The Crucible is a piece of literature written by Arthur Miller in the early 1950s. The award winning play is a relatively fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials in the Massachusetts Bay area in the 1600s. Miller develops the idea of a historical period and the Puritan culture. Their culture includes a strict moral religious code. An all knowing third person narrates The Crucible which revolves around several people put on trial for witchcraft. Arthur Miller used the Salem witch trials as an allegory to describe American politics in the 1950s.Throughout the storyline characters make questionable decisions that have dark consequences. These problems are also caused by the mix of church and state. Arthur Miller wrote this play because he had a story to tell. In Why I Wrote The Crucible it explains that he was inspired to the the play because of the current government situation and his past personal experiences. …show more content…
Before he scripted The Crucible Arthur Miller visited Salem Massachusetts.
He traveled to the unique town and described it as “abandoned” and “vacant”. In a courthouse he read transcripts of the witchcraft trial trials of 1692. “There was bad blood between two women now. That Abigail started in effect, to condemn Elizabeth to death with her touch” (Miller,1996,para.13) The idea of hate and dark decisions sparked the idea of Abigail and her plan to destroy Elizabeth Proctor. Arthur later found himself reading Charles W. Upham's study of the trials, which elaborated on the relationships behind the trials. He also discovered the madness of the court. Understanding each relationship and the ideals of the puritan people helped him develop each character of The Crucible. Arthur Miller knew that he found the perfect metaphor for his
play. While Arthur Miller wrote the play, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy was prosecuting people for un American activities who were alleged Communists. Miller was a jewish man who was not afraid to speak his support for labor of the unions this made him known and a suspect for the senator. Soon after he was called before the House Committee accused of being a communist. This experience reminded him of the Salem witch trials because he was guilty without spectral evidence. In “Why I Wrote the Crucible” Miller states “My own marriage of twelve years was teetering and I knew more than I wished to know about where the blame lay.” (Miller,1996,para.15) When he says this he is referring to when he cheated on his wife and this is one of the many ways he relates to John Proctor. Like the character he made a mistake and realizes what he did and knows he is to blame. In this time Miller was fearful of being identified as a Communist but he took a risk writing The Crucible. Miller knew that the audience would be able to connect the play to what was happening around them.The witch trials is supposed to parallel the red scare. Red scare refers to the fear of communism during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. People could connect his negative thoughts of America's action to the terrible ways of the salem witch trials. It was later referred to the communist witch hunt of their time. “The Crucible was an act of desperation.” (Miller, 1996,para.6) Saying this Miller shows one of the biggest reasons he wrote the play. He needed to put fear in American citizens so they would agree with him instead of the government. In conclusion he wrote this play to portray social and political problems that were occurring in the United States at that time. He wrote Why I Wrote the Crucible because he wanted to further elaborate on the purpose and meaning on the crucible. If the author did not get the message from the play alone this would help them better understand. The Crucible was first performed on Broadway and did not get positive feedback. A year later it was performed again but with a different director and it became a success. Today his play is one of the most highly demanded books in the country.
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 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
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.
20 were executed” (Blumberg). The Crucible setting is based on The Salem Witch trials, but the plot is based on The Red Scare. The author employs strict tone and rhetorical questions to convey power. This connects to the purpose of how a occurring can devastate a whole community and the people in it. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, employs empowerment by expressing the challenges within each character and their influence on the trial through the characters John Proctor, Abigail, and Danforth.
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 is a play in which Arthur Miller parallels events of the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the problems that were plaguing his own society. The statement that most readers today bring out of the play is that history has a way of repeating itself. Miller's play was an extreme hit upon release and won a Tony award. The play is so popular today that many teachers in secondary schools use it to base their lesson around when teaching their students about 1692 Salem and there are multimedia activities based on Salem through The Crucible's view. Miller is often asked to speak at events where similar "witch hunts" occur, acting as a sort of expert on the subject of Puritan Salem and acts of hysteria.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, yet is as much a product of the time in which Arthur Miller wrote it, the early 1950s, as it is description of Puritan society. At that particular time in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote the play the American Senator McCarthy who chaired the ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’ was very conscious of communism and feared its influence in America. It stopped authors’ writings being published in fear of them being socialist sympathisers. Miller was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and that human beings were capable of such madness. In the 1950s the audience would have seen the play as a parallel between the McCarthy trials and the Salem Trials.
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.
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.
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 up of mass hysteria. The hysteria in the story involves two girls are 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 there not. All of a sudden a mass hysteria breaks out. Everyone in the Puritan village is terrified by this. Innocent people are accused and convicted of witchcraft. They were citizens that signed petitions to release the innocent but in consequence of that , they were thrown in jail too because they were now suspects. The only manner to avoid being accused was to make a false confession and become the accuser. The “witches” that were accused suffered something worse than persecution, they were hung.
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.
“Well, all the plays that I was trying to write were plays that would grab an audience by the throat and not release them, rather than presenting an emotion which you could observe and walk away from.” by Arthur Miller. All great works provide a way to reach in and grab the audience through the reoccurring themes like, greed, jealousy, reputation and hypocrisy. Arthur Miller had one of those great works and it was called “The Crucible”. The play was based off of the witch trials that happened in Salem in the year of 1962. Some of the characters were actual characters involved in the witch trials. Arthur Miller wrote this play during the time of the “Red Scare”. Miller wrote The Crucible because he wanted to turn the The Salem Witch Trials into