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The crucible: how is it relevant to today's society
The crucible: how is it relevant to today's society
A essay on the crucible
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One of the greatest tragedies of early American history were the Salem Witch trials which led to over 200 being accused and imprisoned, including those as young as 4. During the Red Scare, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. The Crucible showed how the Red Scare correlated to the Salem Witch Trials. Among the hysteria, Miller focuses on one family, The Proctors. John Proctor is dealing with the guilt of an earlier affair with Abigail Williams, and his wife, Elizabeth, is cold and harsh towards him, refusing to forgive him. Throughout the play, culminating in the last act, the audience gets to see their change from sin to redemption. By the end of the play, Elizabeth gains redemption by ditching her attitude of coldness for one of forgiveness. …show more content…
In byplay between Elizabeth and John, she questions “If it were not Abigail…would you falter now? I think not” (1270). Elizabeth feels that John is continuing to back out of going to Salem because he does not want to hurt here. From her words, one can gather that she feels justified in her judgment. This shows her sin of judging others, including her husband. Just a few moments later, after John tries to defend himself, she cuts him off “I see what I see” (1270). Once again, the audience can not only see how Elizabeth feels, but why. Her use of “I” proves that she is judging John, without knowing his reasons. At the end of the play, as John is going to his death she proclaims “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him” (1334). Elizabeth has finally decided that John is worthy of forgiveness and has given it to him. The word “forbid” shows that she recognizes that it was a sin to withhold forgiveness from John, and now is trying to remedy her past sin. Elizabeth forsakes he path of anger towards John and instead forgives him completely by the end of the play. She helps the audience to see how John is progressing in his fight to become redeemed. Meanwhile, John is undergoing the process of sin to redemption by abandoning his shame and guilt and embracing his goodness.
When Elizabeth continues to doubt him, he replies “You doubt me yet” (1270)? According to the stage instructions, these words are to be conveyed with a sense of anger and frustration. John feels guilt; however he can’t release it or share it, because Elizabeth continues to doubt him. This is what causes his anger over the guilt he feels and portrays. Later after being in jail for months, he tells the court “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another” (1331). His diction shows that he understands that to be redeemed he cannot judge others, or betray them. He says this to the court with a tone of hatred for the situation, as he realizes that he is only partway to being redeemed. He is sparing his friends, but he is continuing to lie about himself. He finally shows his goodness with his announcements of “I have three children- how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends” (1332)? and “I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence” (1332). John understands and makes in obvious through his words, that by saving himself and sinning he will also be destroying the lives of many others. This leads him to rip up his confession, so that it cannot be used against others. This is his final transfer to redemption and goodness with his willingness to forsake sin and his willingness to die for
it. John changes from a man overcome with guilt and anger at his past actions to one who is caring and willing to die to save others. This transformation follows his changes from sin to redemption and greatly influences the play as it helps the audience fully understand is and others actions. Throughout the hysteria of the Salem Witch trials, readers can track the change in Elizabeth and John Proctor as they work to overcome their sins and become redeemed. Miller uses these two characters to send two distinct messages to his audience. Through Elizabeth, he shows that although one may not realize, he/she can have a major impact on another’s sins through their own actions. John is used to show how crushing guilt can be; in “The Definitive Guide to Guilt” it says that the best way to fight this type of guilt is to rely upon support from others. At first John does not have anyone to lean on and is crushed by the guilt, but later on he is able to release it and the audience can see how much of a change it makes in a person. While the play ends it tragedy for many, it also ends in triumph with John Proctors redemption.
Zig Ziglar once said, “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.” I feel that this quote relating to The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, means that you have to have loyalty to have success in life. This quote explains itself in the Crucible by how Elizabeth was hurt by the affair Proctor had with Abigail. Since Elizabeth is motivated by loyalty her decision to lie in court results in her loss of John Proctor by the end of the play.
Joseph McCarthy was a Republican senator who did as much as he could to whip up anti-communism in the 1950s. In the time of his term, he didn’t attach his name to anything significant until February 9, 1950. On that day, he gave a political speech claiming that he had a list of 205 Communists in the State Department. Although nobody saw the list of names and it wasn’t clarified by anybody else, the speech made national news. Furthermore, this relates to The Crucible because Abigail, like McCarthy, made multiple false witch accusations on women in Salem. Arthur Miller’s historical play, The Crucible, portrays the historical events of the Salem witch trials through a number of memorable characters and a background based off of McCarthyism. While
The Crucible tells of a town’s obsession of accusing innocent people of withcraft. One character that stands out and makes a spiritual growth is Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth allows her frustrations of her depression to overcome her religious beliefs which separates herself from God and her marriage. She grows spiritually and begins to understand the things going on around her which was the strength she needed in the beginning.
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller. This play centers around the witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. In Act II, Abigail and her friends accuse several innocent people of witchcraft. Once they leave the court, Reverend Hale goes to John Proctor’s house to inform Elizabeth Proctor that people in the court have mentioned her name. Then officials of the court, Herrick and Cheever, arrive at the Proctor’s house. They claim to have a warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest because the court declares she practices witchcraft. After, Herrick and Cheever take Elizabeth to jail. Injustice in Act II prevails because of the inability to see the truth. Reverend Hale and John Proctor illuminate the theme that closed-mindedness
Elizabeth still doubts her husband because she feels that if it were any other girl that he had to go testify against, he would not hesitate. But, because it’s Abigail, he feels he has to think harder on making a decision. John Proctor feels he is now justified in becoming angry because for the seven months since his confession, he has done nothing but try to please his wife, and she still approaches him with suspicion and accusations.
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.
The plot of the play is pushed by her lies because of the severe consequences they cause and the hysteria that floods the town’s once pure society. Abigail commits her first lie as she tells her uncle Parris and Reverend Hale of Beverly, “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” (43) Abigail Williams has been questioned by both her Uncle Parris and Hale, a weighty spiritual doctor that has been called into their town, about what she and her friends were doing in the forest when her uncle spotted them. While Abigail knew the conjuring of spirits and casting a spell upon Elizabeth Proctor was not permitted in the Puritan society and could lead to banishment or death of both her and her friends, she decides to give in to the propensity to lie and put the blame elsewhere. Her initial motivation to lie about what she was doing in the forest stemmed from the natural tendency to avoid punishment, however a deeper motivation blooming from this lie comes from her desire to seek vengeance on Elizabeth Proctor and conceal her lonely emotions she has towards Elizabeth’s husband, John Proctor. Abigail and John both commit the sin of adultery, however while John deeply regrets his behaviors with Abigail and condemns himself back to his marriage with Elizabeth, Abigail has not accepted that fact of being alone and forgotten about. When she blames Tituba for being
Out of all the characters in the crucible was great, but in my opinion, Elizabeth is the best character in the cast in the Crucible. She was a faithful wife, a good mother, and strong in her faith/religion. Even though her husband cheated on her she still remained faithful to him. Elizabeth demonstrates a very truthful woman. She’s the wife of John Proctor. Nicknamed Goody Proctor, because she was a good christen woman. Everyone liked her, because she was a woman who never lied. Until, she lied in court one day to save her husband’s life. She acts very frigidly to others. The only person that didn’t like her was Abigail Williams. Abigail wants Elizabeth to die because Abigail wants John Proctor all to her self.
Abigail accuses innocent people of witchcraft, including John’s wife, Elizabeth. She does this so her and John would be together and Elizabeth wouldn’t be in his life, even after John told Abigail he does not love her. He faces this crucible throughout the play and changes his demeanor towards Abigail. John becomes infuriated and he wants to expose Abigail for making false accusations of witchcraft, although it might include his confession of adultery. John eventually confesses his sin of adultery but refuses for it to be made public and posted on the church door, resulting in his
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 novel based on the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible demonstrates forbidden temptation between John Proctor and Abigail Williams, honor and dishonor in the town of Salem, ruthless revenge, and the strive for high social status. The narrative style of this play is standard 1950s everyday language. The Crucible is set in a theocratic society of Puritanism in 1692.
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.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller goes into detail about the historical event, the Salem witchcraft trials which took place in Massachusetts in 1692. The drama centers on John and Elizabeth Proctor and a young girl Abigail Williams, whom John Proctor has committed adultery with. In order to get rid of Elizabeth so that Abigail can have John to herself Abigail accuses John’s wife of witchcraft, a crime that was highly frowned upon. John proctor goes through a series of changes from being a horrible person who cheated on his wife to a tragic hero who will give up his life to say his wife. John proctor is viewed as many things in this play but at the end he come out an honest and noble man.
This shows how he is a hippercrite against being a Puritan. Even though he is a religious man he still has the human character of having an evil side to himself.“But I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.” John is talking to Abigail and how he is finished with seeing her and that he doesn’t want any part of her. John goes through from being amoral to immoral and then to moral, then back to amoral at the end. “It’s winter in here yet.” Elizabeth and John were talking about how he was working all day seeding even though he was at Salem to see what the fuss was all about. Here he shows his character toward Elizabeth by lying to her and she can’t trust him.
Another important work Miller wrote, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the 17th century. It is a time when jealousy and suspicion poisoned the thinking of an entire town. Neighbor turned against neighbor when events happened that could not be explained. Accusations turned into a mad hunt for witches who did not exist. One of the main characters of the play is John Proctor, a well-respected man with a good name in the town. As the play develops, John Proctor’s moral dilemma becomes evident: he must decide whether to lie and confess to witchcraft in order to save his life, or to die an honest man, true to his beliefs.