as cleansing the court of its ‘vengeance’. However, it is also destructive which reflects his personality of dominance, strength and passion. The verb ‘fall’ could imply that he will gain speed rapidly, without any control and plummet down till he tramples the immoralities of the law, just to save Elizabeth. The imperative in ‘fear nothing’ makes him sound heroic and courageous and increases her hope of …show more content…
being saved and freed. Elizabeth responds by repeating ‘I will fear nothing’ but ‘(with great fear)’. This mirroring of language could represent one soul inhabiting two bodies as they reflect each other in many ways. She says this with fear which shows that she is trying to appear brave for Proctor to make him feel assured, although she is clearly not. Again, this shows their strong, mutual feelings and solidarity. The Proctors have begun to express their sincere love for each other. Similarly, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are very close and have deep feelings for each other and this can be seen in ‘my dearest partner of greatness’.
Macbeth considers Lady Macbeth as his ‘partner’ which contradicts with the views in society at the time where women were seen as inferior and weak and were cooped up in the household most of the time. However, Macbeth sees her as an equal, maybe even more than an equal due to her constant emasculation of Macbeth and dominant qualities. The superlative ‘dearest’ implies that Lady Macbeth is most loved and shows that the connection between them is unbreakable and very firm. The ‘dearest partner of greatness’ foreshadows Lady Macbeth as his partner in crime during the deed. He views her as full of ‘greatness’ but she views him as ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness.’ She thinks he is too cowardly and feminine to commit the murder and this can be seen by the metaphor of ‘milk’ which symbolises nurture and care. She is condescending on Macbeth but she only does this to make him achieve a higher status. The Macbeths do have genuine love but find each other slightly bothersome whereas, in the Crucible, both Proctors have honest affection and love each other for who they truly …show more content…
are. Guilt and shame play an important role in both plays and it affects the couples’ future actions in different ways.
In Macbeth, Macbeth falls into an abyss of regret and guilt, right after he murders Duncan. He feels as though ‘[his] hand will rather/ the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red’. Macbeth feels that his unforgivable sin will pollute ‘Neptune’s ocean’ and deprive it of its cleanliness and purity as well as its holiness due to his mythological reference of ‘Neptune’ who is the god of the seas. No matter how much water he uses to clean his hands of blood and his heart of guilt, it will continue to redden and remain. ‘Green’ is symbolic of life, nature and growth and ‘red’ is associated with death, blood and war. This also suggests that Macbeth feels he is going against the laws of nature and sinking it with his contaminated personalities. This whole hyperbole emphasises his extent of guilt and shame as in the Jacobean period, there was a strong belief in the Divine Right of Kings. So by murdering a King who was thought to be chosen by God himself, Macbeth is committing the worst crime possible in that context. He is drowning in remorse and humiliation however, Lady Macbeth harshly responds ‘my hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white’ and this suggests that she doesn’t feel the need to feel ashamed by this murder, but she would feel ashamed to be as innocent and pure as Macbeth. Lady Macbeth doesn’t care which shows her lack
of moral sense and remorse. As a result of Macbeth’s bad conscience, he begins to delve in the things in which has robbed himself of and misses them genuinely. He describes sleep as a ‘balm of hurt minds’ which portrays sleep as medicine which slowly but efficiently cures illnesses such as fatigue. He also uses the metaphor ‘chief nourisher in life’s feast’ which connotes that sleep is the leader of nurture and calm which is a gift from nature to cherish. Miller uses this long list of metaphors to emphasise sleep’s value in which he is fixated on as now he has completely lost it forever. So Macbeth is guilty and regrets what he has done whereas Lady Macbeth is fulfilled and finds her husband bothersome due to his goodness. Similarly, in The Crucible, Proctor’s guilt of having had an affair is killing him and both the Proctors are trying hard to smooth out the bumps in their relationship but they grow to be more distant. John says ‘I mean to please you Elizabeth’ and he attempts to prove this by kissing her but she simply ‘(receives it)’. The verb ‘(receives)’ shows that she hasn’t forgiven him enough to kiss him back. John feels guilty and he is willing to do anything to prove his affection and genuine love to her but she seems to not forget his betrayal. She finds it difficult to offer her true love and sincere care back to him because his sin has punched a massive hole in her heart and she finds it hard to patch it back up again. In the Puritan community, women are supposed to please their husbands and satisfy their desires but here, it is the opposite which shows the extent of guilt John feels and how shattered and distant their relationship has become. Elizabeth’s rejection triggers the audience to feel sympathy for Proctor’s futile efforts. A strong emotion of loneliness and ‘(a sense of their separation rises)’ when Elizabeth ‘(is watching… him absorbing the night)’ and when she turns away Proctor ‘turns to her and watches her)’. This mirroring of actions imply that they are both longing for each other and have a mutual desire and connection but both are reluctant to express their true emotions due to the uncomfortableness. This paralleling action makes the audience feel sympathy and grief due to their blind nature of not knowing how to approach each other. Therefore, Proctor’s guilt is motivating him to do anything to amend his relationship with Elizabeth although he is clueless, but Macbeth’s guilt is only a side-effect as he moves on to continue his devious plan with the aid of his partner, Lady Macbeth.
Analysis of The Crucible by Arthur Miller ‘You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor.’ Assess the developments in John Proctor’s character that validate this statement. How does Miller create a sense of tension and suspense in the build up to this climatic moment in Act 4? In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible he has used many dramatic devices in order to create tension and build up to the climaxes of the story.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, we are positioned to see belonging as paradoxical, in that the positive, human quality of belonging inevitably carries with it the negative and dangerous corollary of exclusion. By belonging, we are automatically excluding others and excluding ourselves from other groups. The Crucible achieves this complex presentation of belonging through a variety of interconnected techniques which will be explored in this essay. These techniques may be categorized into four main groups: conflict, characterisation, heightened language and juxtaposition; conflict being the foremost.
When people are put in tense and difficult situations, they lose control. John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Mary warren, all exhibit this throughput the play. John exhibits courage, in the sense that he found the strength to keep his name and lose his life rather than keep sinning and lie. Mary Warren displays weakness when she falls to Abby once again, in the end, instead of sticking to her story and assisting John, in freeing Elizabeth. Elizabeth illustrated how difficult it was to tell the truth in life or death situations. All three of these characters, and their traits, represent what “The Crucible,” is about, courage, weakness, and
Elizabeth Proctor is used in The Crucible to illustrate the powerful strength of what manipulation has over any living mortal. Typically an honest person under their religious faith would believe in telling the truth, but not while having an evil thoughts being whispered in your ear disguised as manipulation. Already knowledgeable of her husband’s previous affair with Abigail Williams, Elizabeth fears of ruining the Proctor name in the town of Salem, Massachusetts due to John’s affair and since John is a high authority figure in the church, it would ruining his name and people would not respect him as a preacher anymore. So in the process of saving the Proctor name, regardless of John admitting the truth by making the court aware of the recent affair he had with Abigail, Elizabeth denies those allegations because she fears that John will be upset to the utmost point, so she sacrifices herself to protect the Proctor name, even though she fears that she hopes that she made the right decision, as shown when she tried to clarify all statements be...
Life as a human is dictated by an inborn hunger or purpose, and people, in general, will act on this hunger for their own personal gain in their individual ways. This hunger, be it for wealth, land, love, power, revenge, or pride, can, and will be the undoing or failing of all mankind as Miller so clearly points out in his play 'The Crucible';. This essay will explore the motives of characters within the play and even the motives of Arthur Miller himself and therefore show how conflict stems from certain recognisable human failings including those mentioned above, fear, and hysteria.
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
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.
The reputation of a person is very important to their standing in the community, and especially in a religious community. In the play the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows the importance of social standing by religious beliefs and contemporary social dynamics. Therefore, the play was based off of a historical context, witchcraft, some characters represent as a scapegoat while others act as an antithesis of being a witch to meet the society’s standards.
Although a strict society composed of high morality and disciplinary laws may be necessary for safety, it causes internal conflicts within the individuals. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller a theocracy in Salem rules and guides the citizens into doing what is “right”, but eventually backfires due to issues of reputation and jealousy. Society has a lot of influence on the citizens, and with a bad reputation, it is nearly impossible to live in a Puritan society. Salem’s strict Puritanical social structure causes personal struggles for the individuals involved in the events of The Crucible, and then eventually these personal struggles affect the society overall.
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.
After the first murder scene, when Macbeth stabs King Duncan in his sleep, he encounters a great deal of guilt towards the murder. This is shown by a quote from Macbeth, "With all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in carnadine, making the green one red", at this point in the play, blood is resembled mostly by guilt. What Macbeth is really saying is that not even the entire ocean could wash his hands clean of blood from this dirty deed he had committed. He feels that what he had done was so wrong and shameful there is not a way in the world to hide it, the ocean is an excellent way to portray this. After the discovery of Duncan’s murder in the third scene, Macbeth exaggerates the king’s wounds," His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood, and gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature..." Macbeth most likely said this to drive away any thought of him being the murderer. The word "golden" resembles the King’s blood, referring to his social status not only as a King, but as a well liked member of society. The word “blood,” produces a dreadful description of the king’s murder which aids the audience in picturing this horrific murder scene.
Nine critical approaches are utilized when analyzing a piece of literature in order to appeal to a variety of critics. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible can be interpreted from numerous approaches, but one lens that is unmistakable throughout is the psychological criticism. From a psychological standpoint, one gains access to the mindset of both the author and the characters within. In addition to this, the reader also acquires a greater understanding of the motivations, behaviors, and mental state that each character possesses. Through psychological criticism, one can obtain information on a character’s motivation, the likelihood of their actions, and which behaviors are consciously made.
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.
Macbeth sees Lady Macbeth as a equal. This is shown when Macbeth writes to her in Act 1 Scene 5; ’This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness’. The use of the word dearest, meaning love and companionship, shows that Macbeth has the up most respect for Lady Macbeth. He values her opinion on matters of his future, something that the audience a...