Within the two plays Macbeth and The Crucible Shakespeare and Arthur Miller evidently display the roles of power and manipulation through many characters that are used within these plays these also the affects that it has on the other characters and readers. The characters within these plays all have unique personalities that end up leading them straight into conflict. In the play The Crucible the characters are trying to achieve something, but they don’t get it that easily. This leads to the deaths of many innocent lives that were falsely accused. While in Macbeth, the characters are trying to achieve a higher social status. But, by doing this they end up hurting the ones that were once close to them. Both of Shakespeare and Miller’s …show more content…
plays are closely related. Within the two plays power and manipulation is commonly shown through Macbeth and Danforth whom are both highly respected people, Abagail Williams and Lady Macbeth and finally the three witches and Mary warren to demonstrate the acts of how manipulation affects the characters. Firstly, the roles of power and manipulation are shown by Thomas Danforth and Macbeth which are two characters that use their positions in society to manipulate others for their own personal benefits. In Arthur’s The crucible the character known as Thomas Danforth is a judge that works in Salem. Throughout the play Danforth uses manipulation as a way to convince others to do what he thinks is right and also to help save his name. When Danforth says “Near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature… and seventy-two condemned to hang by signature (Miller 87) Danforth shows that he uses his powers as a judge to help him manipulate people that are innocent for no reason at all. Also when Danforth states “Now sit you down and take counsel with yourself or, ya will be set in the jail until you decide to answer all questions… this is a court of law… I’ll have no effrontery here” when Danforth said this he was trying to save his honour by putting John Proctor in jail and saying that witchcraft is real so that the rest of the people wouldn’t think that many people died for no reason at all. He did all of this to show that he wasn’t wrong after people began to question if witchcraft was real. While on the other hand Macbeth is a Nobel king of Scotland who uses his throne to help influence other people to do what he wants them to do. Within the play Macbeth is a character that is well respected by people even before he had become the king of Scotland. This trust allows him to do somethings that normally wouldn’t be allowed. For Instance Macbeth says “Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men, as hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels…, shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves are clept. All by the name of dogs …who wear out health but sickly in his life, which in his death were perfect.”(Shakespeare 49) In this quote Macbeth is trying to convince the murders to kill Banquo for him. Macbeth is using manipulation just like how Lady Macbeth did on him to make the murders what to do the job. He says that you have to be like a wolf rather than a lap dog. But, he also says that if Banquo is alive that his life would be at stake, basically threatening the murders that they will be responsible for the death of the king. Macbeth then also uses his power and trust to help Banquo make him trust him that what the witches said was not real and that he shouldn’t really worry about it anymore. By manipulating Banquo into thinking that the witches’ prophecies are fake so that Macbeth would get a greater chance of being king rather than Banquo’s heir. Macbeth’s plan did work for a while until Banquo realizes and puts together all the pieces of the puzzle. This forces Macbeth to once again try to make Banquo believe that it was all fake and that him becoming king was just by luck. Duncan and Macbeth are two characters that are from different playwrights but, feel like they are almost the same. Both Macbeth and Duncan use their social statues to take control over the minds of others. This allowed them to become into even more powerful people than they were already. But, both do abuse the power that has manifested for an evil purpose rather than a positive one. Which ends up leading to their own downfalls at the end of each play. Secondly, the power that has been manifested is being abused by Abagail Williams and Lady Macbeth more than what Macbeth and Danforth have done.
The roles of power and manipulation are portrayed through Abagail and Lady Macbeth when they use their relationships help them to take control over others. Even though Abagail is still a teenager she is one of the biggest manipulators within both of the plays. She uses manipulation to her advantage against others. For example when Abagail says “Now look you. All of you we danced… and mark this. Let either of you a breathe of a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring you a pointy reckoning” (Miller 45) after saying this to the other girls it makes it clear that she is abusing the girls by manipulating them to not tell anyone about what had happened in the jungle. This shows that she will go to any limit to make sure that she doesn’t get caught by even threatening to kill her friends. Moreover, Abagail tried to manipulate John Proctor into falling in love with her and living with her instead by saying “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in to my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was… and how you bid me tear the light out of my eyes…You loved me John Proctor… You love me yet pity me John.”(Miller 54) This shows that Abagail abuse the power of manipulation for he own personal interests. As the play went on Abagail became more and more manipulative eventually leading to her taking control of the court by using the girls to tell lies and making the court hang whoever was in her way. Just as Abagail abuse the girls and the court Lady Macbeth abuses the power of manipulation to make Macbeth want to murder the current King of Scotland at that time so that Macbeth would be the king and Lady Macbeth would end up as the queen. In the play when Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth she said “My hands are of
your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”(Shakespeare 1.5.40) when she says this it makes Macbeth think about what he should do because, Lady Macbeth is questioning his dignity as a man so that he will end up being forced to do whatever she tells him to do. Lady Macbeth manipulates him because, she sees this as a chance for them to become royalty. Right after she tells him to “ Look like th’innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t…”(Shakespeare 1.6.64) she wants to completely brain wash Macbeth so that he will defiantly kill Duncan so that she can get the fame and the fortune that she now wanted. After giving this talk to Macbeth she has completely manipulated him to do something that he didn’t want to do and sets him up for him to become a heartless villain. Moreover, both Abagail and Lady Macbeth are master manipulators because, they both ended up manipulating someone so that they could get something back in return. Even though they both have much in common they are different character from different plays. While Abagail is known as a rude and controlling person when she doesn’t get what she wants as on the other hand Lady Macbeth has a much more better approach because, she uses that strong bond between her and Macbeth to make him do something that he originally would have not done if it wasn’t for her. Overall this did affect the plot, because if Abagail hadn’t manipulated the court and John many people would have still be alive and for Lady Macbeth’s case she would have also saved Macbeth’s life and her own. Ultimately, Abagail and Lady Macbeth both abused manipulation as a way to get what they want from others. Finally, the last two characters from The Crucible and Macbeth that show abuse of manipulations are Mary warren and the three witches from Macbeth. Mary Warren was the servant of John Proctor. After working for him she is feed up with listening to him so she decides to manipulate the court against John when she had the chance this allowed her to frame Proctor for making her tell the court something that she claims is a lie. She abused the condition of the court at the time and used it to her advantage to frame John for being a bad person that is controlling over her. When Mary tells John to let go of her and says that she can’t do this anymore. (Miller 112) She frames him for trying to control her and says that he is with the devil. When she says “You’re the devils man” (Miller 118) Mary then manipulates the court into trusting her and tells them lies about John so that he would be arrested. She then stated “He wants my name… I’ll murder you he says… we must overthrow the court… He wakes me in my sleep and claws my neck.” After saying this the court then believes that John is the one that is behind all of the madness. Just like Mary Warren the three witches also manipulate the tragic hero. They were the first ones to manipulate Macbeth and plant the seed of becoming king into his brain. They gave him this idea when the said “ All hail Macbeth to thee, Thane of Cawdor, All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter”(Shakespeare 1.3.48) After hearing this thoughts emerged in his mind to kill Duncan so that he could become king after he realized what the witches said was true. Later in the play they once again manipulate him when they said “Macbeth…beware Macduff…”(Shakespeare 4.1.70) This creates a thought that he should kill Macduff but kills his family instead causing Macduff to want to kill him. When the apparition comes they tell him no one born of woman can hurt him which makes him to over confident which leads him to his own downfall. In addition both Mary Warren and the three witches both uses manipulation to frame the tragic hero. In both cases leading to the deaths of both of the protagonists. To wrap it up the abuse of manipulation makes the tragic hero do something that they regret. To conclude Macbeth and The Crucible are two different plays but, they both contain one thing in common which is the abuse of manipulation. The power of manipulation is used throughout the plays by Macbeth and Danforth through their use of social status, Lady Macbeth and Abagail Williams and the three witches and Mary Warren who use manipulation to ruin the lives of the tragic heroes. Both these have a great impact on the lives of people because, they teach us that there is another side to most people and that the lessons from theses play can be directly implemented in to our own lives. Sadly, Shakespeare and Arthur Miller’s character all show a side to them that has cause harm to others from the use of manipulation.
The focus of Miller’s The Crucible is an appalling witch trial that morfs the once-peaceful town of Salem into a cutthroat slaughterhouse. As a lucrative playwright and a not-so-subtle allegory author, Miller is a seasoned wordsmith who addresses people akin to himself, and is not secretive about that information. The Crucible best serves its purpose as a learning device and a social statement, especially at the time of its publishing. Miller‘s piece showcases the appeals in an easy-to-identify manner that is perfect for middle or high school students who are new to the appeals, or for English majors who have no problem pinpointing them, making this play ideal for a classroom setting.
The Crucible the film is an adapted version of Arthur Miller’s play of the same name, which was inspired by the 1692 Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. The two main characters are Abigail Williams played by Winona Ryder and John Procter played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The Crucible’s opening scene is Reverend Parris catching Abigail and her friends dancing in the woods and conjuring spirits. Abigail did not want to get in trouble so she blamed Tituba, a Barbados slave, for making her drink chicken blood, and tempting her to sin.
Politicians have capitalized on their power of persuasion on sway voters in one direction or the other. However, only the truly educated individual may navigate through a sea of logical fallacies in search of the truth. In literature as in life, figureheads make decisions that not only affect themselves but those around them. These decisions may conjure up characteristics of self sacrifice or selfish, self-serving power moves. Arthur Miller's play The Crucible tells the story of a group of teenage girls who do witchcraft in a religious town and blame innocent people for their actions. The town then begins to fall under mad hysteria and the lies told kill the innocent. Select Characters, inspired by real people,
Was The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, just an “irrational fear?” (Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Fact & Fiction Par.1). The panic of Communism during the Cold War and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist hearings on February 3, 1953 led to this “irrational fear.” There are several major differences from the true version of the story and Miller’s version. These differences could have made the whole event much more interesting and eerie. Many specific details were overlooked that could have changed the play around. For example, Parris’ wife was not dead. In Miller’s play he refers to the group of girls as Abigail’s girls, but there were many other girls that were included in the group of the “afflicted”. Another difference that could have reconstructed how the play was is Abigail’s age. Because Miller used different context from the event, the true facts of history could have made the play much more interesting.
Fear holds a great control over any mortal human-being through daunting and restricted words, most commonly seen while anyone is under pressure. While being controlled over fear, you may come to realize that you are being manipulated to the possibilities of a threatened punishment and may also be mislead by lies. Arthur Miller’s classic novel, The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, where a lot of times fear would be used to control anyone to blame another of witchcraft. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller elucidates this through Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Mary Warren, that fear holds a great torment on the truth.
Power and fear can affect people´s sense of what's wrong and what's right. In “the Crucible” by Miller, we can see how the trials affected every individual in a negative aspect. people suffered because of such power and unfairness the authority had. The witch trials affected a lot of individuals from an emotional aspect to a psychological trauma.
Great events, whether they are beneficial or tragic ones, bring change in a person. These scenarios can give one an entirely new perspective on life, and turn around his way of thinking. Events such as the Salem Witch Trials show the people involved what they could not see before. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor gain valuable insight into themselves, as well as others.
The issues of power, that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, portrays are concerned with, who has the power, the shifts of power that take place and how power can consume people and try to abuse it, for either vengeance, jealously, material gain or sexual desire.
In Salem, during the times of the Salem witch trials, the church and the people were very close. This is what led to the hysteria and chaos which was the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book, because anyone who was against the church was considered a criminal. Some of these conflicts were between; Abigail and the other children, Danforth and the town folk, and John Proctor with himself and his wife.
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.
In the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows us how fear and suspicion can destroy a community. As the play develops, Miller shows us how fear and suspicion increase and destroy the community. Throughout the play it becomes apparent that the community gets more and more divided as time goes on. In the beginning there were arguments about ownership of land between some of the villagers. As the story progresses people fear for their own safety and begin accusing their neighbours of witchcraft in order to escape being hanged.
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 witchcraft trials became a significant event in Salem. There were 20 innocent people that died and many more accused. There is a debate on whether who was the main reason for the witchcraft trials and all the deaths of the accused. There are good arguments on about every side. Judge Danforth, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, Elizabeth Proctor and Mary Warren are all the main arguments for the blame. Personally, I believe that Abigail Williams is the main reason why the witchcraft trials came about and that so many people have died and were accused.
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.
The desire for power and authority has always been a part of the human nature. Today’s society most often use power to dominate one another and fulfill one’s personal intentions, which can affect other people in many ways. Having power and authority is truly gratifying but it is terrifying if abused and used for selfish acts. The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller is an example to illustrate the consequences of abuse of power. The characters Abigail Williams, Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris use their power over society by manipulating people and using their authority to fulfill their personal intentions, like material gain, vengeance, maintaining social status and reputation, and attention, which eventually lead into a mass hysteria.