The Crucible is a 1996 film written by Arthur Miller, inspired by the Salem witchcraft trails. Around 1962 in the small village of Salem Massachusetts, a group of girls fell ill falling victim of seizures and hallucinations. In the extreme religious Puritan England, people became frightened that the occurrences were related to the devil or his people. The sicknesses urged fears of witchcraft and a lot of tension arouse in the atmosphere of who was involved. The Crucible was written as a symbol for McCarthyism, when the US government shuns people for being communists. The film focuses on Salem’s witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden secrets. Before The Crucible became a film it was originally a play …show more content…
by Arthur Miller. Nicholas Hytner directed the film based off the play to bring it to life as much as possible with every little detail. The film begins an early morning in Salem, some young village girls meet in the woods with a Barbadian salve named Tituba. One of the girls, Abigail Williams kills a chicken and drinks the blood, in hope for John Proctor’s wife to die. Soon after Betty Parris, the ten year old daughter of Salem preacher Reverend Samuel Parris lies motionless. Reverend Parris discovered Betty and the girls were engaged in some sort of ritual in the woods. The village is common with rumors of witchcraft and a crowd gathers outside Reverend Parris’ house. During the witchcraft scene I believe the filmmakers emphasized the personalities of the girls by showing why they were all a part of it. The young girls weren’t looking forward to working with the devil but only in hopes for their lovers to love them back. All of the girls were shouting which man they wanted around the fire. The view of American history that the filmmakers were trying to get across in the movie is that witch trials back in the day were very common and most of the time the witch trials were a dramatized and partially fictionalized stories in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. People got involved with negative actions for their own wants, becoming naive to what it those actions can cause. When Reverend questions the girls and the ringleader, his niece Abigail Williams, she denies that they were involved with witchcraft; instead she claims they were just dancing. Very similar to teenagers nowadays who lie in order to get out of trouble even if it’s wrong due to the fact that they are afraid of the punishment that will come with it. As seen in the movie, witchcraft was over exaggerated back in the day and token as a huge sin. Anyone who was involved in witchcraft would be hung or imprisoned, yet nowadays witchcraft is done for fun or even as a job. I believe through American history witch craft has definitely had a dramatic change and its view on how it is seen by the public. The film strongly emphasizes how women should be viewed in the public eye as innocent and free of sin that would cause a bad reputation on their name, just like we have talked about in class. The women were to go to church and stay away from men until they were married, so when the girls got accused of witchcraft they denied everything so their names wouldn’t be ruined in the village. Throughout the movie it shows scenes of Abigail looking and talking to John Proctor secretly letting the audience know she is engaged in an affair with him. Her secretly deep love for him causes her to lie and accuse Elizabeth Proctor and several other towns’ people to have a relationship with the devil. Abigail’s hopes for John Proctor to admit his love for her. When Parris invites Reverend John Hale, an expert in witchcraft and demonology to investigate, the girls join Abigail and promise to not say a word after she threatens them.
All the girls are afraid to be labeled as witches, because back then once your name is ruined no one wanted to have anything to do with you or you could have been killed. Once the lies start they only seem to do more damage. The movies interpretation is definitely more serious when it comes to the witch trials and how they dealt with it. The characters in the film were very blind to realize that the girls were all putting on an act of being controlled by the devil just to save themselves. The crucible is set in a society where the church and state are one so religion is a strict form of Puritanism. Moral law and state laws are one and the same; therefore sin and a person’s soul are matters of public concern. Anyone who doesn’t conform to the established moral laws is presented as a threat to the public eye but also to God and true religion. The plot of the movie makes it clear that either you’re on Gods side or the devils. Witch trials are the utmost expression of intolerance, and by hanging witches it was the only way of saving the communities
purity. The films view on American history emphasizes how much reputation is important in Salem, where public or private mortalities are the same and never should change. In a village where reputation matters so much people don’t even feel guilty for the lies. The girls were more focused on maintaining public reputation, rather than fearing for the sins they have caused. Many of the characters base their actions on the desire to protect their reputations. Even John Proctor playing protagonist in the film seeks to keep his good name when he had the chance to put a stop to the girl’s accusations but in order to keep his reputation he keeps testifying against Abigail. Until the end of the movie John chooses not to make a false confession yet rather die without putting an untrue statement under his name. “I have given you my soul, leave me my name!” (The Crucible). People still do a lot nowadays to maintain a good reputation but then it was taken much more seriously. The film also reveals to the audience that you cannot really trust anyone because people are in it for themselves. American history viewed women differently back then who only had a few options in life. For example many of the girls in the film were servants for townsmen until they were old enough to get married. The witch trials empowered most of the women by giving them attention and a voice. The crucible taught me that history has definitely changed for the better through time and still has much more to improve.
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.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, focuses on the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that follows the trials. Miller shows how the dark desires and hidden agendas provokes such extreme behavior. The Crucible was written in a time when the anti-communist movement was strongly protested. During the Salem witch trials, a person was guilty until he proved himself
The Crucible is a play that was written in 1952 by Arthur Miller. This play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, where witch trials were held in 1692. Miller is able to combine nonfiction and fiction in order to make this story dramatic and entertaining. A few decades after The Crucible play was published, a movie version was released. There are various differences between the book and the movie version. The movie added various scenes, elaborated on others, as well as omitted some scenes. The movie expressed Arthur Miller’s book in a very dramatic and exaggerated way. It made the reader have a better understanding of some points in the book and emphasized ideas more clearly, such as jealousy and hysteria.
In 1953, the play called “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller created hysteria in all parts of the country. This play describes the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 and the irony of a terrible period of American history.
In 1953, a book/play called The Crucible was published. It was written by Arthur Miller as an allegory of the McCarthyism era. It talks of the causes and effects of the Salem witch trials in the late 1600's. The story is told in a way that made the people of the 50's realize how crazy they were actually acting.
The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is based on the actual people of the Salem witchcrafts trials. Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the early 1950s in response to experiencing his own modern “witch trials” in the United State. During this time, the panic of Communism has arisen in the United Stated and Senator Joseph McCarthy convinced himself that the American government was slowly being taken over by communists. He began hunting them out, forcing them to confess, and getting them to name their associates, which is very similar to the events in Salem witch Trials. Although Miller researched on the historical records of the Salem witch trials, The Crucible displayed many historical inaccuracies regarding
The Crucible – Characters and Changes & nbsp; Change is good for the future. " We hear the catchy phrase everywhere. From company slogans to motivational speeches, our world seems to impose this idea that change is always a good thing. Assuming that the change is for the better, it is probably a true statement in most cases. The root of this idea seems to come from the notion that we are dissatisfied with the state that we are in, so, in order to create a more enjoyable environment, we adjust.
Great events, whether they are beneficial or tragic ones, bring change in a person. These scenarios can give one an entirely new perspective on life, and turn around his way of thinking. Events such as the Salem Witch Trials show the people involved what they could not see before. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor gain valuable insight into themselves, as well as others.
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.
A wise human once stated, “People are quick to believe the bad things they hear about good people”(Unknown). Bound by the nature of humans, many are hasty to believe inaccurate accounts, no matter the circumstances, whether the accounts have evidence, or if they have any veracity to them. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, the hysteric citizens of Salem, Massachusetts experience an outrageous witch hunt movement, accumulating a hefty death total of twenty citizens. The play begins with Reverend Parris, a relatively new Puritan minister in Salem, whose daughter, Betty Parris, is stuck in a coma-like state. Parris reveals that his niece Abigail, was seen dancing with Betty, and Tituba, Parris’ black slave from Barbados. Concerned about his reputation,
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.
The crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem witch trials and how people react to hysteria created from the fear of witches. In the play, after hysteria breaks out, the Salem government starts persecute and hang people it believes are witches. This prompts people to start to accusing people of witchcraft. Some people who accuse others of committing witchcraft are Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam. They do not accuse people of witchcraft to stop witchcraft, but for personal gain or to hurt others. Thomas Putnam, one of the many characters who takes advantage of the witch trials, is able to use the fear of witches to bend the court to his will. Hysteria causes people to believe claims that are clearly false. This allows Putnam to persecute his enemies. He and many other are able to get away with this because hysteria driven persecutions are not run like regular courts and the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime allows evidence to be made up. The theme of The Crucible is when any persecution is driven by fear and people can and will manipulate the system so they can gain and hurt another.
“The Crucible” is a play based on the Salem witch trials in 1860. “The Crucible” is mainly composed of mass hysteria. The hysteria in the story involves two girls being seen dancing in the forest. In the 18th century, witchcraft was supposedly practiced in forests. However, the girls never confessed they were witches or that they were not.
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.
The Crucible is an incredibly influential play no only in the fact that it displays many important themes, but it also portrays how a theocracy impacts societal actions. The Salem witch trials were the culmination of the problems with theocracy. The actions of society, not only are impacted by their personal thoughts, but also in religious undertones affect them. Act two in the play portrays not only all of these themes, but also some important events leading towards the witchcraft hysteria. Act two in the play portrays how theocracy ultimately leads to chaos.