Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The Crucible: Abigail as a victim not victimizer
Miller's use of dramatic form in the crucible
Miller's use of dramatic form in the crucible
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The Crucible: Abigail as a victim not victimizer
In the first scene of the second act of the Crucible, Elizabeth is with John. John reveals that he was with Abigail and he admitted the betrayal. There are many different ways Arthur Miller enforced his claim. Through emotional appeal, figurative language, and tone, the author has successfully used literary elements to support John’s argument with Elizabeth. Elizabeth is angry that John was having an affair with Abigail. John feels that he has endured enough. He knows what he did was not right, but he demands to Elizabeth that he needed a passion that she was not giving him. John uses emotional appeal to enforce his claim. She is offended at his suggestion that it was her fault that he was cheating on her. John says that he is only
trying to explain to her why he was having an affair with Abigail. John also uses a metaphor to support his claim. He states, “Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer!” Through these rhetorical strategies, the author has conveyed that John had strong reasoning for his affair with Abigail by using figurative language and emotional appeal. Furthermore, John raises his voice to deliver his message to Elizabeth. This is another example of emotional appeal. John argues with Elizabeth while he immediately changes his tone of voice. When John tries to explain why he was having an affair with Abigail, Elizabeth feels hurt. When she tries to explain, he feels trapped and oversensitive. With these emotional appeals as rhetorical strategies, they arrive to court. These rhetorical features helped the author achieve his purpose by including figurative language and emotional appeal so that he could achieve his goal of persuasion.
In the play The Crucible many characters use different rhetorical fallacies, and one of those characters being Reverend Hale. Hale comes is as an expert on witchcraft to help this small village in their new found problem. He interviewed everyone had made an allegation against people in the village and everyone who was said to be involved with witchcraft. When Reverend Parris comes to take Elizabeth Proctor into cusditoy after Abigail Williams says that Mrs. Proctors sprit was sent to stab her, Hale says, “Nonsense! Minister, I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good and numerous other that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They have confessed it” (Miller 68). He is using the hasty generalization by drawing up a conclusion with insufficient
In the crucible, I believe reputation and respect was interwoven in the term of the play the ‘‘crucible’’. Reputation and Respect can also be a theme or a thematic idea in the play, reputation is very essential in a town where social status is synonymously to ones competence to follow religious rules. Your standing is what enables you to live as one in a community where everyone is bound to rules and inevitable sequential instructions. Many characters for example, john proctor and reverend parris, base their action on the motive to protect their reputation which is only exclusive to them. People like reverend parris saw respect as what made them important or valuable in a town like Salem, this additionally imprinting to his character as a very conventional man.
John is a loving husband. He proves that by telling Elizabeth, “It is well seasoned” (p. 48) in reference to the rabbit she cooked, in which he had to add salt to. He likes to make her happy, which shows he loves her, and so he asks, “Would that please you?” (p.48) He is asking in reference to buying a heifer for her if the crops are good. He assures her he will “fall like an ocean on that court” by which he shows his love in caring for her freedom (p.73). To the court he admits he has “known her” he is talking about Abigail and their affair (p.102). He is showing his love towards his wife by throwing away his freedom, life, honor, dignity, and pride to prove Elizabeth’s innocence and have her freedom. He tells Elizabeth to “show honor now” as he is to be hanged in the gallows (p. 133). He is showing his love for her by letting her know he cares about her enough to want her to be strong even though he is to die.
In Act Ⅱ Scene 2 of The Crucible, a 1953 play by the Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, meets John Proctor, the protagonist, in the forest at night, where John asks Abigail to free his wife in court the next day, or otherwise he will expose their affair in public to ruin her. This fast-paced short scene portrays Abigail as pious and possessed, which contradicts the impression given by previous scenes. Most importantly, the scene reveals the crucial plan of Proctor which he is planning to use to take down Abigail. By excluding the scene, Miller eliminates the unfavourable danger of jeopardizing the credibility of the characters due to the inconsistency of descriptions, heightens the dramatic effect when Proctor confesses in Act Ⅲ, and prevents the readers from being misled by the affection Abigail has displayed in the scene.
In The Crucible, John Proctor is considered the anti-hero. Honest and humble, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. He has fallen for Abigail Williams leading to her jealousy of Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife. Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can terminate Abigail’s accusations; however, he can only do so if ha admits hi own guilt. Proctor is a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation and such an admission would ruin that. He eventually makes an attempt to name Abigail as a sham without revealing the crucial information. When this attempt fails, he finally breaks out with a confession, calling Abigail a “whore”...
He knew such a thing would tarnish his reputation. The only reason he admits to this sin is because Elizabeth is accused and is in danger of losing her life. John realizes the only way to save his wife is to tell the court what Abigail’s true ambitions are. One other character who seems to care about their reputation and takes severe steps to protect it is Abigail Williams. From the start of the play, Abigail already has a bad reputation for committing adultery.
Abigail commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband who is John Proctor. In The Crucible John was thirty years of age and Abigail who was just seventeen. Even with a huge age difference Abigail seems to think she has a high level of maturity to do anything she wants. John and Elizabeth hired Abigail, until Elizabeth found out about his affair and fired Abigail. John told Abigail that he was done with the affair and that he will never touch her again. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again”. (Miller 23) Abigail would claim that John was in love with her and that she also loved him too, but John never really loved Abigail he only saw lust.
As the town uncovers the antics of the girls and are outraged, the girls start to cry out names of others they have supposedly seen with the Devil in order to save themselves. Therefore, the audience perceives that the affair between John and Abigail is the instigator of all the hysteria surrounding the witch trials, signifying the consequences of a small human error. The affair also caused Elizabeth to distrust John, who for seven months was trying to get into her good graces and is tired of her suspicion. He bluntly tells her "... I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you.
John Proctor is an honest, though harsh, man who is clearly the protagonist of The Crucible. Before the beginning of the play, John had an affair with Abigail Williams, a girl who worked in his household, which was abruptly ended when Elizabeth Proctor, John's wife, fired her. This event causes Abigail to desire revenge against Elizabeth while she still pines for John. Once the trials are well underway, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, which leads to her arrest. John goes to the court in defense of his wife, where he reveals that he did indeed committed adultery with Abigail in an attempt to expose her as a fraud and a liar. Unfortunately, John's appeal falls on deaf ears and he is arrested as well. While his wife manages to get a temporary stay of execution, due to the fact that she is pregnant at the time of the trials, which in the end saves her by insuring her life until the chaos, hysteria, and persecution comes to an end, John is sentenced to death. The play ends with his hanging, but his death puts an end to the trials.
Abigail accuses innocent people of witchcraft, including John’s wife, Elizabeth. She does this so her and John would be together and Elizabeth wouldn’t be in his life, even after John told Abigail he does not love her. He faces this crucible throughout the play and changes his demeanor towards Abigail. John becomes infuriated and he wants to expose Abigail for making false accusations of witchcraft, although it might include his confession of adultery. John eventually confesses his sin of adultery but refuses for it to be made public and posted on the church door, resulting in his
In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible it portrays the strengthening relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor. Throughout the play, reader see how their relationship starts off as being very distant. As the witch trials start, John and his wife start to protect each other and keep the other out of harms way. In Act IV of the play, the Proctors become fully united and their relationship is much stronger than shown before.
After the affair with Abigail, John feels ashamed with himself. He feels like a hypocrite because “He is a sinner that went against his own vision of decent conduct” (Miller 1138). When he conversed with Abigail in act I he tells her “I will cut off my own hand before I’ll ever reach for you again” (Miller 1140). John also is short-tempered when he has to talk about Abigail or when Elizabeth acts coldly towards him. He is so short-tempered because he can’t forgive himself about committing adultery.
is gone. I have not moved from here to there without I think to please
Naturally, Elizabeth feels guilty as well. She tells John, “I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery.” Elizabeth feels as though she is to blame for John committing adultery. She is a mother and, of course, Elizabeth will be consumed with taking care of their children, cooking, cleaning, etc. At first, Elizabeth does not recognize John pulling away from her and turning towards Abigail. Soon after Elizabeth finds out John committed adultery with Abby, she fires her. Later on in the novel Elizabeth is accused of being a witch and John goes to court to prove Abigail is lying.
To further complicate matters, John decides not to reveal to the court that Abigail has admitted to him in private that they were just sporting in the woods. Abigail spreads additional accusations and false rumors about her neighbors. These accusations have no basis in truth and their only purpose is for Abigail’s own benefit. Furthermore, Abigail is jealous of John’s wife, Elizabeth, and she schemes to get rid of her in order to take her place. Abigail’s plot is to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.