Power And Authority In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Human experiences extensively define characters suffering, often revealing anomalous and paradoxical behaviour from individuals during moments of difficulty such as mass hysteria, fear, loss of power and threat to reputation, This is thoroughly reflected in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. The play is composed to critique extremist activities as an allegory towards modern issue of McCarthyism(1950s), through the storytelling of The Salem witch trials in 1692. Wrongful executions are performed in response to accusations made by a group of young girls. Miller writes a complex play highlighting the revelation of true inconsistent behaviours of the characters through these moments of weakness. During the horrific trials of Salem, immense fear …show more content…

Throughout The Crucible, Miller exhibits how power and authority impacts the characters pain. The play involves many characters with authoritative positions playing a significant role in the witch trials. This is initially seen in representations of both perspectives of the power scale between the slave, Tituba, and Referend Hale who upholds immense power particularly in this time. Hale uses an assertive tone to enhance the self-awareness of his “the jails are packed- our greatest judges sit here in Salem- and hangin’s promised.” Hale uses colloquial dialogue of ‘hangin” that accentuates the lack of remorse displayed by those that apprehend power in Salem. Initially Hale’s role in the witch trials was to “cure” the alleged witches, although Hale becomes consistent and immoral and resorts to brutally “removing” the individuals. Through utilising colloquial language like “ hangin” Miller effectively highlighted the lack of remorse Hale has for these individuals, leading him to inevitably inflict suffering on them. The play alongside the high end of the power spectrum represents the lower end through the character, Tituba, a slave from Babados, who is often at blame for the infection of witchcraft in Salem. This is illustrated in Act 1 “I have no power over this child sir”, the inclusion of “no power” and “child” extensively reflects the lack of power Tituba is …show more content…

The importance of reputation is revealed first in Act 1 through the metaphorical dialogue “There be no blush about my name” Abigail delivers this line, introducing the audience to the role reputation plays in the play. The necessity of a ‘pure-white’ reputation is highlighted through the symbolic word choice in the dialogue of “no blush”. Frequently, titles of literature and names of characters have a symbolic nature to them. This is seen in The Crucible. In John Proctor’s name, the name ‘Proctor’ holds the meaning of, “a man will not cast away his good name”. The meticulously chosen name further accentuates the role of a puritanist reputation in the town of Salem. Although this name is ironic to Proctor’s character in his immoral relationship with Abigail, it contradicts his puritan nature. The relationship between Proctor and Abigail leads to the discourse of inconsistent actions from Proctor such as “She is a Whore!” In this moment of weakness Proctor clearly defies his relationship with Abigail in order to protect his own reputation, this consequently leads to the emotional pain of Abigail. Proctor is then set to sign his confession, this is a pivotal moment in the play in displaying the impact the damaging reputation holds on the characters suffering. The stage directions ‘(Hysterically as though tearing paper was his life)” The simile in

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