The Salem vs the Crucible The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is based on the actual people of the Salem witchcrafts trials. Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the early 1950s in response to experiencing his own modern “witch trials” in the United State. During this time, the panic of Communism has arisen in the United Stated and Senator Joseph McCarthy convinced himself that the American government was slowly being taken over by communists. He began hunting them out, forcing them to confess, and getting them to name their associates, which is very similar to the events in Salem witch Trials. Although Miller researched on the historical records of the Salem witch trials, The Crucible displayed many historical inaccuracies regarding …show more content…
Miller chose to name many of his characters after the real-life people who partaken in the Salem witch trials, but he changed those people by giving different reasons to motivate his characters. For example, in the play, Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a scheming villain-like young woman of seventeen who was the instigator was the happened in Salem. She was made out to be the conflict starter rather than the victim. In addition, Miller mentioned that Abigail and her followers were just a group of teenage girls. However, her “afflicted” group did not consist of teenage girls, but on both men and women (Norton 305). In fact, Abigail wasn’t the head of the group of girls who accused people. “Abigail Williams was active early in the crisis, but then seen to withdrawn from involvement” (Norton 305). She only …show more content…
Miller characterizes Tituba as a much older African slave of Samuel Parris. However, the documented facts showed that Tituba was a South American Indian of the Arawak tribe from the Caribbean island of Barbados (Breslaw 22). A reason Miller decided to make her African was it was easier and more relatable to make her African, and since voodoo is stereotypically seen as the workings of "black" magic, it was easier linked to what the Puritans would view as witchcraft. Voodoo could be easily portrayed as a witch-like practice (Breslaw 20). Miller also portrayed Tituba as an older woman with no family so the girls would go to her for advice and guidance. However, Tituba had a husband and a daughter in the real Salem witch trials. While she may have had contact with the girls, chances are, she did not need to use her motherly instincts with anyone other than her own daughter and she was probably not as close with them as the girls
Abigail Williams forms a continuous string of deceitful lies about the presence of witchcraft in Salem and her involvement with it, triggering the beginning of the trials and causing mayhem to permeate the town. Playwright Arthur Miller characterizes Abigail as "a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling"(8). Her fabrications induce calamity in Salem, and entangles many innocent people in her slanderous web of stories. In most cases, Abigail lies to evade discomfort or punishment. This pattern is first displayed when Reverend Hale interrogates Abigail:
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 The Crucible, Miller mentioned that Abigail and her followers were just a bunch of teenage girls. In reality, Abigail’s group did not just consisted of teenage girls. Abigail’s afflicted group not only consists of teenage girls, but it consists of men and women. Some of the people from Abigail’s “afflicted” group are Sarah Bibber, John Indian, and Ann Putnam. The “afflicted” group could have consisted of many more people, and they could have had a bigger, stronger effect on the whole hype.
As once stated by Joseph R. McCarthy “I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department” (Joseph). The red scare occurred in the 1950’s when United States senator Joseph McCarthy lied when accusing people for being communists. McCarthyism is the practice of making false accusation for the purpose of ruining the lives of innocent people. In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 when the townspeople were accusing and being accused of witchcraft. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as a reference to the red scare because in 1692 and 1950’s, both societies were being watched closely, were restricted of certain opportunities, and in both there were false accusations. In The Crucible, Salem’s downfall was caused by theocracy because the church plays an enormous role in
During the 1690’s in Salem, Massachusetts, one of the most disgraceful events in American history took place. 20 innocent people were sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft (Kortuem). At the time there was a witch scare sweeping across the North East of America in a time we know today as the Salem Witch Trials. The witch trials was one of the most shameful events in American history. In fact, it was compared to another event by a man named Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was a playwright from New York who wrote many famous plays like Death of a Salesman, All my Sons, and of course The Crucible (Kortuem). In The Crucible, Miller was comparing the McCarthy Hearings at the time to the events hundreds of years earlier in the
In Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, a dramatic story unfolds about hatred and deception among the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692. During this time, people were being accused of practicing witchcraft and conjuring with the devil. Once accused, all one could do was deny the practice and hang for it or confess and be condemned to prison. Many took advantage of this, including a young girl by the name Abigail Williams who is the main character in the play. Who is to be blamed for the death of the innocently accused? Many can argue and say that other characters in the story share blame in the Salem Witch Trials. Though, the ultimate responsibility belongs to Abigail for the deaths of many innocent people during this time.
Abigail Williams is manipulative and wants everything to go her way. She is the main character and causes trouble everywhere she goes. The Salem Witch Trials is about hearings and prosecutions of people who were accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible Abigail is a no good villain. Abigail first commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband.
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.
Events have played out in history that made people realize the inhumane acts of people and the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era were two of them. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were almost 260 years before the McCarthy “witch hunts” in the 1950s yet there are similarities between them. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is about the Salem witch trials and is an allegory to the practicing of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare in the United States, which Miller was a victim of. Although there may be differences between “The Crucible” and McCarthyism, ultimately the anger, lack of evidence, and the people were alike in both events.
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 play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.
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 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.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that was first performed in 1953 in the United States of America in the midst of the persecution of alleged communists during the era of McCarthyism. Although the play explicitly addresses the Salem which hunt, many find that the play is an analogy to McCarthyism due to the striking similarities in which the people behaved. Miller highlight the different groups of characters in order to reveal overlying ideas of the play such as: Self preservation, power, and hypocrisy.
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.