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Critical analysis of the play into the woods
Conflicts in the play The Crucible
Conflicts in the play The Crucible
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Intolerance of Authority Versus Individual Freedom and Integrity “The Crucible” by Arther Miller is a play, about the Salemn Witch Trials. The play takes place in Salemn Massachusetts, which was then a strict Puritan town. This play is not only about the ruined lives and deaths of hundreds of people, but even more so about the selfish greed, apathy, and revenge of people in this small town. These are the main characters of the play. Several of the characters came to many crossroads in their lives and were forced to make some very important decisions. Marry Warren, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor all face big decisions that can change more than their own lives. Marry Warren, under a lot of stress and confusion, had to make hard decisions about herself and accusations involving her closest friends. At the beginning of the play Marry Warren and her friends Abbigal Williams and Betty Parris secretly go into the woods with the Parris’s slave Tittuba. While in the forest the girls are dancing and playing while Tittuba sings songs for them. They are all having a fun time but are then caught by Reverend Parris. Terrified of the trouble they are in and not responsible enough to except their punishment the girls blame Tittuba. They accuse Tittuba of using witchcraft on them. While all of this commotion is going on Marry is confused and scared. While talking to Abby she considers just telling the truth, arguing back and forth Marry says that “I never done non of it, Abby. I only looked”. Then Abby reminds Marry of the things that will happen to all of them if the confess. This is hard decision for Marry to make, but she decides to go along with Abby. Later, in act two of the play, John Proctor finds out that Marry Warren and the girls were only dancing in the woods and insist that
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Paris, and Abigail are the main characters. The book is about witchcraft or what the town thinks is witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.
“No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” In the case of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Edward Murrow is uncannily accurate. The Crucible, set in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials, proves that when one antagonist has accomplices, they can destroy the lives of many. In this story, Abigail destroys the lives of everyone in Salem. That being said, in times of stress or panic, people's’ true traits and personalities can be discovered, as shown in the cases of John Proctor and his damning indiscretion, Rev. Hale’s panicked realization, and Mary Warren’s naive and fearful indecision; all of which develop throughout the play in response to different stimuli.
Throughout The Prince and The Discourses of Livy, Niccolo Machiavelli demonstrates multiple theories and advocacies as to why popular rule is important to the success of a state. Popular rule is a term that will be used to define an indirect way to govern the people of a state. In order to rule the masses, a leader must please the people or revolts will occur, causing mayhem and a lack of stability in one’s state. During both written works, Machiavelli stresses the importance of obedience and order needed for a state, and especially for a leader to be successful. Machiavelli thoroughly states that anything and everything must be done to keep the peace of the masses, even if acts of immorality are used. However, instead of advocating immorality, Machiavelli is saying that to serve the people and the state well, a ruler must not restrict himself to conventional standards of morality. His use of immoral tactics in leadership would appear to be unpopular; however the acts of immorality have limitations and are done solely to avoid displeasing the masses or creating disorder. Therefore it is acceptable to practice immorality if it is done only to a small number of constituents, if it is not repeated, and if it is performed to please and benefit the public. It is these limitations that prove Machiavelli is arguing that the use of immoral tactics, to rule the people and in turn be ruled by the people, is needed. He suggests that if the majority of the population is unhappy with a leader, that particular leader’s rule would be in jeopardy, thus falling victim to popular rule.
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 by Arthur Miller is a masterpiece of its time, not only because of its compelling ideas and relative historical accuracy, but also because of its uncanny ability to draw its readers and viewers to the edge of their seats… and further. Written to point out the evil and perversion embodied in the McCarthy trials of his time, Arthur Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials as a powerful parallel. The Salem Witch Trials occurred in Salem Massachusetts, from 1692 to 1693, in the course of which over 200 people were falsely convicted of witchcraft, and 20 were hanged for refusing to “confess.” It was a grim time ruled by hysteria, as fear became the driving force of the leadership and led them to commit unimaginable acts, acts that would a distinct scar on their society for many years to come. In order to make the Witch Trials more relatable, Arthur hones in on the lives of several people of the town of Salem, chiefly John Proctor and Abigail Williams.
In the play the crucible by Arthur Miller people are faced with an issue believed to be witchcraft. The play is based upon a problem that happened in 1692 and 1693 in Massachusetts. In the play people believe that everything that goes wrong must be related to witchcraft. If accused of witch craft you will be arrested and forced to a trial. In the play the trial is influenced on a girl named Abigale who holds the power to tell if a person is working with the devil. As the play progresses girls from the town fake illnesses, accuse people, and support Abigale decisions willingly with no disregard. The girls blindly follow Abigail scheme because if they go against her she will accuse them of witchcraft and will be sent to death.
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, renders the horrific events of the Salem witch trial through a crew of many fantastic characters. Fear pedals the citizens of Salem Massachusetts to reveal their true character while facing the judgment of a bias court before barbarous judges. While the whole town of Salem is filled up with this madness, two particular women stand out above the rest. Shame and revenge lives in the mind and heart of an adulteress teenager Abigail Williams, while truth and righteousness lives in the soul of Elizabeth Proctor, a faithful wife to John Proctor. Abigail and Elizabeth both heighten the suspense and tension of the play along with their differences leading to turmoil due to both of their desire for one man’s love.
In Huemer’s The Problem Of Political Authority an argument is made against the idea of a political authority. The idea in this argument is that the government has certain rights that do not pertain to the citizens as well. The purpose of this paper is to show that Huemer’s argument fails by arguing a consent-based response to Huemer’s criticisms, which shows that the government does not actually violate a “social contract” made with society. The idea behind this is that we have actually consented to the government’s authority in several ways without being explicit.
Deviance is any behavior that departs from societal or group norms. Deviance is not aimed at directly just once topic. It can range from criminal behavior, to sexual behavior, to religious behavior, and a lot more. Society is based around order and stability, without these two things conformity and predictability in human behavior would not exist. Because deviance can be so defined as so many different things, often people take offense to what they believe is wrong. The way I would define deviance is a mishap, in a person’s beliefs, and behavior that society does not agree with. The concepts 'Social Control ' and 'Deviance ' to my understandings of these terms are that they try to categorize, regulate and define different kinds of antisocial behavior. I believe that a lot of time, we as humans are afraid to break out of our shell and speak our mind because we are so afraid of what others may think. Society tells us that you have to act, be, and look a certain way, and if you do not fit these standards, then you are breaking conformity.
Liberty and power were seen as adversarial terms when it came to republican government in the 1800’s. The American people of this period did not have a strict definition for liberty, but instead a group of values and ideas they associated with it. These values were freedom to improve yourself, morally and materially, freedom of religion, freedom from a privileged aristocracy, and freedom of expression. Personal liberty was allowed to prosper, as long as it stayed within state and federal constitutions and did not infringe on another man’s liberty. The biggest threat to liberty was power, often used by governments and private authorities to remove rights they did not have control over. The issue of promoting liberty while restricting power was maintainable when America was largely an agrarian society. The yeoman mentality, of a self-sufficient farmer, growing crops to sustain his family, and with any surplus he could sell or trade for what he could not make himself, was the ideal image of personal liberty. As commerce and industry began to create a new economy, the distance between liberty and power became more indiscernible.
The Salem Witch trials of 1692 was an event that shaped the history of this country, as well as the lives of those whose wives and husbands were condemned to death. In order for such an event to occur, there must be a set of people who catalyze the event, and others who speak out against it. In “The Crucible”, certain characters help contribute to the rising hysteria of witchcraft, and others contribute to the disapproval of so many wrongful convictions. Throughout the endurance of Arthur Miller 's The Crucible, vengeance and the love for John play a big role in the actions and fates of various characters. Since Abigail Williams is motivated by John Proctor, her decision to lie and accused others of witchcraft resulted in the deaths of many people in Salem by the end of the play.
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.
The protagonists in the films Kinsey by Bill Condon and Thank You for Smoking by Jason Reitman are two men who are cut from very different styles of cloth. In Kinsey, the titular character uses logical discourse and gathered statistics in an attempt to remove the shackles of moral prudery from the subject of human sexuality for the betterment of humanity. On the other hand, the central character in Thank You for Smoking is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry who uses logical fallacy and rhetoric to obscure the health risks of tobacco use because he is extraordinarily good at it, and additionally he gets paid handsomely. As divergent as these two men are in their intentions, they both show passionate skill in asserting their claims against tough opposition. Moreover, both characters argumentative styles reveal their mutual apprehension of the power that morality and rhetoric hold in shaping public opinion.
History has proven over time that the arrogance of a country can be its greatest down fall. America has risen to became a great power in a short period of time, but their contagious ways could become its potential downfall from their own arrogant ways. The author's use of logos helps define the article by the means of describing the faults that he sees with America's arrogant ways. The world sees Americans differently and this changes depending on, if we are at home or abroad. The evidence is in the past, in that America is at a crossroad and should evaluate this necessary arrogance before it collapses.
In society is it generally been accepted that rules are needed to be able to function properly in our everyday lives. Laws are created to create civilized societies, without which society would begin to crumble. There are many views on how a good society should be and many theories put in place. Rachels’ provides us two separate theories that demonstrate two different ways we place rules on the society.