Cruelty In The Crucible

573 Words2 Pages

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a short film where cruelty functions as a crucial motivation and a major social factor. In the film there was a lot of cruelty going on and helped shape the theme. There were some cases in the film that cruelty showed characteristics of a victim or one of the characters. Cruelty was apart of puritan aspects and it revealed that John didn’t care what he had to go through to save his soul. Cruelty helped shape the theme and function in the work by having to get hung if you broke any of the commandments or rules they had for the society. For example, one theme of the film is hysteria and hysteria can be shown when they get excited in the woods and go crazy with witchcraft. Abigail got asked about what happened in the woods and blamed Tituba of the witchcraft so Abigail …show more content…

In The Crucible, John Proctor and a bunch of the other characters try to hide what they have done until cruelty comes in the picture. For instance, John committed adulatory and didn’t want to admit to it because then everyone would have been mad at him. Abigail wanted John so she told the court about the adulatory, which made him get in trouble. He confessed to the adulatory finally, and ripped the papers up to save his soul and the true evil. Considering he owned up to it, he renewed his faith and now doesn’t have the temptation to lie about it anymore. Since he didn’t sign the papers he got hung which shows that he didn’t really care about the cruelty just that his soul was saved. Cruelty was the best option for John at this point. It shows how he is a strong and caring person, because he cared about himself enough to save his soul and he didn’t want there to be a letter on the church door showing an example of what not to do. If he signed the contract it left a bad reputation for his sons, so he cared about his family enough to not sign the contract. Cruelty showed John as selfless person for his

Show More
Related

  • Pathos In The Crucible

    437 Words  | 1 Pages

    People often get stumped on whether or not they truly love their significant other. They often wonder if they’re with the right person. Sometimes it’ll take some kind of a push to actually feel love between you and your significant other. In the play, different people have different opinions about Elizabeth and John’s love life. I believe that they genuinely did love each other. Even though Elizabeth mentioned that there wasn’t true happiness in the household, the audience could tell that they legitimately did care about each other. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he utilizes pathos and logos to show how Elizabeth and John’s relationship progress throughout the play.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Inhumane In The Crucible

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    “On the bandwagon” is a term used to describe people that jump on trends that most people are doing. In The Crucible, when Rev. John Hale was interrogating Tituba, she started accusing two other citizens in hopes that the masses won’t accuse her of undergoing witchcraft/ being a witch. She is seen accusing the people, “there is Goody Good … Aye, sir, and Goody Osburn” (47) which shows Tituba’s characterization as a liar and a deceiver. However, the bandwagon is seen after she has accused the two people in which many of the other young girls also start to accuse others in hopes of not being accused. For example, when Abigail states, “I saw Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, and Bridget Bishop with the devil,” (48) many of the other girls started to accuse

    Read More

  • Courage, Weakness, And Truth In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Public Punishment In The Crucible

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1953, Arthur Miller, wrote a play called The Crucible. This play was written to compare the witchcraft trials to McCarthyism, which was the practice of holding people accountable for being communists without actual proof. The Crucible became very popular in the 1950’s due to the relatable plot of the story since most feared the accusation of Communism. This story takes place in the city of Salem, where people of a true Puritan community live. There, people have strong religious beliefs and restrictions to what is acceptable in the community. One of those regulations was children were not permitted to play; if one was ever caught disobeying they would face serious public punishment. This punishment became a reality for children when caught dancing in the woods. The entire town became hysterical while trying to find the root problem to the children’s behavior.The faithful people of Salem determined that they had found witchcraft. As the hysteria arose, people started to worry about their reputations, questioning the actions of others and becoming delirious in attempts to save

    Read More

  • Honor in the Crucible

    1778 Words  | 4 Pages

    Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.

    Read More

  • Human Motives Exposed in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    1463 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Cruelty In The Crucible Essay

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cruelty is a constant motivator throughout literature. Cruelty can be used as a problem, or solution. How characters react to cruelty is crucial to characterization. In the Crucible cruelty is used to portray the message that your heart does not change due to your reputation in others eyes. How bad other people treat you based on what they think about does not actually change who you are and you should not let it change you. Cruelty towards John proctors clearly captures this

    Read More

  • The Crucible: Hysteria And Injustice

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    Also important to the play is how Arthur Miller depicts how one selfish, evil person like Abigail Williams can bring others down and make others follow her to commit evil acts. These evil acts affect even the most honest people in the town like John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse who cannot fight the accusations made against them by those following Abigail. Those following Abigail are considered to be holy men that are full of honesty and justice, but the play shows that even those who are thought to be respectable and right, like people of government or community leaders can bring death to innocent people if they are driven by something wrong. II. Plot: The plot begins with the inciting incident where Rev. Parris finds his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty along with his slave Tituba doing some dance in the forest.

    Read More

  • The Role of Fear Depicted in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    The play “The Crucible” is an allegory for the McCarthyism hysteria that occurred in the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. Arthur Miller’s play “the crucible” and the McCarthyism era demonstrates how fear can begin conflict. The term McCarthyism has come to mean “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty”, which is the basis of the Salem witch trials presented in Arthur Miller’s play. The fear that the trials generate leads to the internal and external conflicts that some of the characters are faced with, in the play. The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society.

    Read More

  • Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Promotes Self-Reflection

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that discusses many issues and spurs contemplation within the reader. While reading this play, because of the controversy of many issues detailed within, it is difficult for one not to take a look at one’s own morals and determine what one would do if placed in a similar situation. The key issues discussed within this play, the effects of hysteria, marital betrayal, and the murderous powers of lies, are portrayed intriguingly and effectively. The lessons that can be learned from The Crucible are still quite applicable today.

    Read More

  • The Crucible

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the play The Crucible, characters are presented in many ways. The ways Miller presents the character of Parris is through what the characters say, stage directions, what the character of Parris says and does and the relationships that Parris has with other characters in the play.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Oppression In The Crucible

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    Arthur Miller expresses the concept of oppression being present in every society through the characters of The Crucible. "It is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions." As discussed, personal motives, disputes and misuses of power, as well as distorted religious beliefs are the roots of the maltreatment in Salem. Miller’s statement and message is valid and applicable in every society, and for every

    Read More

  • The Crucible

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...or they probably didn't have any at all but this caused a lot of chaos and executions. Rebecca Nurse was one of the characters who was claimed evil , when really she was basically innocent and didn't have nothing to do with murder of the babies she took care of . Abigail was also mislabeled as a good character when she was really a huge liar and careless of anything that happened in the story. Lastly Marry Warren was a character who was good she liked a little power here and there but she did what was right , but this obviously didn't get her no where . So to save her from being executed she started to lie. In the play being the opposite of good was the way to go , being innocent and staying drama free wasn't going to get you anywhere but executed . Everything was backwards , the concept wasn't right and there wasn't any evidence to prove the witchcraft trials .

    Read More

  • The crucible

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Justice played a big role in The Crucible. In the play, a manipulative girl is infatuated with a married man and will go to any lengths to get what she wants, even accusing others of witchcraft and putting their lives at risk. Her accusations cause mass hysteria in the town of Salem. The Salem community’s obsession with trying to provide justice only caused injustice against the accused.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Theme Analysis

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    Good vs Evil, Reputation and Injustice, as well as fear and hysteria are all key themes in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. Significant events throughout the course of the play were used to highlight and illustrate the importance of these themes within the duration of the play.

    Read More

More about Cruelty In The Crucible

Open Document