Recently, the “#MeToo” movement has been creating a platform for people, more specifically women, to come out about being victims of sexual assault. Creating an open conversation about sexual assault is a great way to use social media, yet there are still issues being created by this movement. The most significant of those issues is men being accused of sexual assault publicly and forced out of their professions through social pressure with no hard evidence, only anecdotal. In addition, there is a large grey area between sexual assault, sexual harassment, and misread signals between the alleged victim and perpetrator. This is leading to accused assaulters who meant no harm in their actions to be publicly recognized as a criminal with no course …show more content…
of judicial action. Though opposite of popular belief, no matter what type of crime, the accused are innocent until proven guilty, and deserve not to be spread across all social media platforms as a form of public shaming or harassment.
This movement shares uncanny parallels between itself and the Salem Witch Trials described in The Crucible.
The act of not believing a person claiming to be a victim of sexual assault is seen as unthinkably disrespectful, similarly to the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred in a time when a person’s honesty and trustworthiness determined their social standing. All respect was gained through the content of one’s character, and when the majority of the population was screaming witch, any person to say otherwise was seen as criminal and against the good of the people, similarly to John Proctor attempting to reveal the motive of Abigail and being condemned for his actions. Today’s current society has much less to do with integrity, but still relies heavily on the individual desire for a high social
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status. Once accused of committing the crime, whether it be witchcraft of the 1600s or modern day sexual assault, the social ranking of the accused immediately goes down, and respect that might have been earned years ago disappears in a matter of moments because of the public. This goes further back than the #MeToo movement as well, like when a Coast Guard Petty Officer Greg Cooper was acquitted of four counts of sexual assault (“Coast Guard”). His acquittal was made possible by his right to due process being carried out, and the questioning of the accusers to make sure their story was truthful. In situations surrounding criminal acts, every account needs to be double-checked, even if that means upsetting the accuser momentarily. Innocence until proven guilty is a steadfast belief in this country, and should not falter because of a different type of accused criminal act. This due process had failed to be carried out in The Crucible, leading to many unjustified death sentences because of the judges lack of in depth thinking about the accusations and the possibility of ulterior motives. The grey area in the entire movement is expansive.
Fox News supports this, saying, “What began as accusation and exposure of the disgusting, and sometimes illegal, behavior of big names like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Russell Simmons, Matt Lauer and so on, has morphed into criticizing boorish behavior by men in general.” Not to discredit the fact that boorish behavior is disrespectful, but it should never be equated to actual illegal acts like rape. This also paints a true picture, that “...men are too often socialized to be sexual aggressors who meet all resistance as an obstacle to overcome…” (Friedersdorf). There are a plethora of men in the world that are not out to reduce women to sexual objects to be taken advantage of, and yet there are many who chose to willingly believe the opposite. Similarly to The Crucible, the accusers (Abigail’s amassed following of young girls) know in the beginning that they are harming a group of well meaning people. It could be argued that by the end of the book, most of the girls had told the lie enough times that they too had forgotten the
truth.
Witchcraft burned tens of thousands of people in the Middle Ages. Just in Salem, Massachusetts, the citizens accused over one hundred and fifty people of witchcraft. As a result of these accusations, the court hanged twenty of these supposed witches. How much evidence was there to convict the supposed witches? Not enough to select death as the punishment. However, the court sentenced the accused to be hanged if they did not confess which causes another problem: why hang when one could confess to a lie and live? Indeed, the court system broke down during these witch trials.
Is there any idea worth more than a human life? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor decides that he has nothing left to live for, and therefore becomes a martyr. The question for him or one in his position would be whether or not there exist causes worth dying for and if his position is one such case. There is no principle worth more than a person’s life and therefore principles worth dying for, only principles worth living for.
Fatal flaws are personality imperfections found within characters. Tragedy was a common occurrence in The Crucible. Many of these great tragedies happening in The Crucible, were a result of a tragic flaw or flaws like lust and pride embodied by John Proctor during the play.These flaws could also be seen as noble qualities at times, and play a crucial part in his downfall and death.
In The Crucible, the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials caused paranoia amongst the people of Salem. Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a symbol and allegory of the fear surrounding the spread of communism during the 1950s in America. The community’s sense of justice was blinded by the mass hysteria and for some, a desire for vengeance and personal gain. The Putnams
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.
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.
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.
In Salem, during the times of the Salem witch trials, the church and the people were very close. This is what led to the hysteria and chaos which was the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book, because anyone who was against the church was considered a criminal. Some of these conflicts were between; Abigail and the other children, Danforth and the town folk, and John Proctor with himself and his wife.
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 witch hunt in the crucible is initiated when Abigail and her friends fear the consequences of their ‘dancing’ in the forest. This connects to McCarthyism as the HUAC is represented by the judges and the ‘accuses’ (the girls) are representatives of Elia Kazan and others like him. The theocratic society of Salem is what the girls fear as the forest is seen as the devils resting place and the puritan nature of the town forbid dancing as it was seen as ‘vain enjoyment’ which as Miller himself states at the beginning of the novel to not be allowed. The character of Mary Warren begs the girls to just admit they were dancing as “…you’ll only be whipped for dancin’…”, but as Abigail is questioned and Parris mentions the kettle and how he believed “…there to be some movement- in the soup…”, the devil becomes prominent in the conversation. This is due to Abigail fearing that she will be blamed for devil worshipp...
Many characters in The Crucible fall under the trap of lying, if not to other people, then to themselves. The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in history, surrounding the Salem witch trials. It takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 and 1693. Additionally, Miller wrote the play as an allegory to mccarthyism, which is the practice of making accusations without evidence. In the play, Arthur Miller develops the theme of lies and deceit by showing Abigail lying for her own benefit, John Proctor committing adultery, and Elizabeth lying to protect her husband.
As the adolescents wail in their pretentious horror of a fictional bird, Proctor slowly realizes the conformation that Satan has entered Salem. Arthur Miller’s tragic allegory, The Crucible, shows the destruction of sinister Salem in 1692. The protagonist, John Proctor, a damnable farmer, has a lecherous affair with the antagonist, Abigail Williams, an ignorant and covetous juvenile. Satan mixes their interior motives to manufacture a catastrophic concoction. The ingredients of destruction consist of selfishness, immaturity, and corruption. The voracious desires of the natives of Salem lead to their evil and self-indulged intentions.
I believe that Abigail Williams is to blame for turning the town of Salem against many people, and I think it is her fault that several people were killed. Abigail Williams sends the town into a state of hysteria by accusing men and women of practicing the satanic art of witchcraft. Abigail’s flaws - her lustful desire for John Proctor, her deceptive habit of lying in order to retain her good name in the town, and her selfishness and obsessive aspiration for power – led her to be ultimately responsible for the catastrophe of the witch hunt in Salem.
Two girls lye sleeping, one with her eyes open, the other with her eyes closed. Not such an unusual picture except for the fact that the two sleeping girls cannot awake. A mysterious servant from a faraway place, a group of young ladies seeking magic to joins their hearts with the men that haunt their dreams. A man of the cloth who stumbles onto a secret dance in the middle of the forest who will spend the next year of his life harboring secrets and trying desperately not to be exposed. The town of Salem sucked into the vacuum of conspiracy, accusations, innuendo and the horrifying fact that maybe Lucifer has come to make a house call. They say that truth is stranger than fiction and if this story wasn’t a dark shadow on our nation’s history it would make for a great novel. But if it was the truth and for those who where there, a horrible reality. This community so caught up in the possibility that witchcraft existed, they completely lost their senses. The following is a breakdown of all the legal issues that by today’s standards where not followed.
The title of “The Crucible” is the perfect title for this drama filled play by Arthur Miller. It goes deep into each person’s life and shows the struggles that they personally go through showing the ugly truth you’d otherwise not see. Arthur Miller shows the internal struggles of each person in The Crucible and how it affects each family and how it affects the overall village of Salem. We’re going to be looking three of the main characters in The Crucible and how they’re personal crucibles and their decisions impacted the overall outcome of the witch trials.