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Morals of the crucible
Morals exposed in the crucible
Characteristic of courage
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What does being courageous mean to you? Being courageous could mean dying for a loved one or creating a big lie to save your life. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 to establish what Salem Witch Trials were as well as the many traits the characters had, including courage. In the Crucible many characters illustrated being courageous. Many characters in the crucible showed heroism because of the multiple courageous acts they did. Firstly, Giles Corey died an honorable man by being pressed to death by stones for not speaking a citizens name. Arthur Miller signified courage when Giles said “Great stones they lay upon his chest until plead aye or nay…” (Miller 135). The quote shows that Giles Corey died from being pressed to death because Giles would not let another citizen be hanged by giving his name to the court for accusing Mr. Putman of stealing land. Furthermore, John Proctor is heroic in The Crucible because he was courageous for always telling the truth to the court and others to try and save his family as well as himself from witchcraft. …show more content…
Arthur Miller indicated courage when John Proctor says “I have known her, sir. I have known her” (Miller 110). This quote shows that John Proctor confessed his affair with Abigail Williams to Judge Danforth to try and save his wife Elizabeth from being charged with witchcraft. John Proctor was courageous because he was willing to take his own life for his wife Elizabeth to live. Finally, Abigail Williams is courageous in The Crucible because she had enough courage to start such a massive lie in the town of Salem. Arthur Miller signified Abigail being courageous when she says “…if they be questioning us, tell them we danced-I told him as much already” (Miller 18). Abigail Williams tells Mary Warren to stay quiet about them dancing in the woods and drinking blood so they don’t get in trouble or accused of witchcraft by the court. Throughout the play Abigail continues to lie to the town of Salem so she doesn’t get hanged. Abigail shows courage for lying to the court and for accusing others such as Elizabeth. Therefore John Proctor, Giles Corey and Abigail Williams are brave in the town of Salem, which shows how Arthur Miller demonstrates many traits such as bravery in his play. In The Crucible many characters illustrated being courageous.
Giles Corey, John Proctor and Abigail Williams show their courage in the play. These characters show examples of what would happen if they were in the real world. Imagine being a parent/adult or a child and having to die for a loved one or lie to everyone to save yourself. John Proctor who is a father and husband, told the truth about his affair to save his wife and children. Giles Corey who is a loving husband to his 3rd wife, died a hero for not only dying for his wife Martha but also for not speaking the name of a citizen and finally Abigail Williams. Abigail, the niece of Reverend Parris not only told the biggest lie to the town of Salem but she also took her uncles money and ran away. Arthur Miller indicated all three of these characters to be courageous in The Crucible. Would you consider Abigail William, John Proctor and Giles Corey to be
courageous?
that he is a brave man. As soon as his wife is accused, John quickly
The Crucible the film is an adapted version of Arthur Miller’s play of the same name, which was inspired by the 1692 Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. The two main characters are Abigail Williams played by Winona Ryder and John Procter played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The Crucible’s opening scene is Reverend Parris catching Abigail and her friends dancing in the woods and conjuring spirits. Abigail did not want to get in trouble so she blamed Tituba, a Barbados slave, for making her drink chicken blood, and tempting her to sin.
They say “Honesty is the best policy”, but that isn’t necessarily true especially for those who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Honesty may have been a good trait for someone to have, but during the witch trials people rethought that. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrayed many people as good puritans. Always loyal and honest throughout their lives, and avoiding any sins that they possibly could. But there were people who had to sin to save their lives or even to save their reputation. Abigail Williams was just an young girl who turned to lying in order to save herself during the Salem Witch Trials. At the same time, Elizabeth Proctor was not agreeing with the witch business that she was accused of. You could tell lies during this time, and no one would think that you were turning too sins because the entire town was becoming obsessed about all those accused of possible witchcraft. While some were being accused, others were avoiding the truth when confessing. Like when Abigail never confessed to drinking blood when she was with Tituba and Betty. In The Crucible, Honesty was portrayed
In the Crucible there was three characters that stood out from all the other ones in this wicked story. Abigail Williams was a big influence in this story she would lie and lie to get out of things and she was also the leader of the girls in the woods. Furthermore she also had an affair with John Proctor which made John and Elizabeth relationship unstable. Also John Proctor runs into a situation at the end of the story where he is put in the position if he wants his pride of not signing that paper full of lies or die knowing he did the right thing of not lying. Additionally, Elizabeth Proctor has never lied ever until the day John was being prosecuted for his witchcraft and possibly adultery and Elizabeth lied so that his name wouldn't be ruined.
In the 1950s, the Red Scare over Communist infiltration grasped America, turning friends against one another and prompting Communist accusations left and right. If accused, you could confess to Communism and accuse others, or face indictment yourself. This concept is quite similar to the Salem witch trials, in which accused witches were put in the same predicament. Written during the Red Scare, Arthur Miller produced a play called The Crucible, which uses the Salem witch trials as an allegory for the Communist hysteria. In this play, rumors of witchcraft stemmed from the boredom of a few teenage girls, and blossomed into an unprecedented hysteria. Accusations became widespread, and, since confession was the only way to avoid a hanging, confessions became widespread as well. When only a small group of stubborn resisters were left, the main character John Proctor had to make a difficult decision on whether he should confess or hang, and ends up hanging along with a few others to help save the integrity of their community. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that while some may view self-sacrifice as a pointless loss due to pride, the decision to sacrifice one’s life for the good of his community and the elimination of conformist attitudes is very noble. The enormity of this decision can instill a feeling of guilt and responsibility upon another, as occurs to the protagonist John Proctor, and can cause one’s views and actions to be altered.
Everybody has a flaw that leads them to their downfall. John Proctor, from the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, had many flaws that lead to his death, but is known as an honorable man. “The Crucible” is about a group of girls committing witchcraft but accused other innocent victims. Any of the victims the girls would accused would go to court and most likely would get hanged. John Proctor was one of the victims and was hanged because of false accusations. John Proctor is an honorable man because he is honest, he refuses to blacken his name. However, he does cheat on his wife which leads to all of the chaos in Salem.
A crucible refers to a harsh test, and in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, each person is challenged in a severe test of his or her character or morals. Many more people fail than pass, but three notable characters stand out. Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor all significantly change over the course of the play.
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
?What is left when honor is lost?? Publilius Syrus' quote, though dating from 100 B.C., still seems pertinent to our era (Quotations). Many people still feel that once integrity is lost they are nothing and many are willing to stand up to keep their integrity. Without integrity, we are nothing. During the time that Arthur Miller wrote his most famous play, The Crucible, innocent men and women are accused of having Communist leanings. Their whole lives are ruined in a short amount of time because they refuse to compromise themselves by selling out their friends. Miller tries to make a statement about these unfair trials by comparing them to the Salem witch-hunts and trials of 1692. The main protagonist of his play is a man named John Proctor who is accused of witchcraft but stands up to maintain his name and his honor, even though he is hanged for it. During the H.U.A.C. trials some took stands for their beliefs with the knowledge of possibly being shunned by society. Knowing this, instead of taking the cowards' way and giving the names of their friends, they refuse to tell the committee anything in the same way that John Proctor stands up against a court that is ruining the lives of innocent people.
The Crucible – John Proctor the Tragic Hero What is a tragic hero? The most well known definition of a tragic hero comes from the great philosopher, Aristotle. When depicting a tragic hero, Aristotle states "The change in the hero's fortunes be not from misery to happiness, but on the contrary, from happiness to misery, and the cause of it must not lie in any depravity but in some great error on his part." In addition, he explains the four essential qualities that a tragic hero should possess, which are goodness, appropriateness, lifelike, and consistency. All of these necessities help to classify the character of John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible as the tragic hero of the play.
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.
“It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” –Clive Barker. Everybody makes mistakes, but only the people who recognize the good in those mistakes are the people who can be redeemed from them. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many characters are put in desperate situations. Each person learns new things and further develops from each experience. Proctor learns how important his name is, Hale experiences extreme guilt over his actions and Giles learns to think before he speaks. In conclusion, in desperate situations individuals who possess insight are able to experience redemption.
The Crucible reflects the theme of honor through the people who refused to admit they were witches. Self-worth is shown through the people who refused to say they were witches when they knew they were not. Proctor chose to die rather than lie and confess to something he knew was not true. Elizabeth also did not ask Proctor to lie and confess because she knew it would take the good out of him. Pride has been shown through Proctor. He committed lechery and still had faith in himself and said, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worthy the dust on the feet of them to hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 143). John Proctor decides that he would rather die with pride than lie. In The Crucible pride leads to the downfall of Salem, and the death many people. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Reverend Hale all experience the influence of pride. It eventually leads to Reverend Hale loosing his credibility, Elizabeth Proctor loosing her husband and John Proctor loosing his
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is a historical play about the Salem Witch Trials. The play contains a historical allegory to the Salem Witch Trials and a political allegory to Mccarthyism. John Proctor is one of the main characters in and is considered the tragic hero of the play. Throughout Miller’s play, John Proctor is seen as the protagonist of the play because he is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in, even if no one else agrees with him. John Proctor’s intention to hang instead of admitting that he was consorting with the devil was an act of honor because he didn’t want to lie for the sake of saving his own life, but also wanting to prove that Puritan society has changed because of the Salem Witch Trials.
Life in Salem, Massachusetts back in 1692 could prove very difficult for its residents. John Proctor, a married man living in this setting has to combat his society for what he believes is just and right, and in doing so sacrifices his life for it. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller illuminates the conflict between the individual and society by using John Proctor as his protagonist. Despite the fact that Proctor does die in the end, Arthur Miller believes that the individual does triumph over society in the end.