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The social criticism of the crucible
Difficulty in arthur millers the crucible
Summary of Arthur Miller's "the Crucible"
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Much of The Crucible by Arthur Miller was about being part of a group. What is it to belong to a group? Is it really that simple when someone says, "Either you're with us or you're not"? Yes, it is that simple. Belonging and exclusion in any situation are two sides of the same coin - you can't have one without the other. In any organization or group, people are bound together by a community of interest, purpose or function and if you do not believe in these same things, then you are not a part of that group. In an organization or group, you have to ask yourself, "What is it to be a part of this particular group, what does it take to belong?" It takes following the rules of the group, agreeing with their purpose, obeying their authorities and the ability to go the length for their cause. In The Crucible, if the characters did not abide as part of the group, the Christian Church, then the consequences were fatal. The Crucible told of what is was to be a scapegoat in their society and what it took to defend themselves from becoming that scapegoat. To remind people in an organization why they belong takes continued focus on a common goal or common belief. By having one main function, a group is generally more effective than if everyone has different ideas and outlooks on specific topics. However, to keep everyone on the same page, the members of a group need to accurately know where they stand in reference to their goal. One way to do this is through social facilitation. This is the concern of self image through the presence of other people. It's a concept that allows members to know the acceptable opinions of the group. Someone who agrees to the ideas set out from the organization. "Group polarization is the concept of changing personal opinions to extremities after a group discussion.(Johnson 13)" This concept eliminates members who aren't sure what they think of the group's purpose. They decide that either they agree completely or they disagree completely. Either way it means they decide if they are in or out after the group discussion. A common goal is one way to distinguish and separate the devoted members from the questionable individuals in a group. High cohesiveness is an effective tool in the success and effectiveness of an organization. However, in order for ... ... middle of paper ... ... truth, denying her involvement as a witch, but be hung anyway for "lying" under oath. On the other hand, an innocent victim could lie and confess her involvement as a witch, accuse another witch instead and be let "off the hook". However, if the innocent victim lied and confess, but wasn't willing to turn in another witch, she would be hung anyway. (Starkey, 17) This created quite an ironic situation coming from a Christian based community of purity and holiness. Exclusion is about scapegoating and denying the truth or reality to oneself. A scapegoat is a person made to bear the blame for others, an escape from dealing with one's responsibility. The scapegoat lets one rationalize bad situations and blind oneself from the reality of that situation. No one saw the reality in Salem and no one even tried. They were all too caught up in trying to find someone else to blame for their fears and problems. However, organizations tend to do that too. They create an opposition or enemy so they can use it later to their own advantage, making themselves seem more powerful. So the question goes back to, "Are you in? Or are you out?"
Witchcraft burned tens of thousands of people in the Middle Ages. Just in Salem, Massachusetts, the citizens accused over one hundred and fifty people of witchcraft. As a result of these accusations, the court hanged twenty of these supposed witches. How much evidence was there to convict the supposed witches? Not enough to select death as the punishment. However, the court sentenced the accused to be hanged if they did not confess which causes another problem: why hang when one could confess to a lie and live? Indeed, the court system broke down during these witch trials.
What does the word crucible mean? The word crucible means a severe test or trial. Throughout the novel, The Crucible, many of the characters go through their own crucible. These trials have a major or minor impact on the characters life throughout the novel. These trials all come together creating the story based on the calamity in America around 1952, which inspired Arthur Miller to write this well known novel. In the novel, there are many different examples from various characters about life lessons and choices. Although the book and play are very similar they do share many differences.
Once the accusations began, many innocent people in the community were taken away. They were then either forced to admit that they were witches, to free themselves from a public hanging, or deny that they were witches, saving their integrity, but subjecting themselves to an unjust public hanging.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
In the 1920’s the United States economy was booming, and a famous man by the man of Henry Ford came along and had an industry changing idea. He set up the first production line style for producing automobiles. Each assembly line worker had one or two specific tasks to complete on the cars that came through. The process began with a skeleton on the car, and as it went down the line from worker to worker it slowly gained more and more pieces finishing the automobile completely...
The Crucible by Arthur Miller raises many thought provoking issues throughout the play, including the importance of personal integrity, injustice in society and the rights of the community versus the rights of the individual.
Arthur Miller expresses the concept of oppression being present in every society through the characters of The Crucible. "It is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions." As discussed, personal motives, disputes and misuses of power, as well as distorted religious beliefs are the roots of the maltreatment in Salem. Miller’s statement and message is valid and applicable in every society, and for every
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.
Explore Miller’s dramatic presentation and development of the theme of power and authority. Even though The Crucible is not historically correct, nor is it a perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, it still stands out as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance, hysteria, power and authority is able to tear a community apart. The most important of these is the nature of power, authority and its costly, and overwhelming results. “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or against it,” says Danforth conceitedly. With this antithesis, Miller sums up the attitude of the authorities towards the witch trials that if one goes against the judgement of the court
Next year, Chile will do the same. Finland, Norway, Sweden and many other countries around the world also offer free college to all of their citizens..” Also, other countries have higher test scores than the United States of America. So shouldn’t we be following these other countries education system? The youth is going to be our future, so we want our future to be heading in the right direction. Even though people might say, public colleges and universities might become less worried about wasteful spending since they won't have to compete with other schools on cost. That could strain public budgets even further. Here is the weakness, Is a College Education Worth It? “People would have more freedom to contribute their talents, try new ideas, and pursue the lives they want if they didn't have to start off in debt or stay stuck in a low-wage job. This could lead to happier people and happier people could lead to a happier, more prosperous nation as a whole.” People would have more freedom to try new things and not have to worry about any funds. I am not disagreeing with the fact that every person wouldn’t take that their college opportunities serious, but there are students that are not in college today waiting for an opportunity for something as breathtaking
First, free college can encourage students to go to college to get a degree which leads to a high paying career. It can fulfill those students that are having a hard time financially, and fewer students will be in debt. Second, with free college, colleges will be more likely to help students that need the guidance to stay on track and get a diploma. Clayton and Bailey mention, "If we want to significantly improve educational outcomes, we need to make college more affordable so more students can enroll, and make the reforms needed to en-sure community college students can succeed in their courses, complete their program, and grad-uate within reasonable amount of time" (Clayton and Bailey). Finally, free college can help the U.S. catch up to the rest of the countries with higher education. For example, it can help the United States surpass Russia, where more than half of adults have a diploma. Frohlich explains, “More Than 53% of Russian adults between the ages of 25 and 64 had some form of higher edu-cation in 2012, more than in any other country reviewed by OECD” (Frohlich). Although free college is an attractive idea, it will leave the United States in a bigger debt which will be hard to recover from and more students will be unmotivated to
The Crucible was written in the early 1950s as an exploration of events which took place in Massachusetts in 1692. What does the play have to offer an audience in 2014?
The Crucible is a play with many underlying messages and themes. One of which is the idea of power. Power is a very important term in this play in that whoever holds the power, holds the fates of others. The hysteria within Salem has directly effected society. Everything has turned upside down and has gotten distorted. Arthur Miller is telling us that all the power in Salem is given to those who are corrupt and their abuse of it is directly shown through: the actions of Abigail throughout the play, the corruption and desires of Parris, as well as the witch trials held by Judge Danforth.
Addiction controls people in many ways. Some addictions can even lead to death if not stopped early on. Addiction to any kind of substance or drug is not an easy thing to quit. It is hard to quit because it is not physically hard but also mentally hard to end an addiction. Addiction controls people by making them lose control of their actions and cravings. Also addiction controls people by changing their circadian rhythms which make it hard to stay away from what they are addicted to.
These individuals devote themselves completely to certain substance that allows them to forget about their reality and leads them into a world of ecstasy, one which they are unable to reach without it. Continuously, their addiction takes over their lives and turns them into "slaves" of the substance causing their lives to fall apart and eventually leads to being homeless, in jail, or dead. However, there are other forms of addiction whether is a mild addiction and not as severe as drugs or alcohol but it still falls under its definition. Some examples of addictions that we do not notice are pornography, internet, television, eating, entertainment, and money. Most of these examples have their own negative aspects. Also, others might have a dependency on unhealthy eating habits which eventually leads to their bodies suffering from a broad range of medical conditions. Others also tend to create a dependency on shopping and spending money on unnecessary materials. Lastly, some individuals also have bad habits that involve constant lying and deceiving. All of these examples are just a few of the things that fall under the umbrella of what an addiction truly is and each has a negative connotation to it. Yes, some might disagree with certain examples given but truth is we each have our own addictions we just try to hide them and point out the addictions of others instead of helping