The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s play, is a brilliant piece that dwells on fear as the dominant theme and its significant impact on people that will result in evil deeds. The backdrop of the Salem Witch Trials used by Miller in the play shows how fear can manipulate the minds of man, inflame them with hysteria and consequently cause destruction. This is demonstrated by their actions and things which happen to them; like judgment influenced by fear, suspicion fostered, and morally wrong acts committed. Within Salem, witchcraft rumors are spreading quickly. Abigail Williams, together with other girls, exploit this fear by blaming innocent villagers for being witches while they themselves have done something wrong. For example, she accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch so that she could get rid of her love rival. People are afraid to be blamed; they accuse others without considering their guilt or innocence. The trials are driven by this kind of hysteria caused by fear, leading to many innocent deaths due to …show more content…
For instance, John Proctor decides to hide Abigail’s deceit so as not to ruin his name or marriage. But when innocent people become victims of this madness during massive formal accusations, he realizes his fears and stands against it. On her part, Mary Warren is too afraid for her own life. She retracts her statements about the girls’ activities and accuses the Proctor of witchcraft. Fear is what makes some people turn against others, hence causing betrayal and moral depravity with the aim of saving oneself from harm at any cost. While being accused of having ties to witchcraft, Proctor says “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!” while deciding between lying to save his own life or maintaining integrity; thus, turning him down toward succumbing to fear as well as solidifying personal value system as the town turns against him. Miller
Inside us all there is a deep dark fear this is what grabs us by the thresh hold of life. It controls the most important aspects of our lives. This is found within the deepest and darkest chasms of our souls. The very creature that wreaks havoc in our minds we cage and never confront we lock this beast away to afraid to overcome it. If the beast is not confronted it begins to contort and change who we are as a person and how we interact with others. Even the very decisions we make as a person to affect those around us and are loved ones to also suffer the consequences of our actions. Such as the crucible and how each person was warped into their own monster by greed.
likelihood of victory is small.” It is a person’s mental or moral strength to resist extreme
Arthur Miller displays elements of mass hysteria through the town’s large number of accusations. Even though a person knows they are not guilty when or if they are accused, they still get worried. People act differently independently versus in a group because in a group they can accuse another person or say that someone else is to blame. If someone is alone they have no where to hide. Abigail has slept with the married man John Proctor. Abigail acts like a harlot when alone with Proctor. Yet she still tries to be a perfectly behaved lady around other people. “The belief in witchcraft was, at bottom an
Setting, time, and place were among the most obvious of details in The Crucible. As with each time period, the era in which this book took place brought with it unique characteristics of the people and places associated with that decade. Through the use of cleverly constructed characters, Arthur Miller was able to capture the past and give us a glimpse of what it would have been like to live in the late 17th century. Among those characters include John and Elizabeth Proctor, spouse to one another, Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Reverend Thomas Hale. Through these five people and more, the customs and general aspects of the Salem community are represented. One way the town expressed itself was through the way its inhabits dressed. The clothing that the people of Salem wore seemed very conservative and down to earth. There were no bright colors, but rather dark reds and browns which matched with the altogether oddities of Salem in Autumn. John and Elizabeth Proctor’s clothes generally were designed to be rugged for the man and yet comfortable to the woman. Most of Salem’s women, like Abigail Williams, were dressed as ladies should have been during those times; her accouterments were designed so they would reveal nothing to those who may have been curious. Among the unique and industrial designs such as Abigail’s bonnet and dress, Judge Danforth was to wear an outfit just as suitable. His dress consisted of a long gown and wig which was typical for a Judge to wear at the time. Like most of Salem, Reverend Thomas Hale tended to dress just as comfortable and casual as any of the other men.
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, takes place in the small Puritan village called Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials grew out of the moral system of the Puritans. This split the town into two, those who were considered witches and those who wanted good.
The Crucible, as Originally produced by Arthur Miller in 1953, is a well acclaimed tragedy that still holds reverence today. Given its prestige and overall dramatic richness, it can be understood why the Playmaker’s very own Desdemona Chiang chose to recreate and reimagine the play. The Crucible, being set in Salem Massachusetts, is centered around the spectacle of witch hunts that occurred in the year 1692. As imagined, mass hysteria, fear, and paranoia, occurred because of this. The plot of the play is centered around the protagonist John proctor (Ariel Shafir), a prideful man who finds himself entangled in these bizarre events. Throughout the play, Proctor (Ariel Shafir) and his allies struggle to convince the Salem townspeople of the nonsense and inaccuracies that surround the witch hunts. The conflict of the play has an underlying message as it represents the struggle between reason of the human mind and irrational hysteria. The theme of The Crucible embodies how a community can turn so quickly on one another, and
While reading three articles about the play called "The Crucible" I noticed many interesting facts. Many questions as well came to mind. The main question was “What was the Arthur purpose for writing The Crucible”? Well let’s start of by saying Arthur Miller was a extremely American play writing. Miller born in 1915, but where was his childhood? He grew up in New York with a Jewish family. Arthur Millers’ play went on Broadway at the Martin Beck. This occurred in the year of 1953. The play was called The Crucible. Was The Crucible even one of his best places? Well it was yet one of his best second plays. What were the events of the play of Miller had done? The event of the play had to do with the events that took place in Salem. What happened in Salem was a witch craft trial. Most unfavorable people felt as though the play was a play about a terrible period in the American history.
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.
Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, Arthur Miller's The Crucible describes the witch hunt that saw harmless people hanged for crimes they did not commit. The Crucible provides an accurate historical account of the witch hunt, but its real achievement lies in the many important issues it deals with. Miller's concerns with conscience, guilt and justice develop into significant and thought-provoking themes throughout the play. These themes are developed through the characters of Abigail Williams, John Proctor and Deputy Governor Danforth. The Crucible is even more successful when the wider relevance of these issues is considered. This occurs particularly when the themes of the play are examined in relation to the events occurring at the time Miller was writing.
Many years ago, the culture and atmosphere was amazingly different. The expectations of people and communities are extremely high. During the Puritan times, many laws and regulations existed pertaining to government, religion, and witchcraft. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the one word that best describes the Puritan beliefs and the community structure is strict.
In the play that dramatized the absurdity of the American court system and how hysteria could take toll on an entire town, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible showed just how chaotically a seemingly perfect society could come instantly unglued. Miller’s choice of representing the Salem witch trials as play that symbolized the idiocy of the more recent ideology, McCarthyism, made the play a theatrical classic. Miller showed that people are strongly motivated to lie, by the power of jealousy, to see through a personal vendetta.
The Mccarthy era was a very drastic time during the 1950’s when ideas about communism disseminated throughout the United States, particularly the government. Author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, was very critical of this time and used characters, plot events, setting and literary terms and features to convey his message. Miller creates an allegory by using Witchcraft as a controversial topic similar to how communism was during the McCarthy era, characters such as Danforth, Hathorne and Hale to compare to organizations and more characters such as Abigail and Procter to delineate specific people from The Great Fear.
The Crucible was founded in 1692 in and around the town of Salem. Massachusetts, USA. The Salem witch-hunt was viewed as one of the strangest and most horrendous chapter in the human history. People that were prosecuted were all innocent and their deaths were all due. to false accusations of people’s ridiculous belief in superstition and.
Aristotle once said, “Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.” It’s generally known that fear is quite a motivator in any given situation. This is apparent in many real life situations such as the Red Scare or the Salem Witch Trials of 1962. Arthur Miller was a playwright victimized by McCarthyism in the Second Red Scare who related his experience to the Salem Witch trials. He was oppressed because he had Communist sympathies. In the midst of this oppression, he looked into the Salem Witch Trials and saw similarities to the Red Scare. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows his belief that humanity is driven by fear and self-preservation, often resulting in people abandoning their morals.