Araceli Nuñez
Mrs. Terry
U.S. History, B3
10 May 2017
The Crucible. Dir. Nicholas Hytner. Perf. Winona Ryder, Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield . Twentieth Century Fox films , 1996. DVD.
In the year 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts a group of white teenage girls (Winona Ryder, as the main girl) and a slave named Tituba (Charlayne Woodard) were caught in the forest doing “witch” rituals. They then have to go on trial and are pushed to “admit” that they are witches and have been taken over by the devil. One of the girls is wishing for a married man (Daniel Day-Lewis) to love her back, she meddles in his marriage as she tries to have an affair with him. After the trials are over 20 suspects are hung as punishment. This film is a good film as it is
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based off of true events however it does have a few exaggerations but that's the price one pays when adapting history into a movie.
At this period of American history, the colonies were all very very religious as it was one of the main reasons they left Britain. The film greatly represents just how religious and different the beginnings of America were.
In the heavily Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay, the religious views and spirituality of the settlers very much dictated the way lived, influencing their customs and laws as seen in the movie. The movie begins with Tituba, Abigail Williams and a group of teenage girls in the woods. They dance naked and Abigail drinks a chicken’s blood as she wishes for John Proctor to love her back and for his wife’s death. The uncle that Abigail is staying with and father of Betty, a girl amongst the group, discovers them in the woods. Betty faints in the woods, causing an increased level of suspicion by Reverend Parris (the uncle) and another couple, Thomas and Ann Putnam as neither of their daughters will awake. As a result, the concerned
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parents jump to the conclusion that the girls must be demonically possessed and call for a renowned reverend to examine them. In order to stay out of trouble and accusations of doing witchcraft, Abigail lies and says Tituba (the slave is a witch). Tituba has no say in the unfolding events as it is 1692 and she is a slave. Tituba is punished with whippings but escapes execution as she “confesses’ that she is a witch. Abigail, a quite manipulative teenage girl, takes this as an opportunity to accuse other women, namely John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth as women involved in evil rituals and who she saw with the devil. The girls are then formerly accused in court and John asks Mary Warren to testify against the girls and say the witchcraft was faked. The judges decide to arrest all the accused and then question them. As the trials continue, Mary claims she only thought she saw spirits and the other girls pressure into again saying that she did see spirits, taking her back to square one. Elizabeth and the other girls are charged but Elizabeth is spared from death as she announces that she is pregnant. If the beginning of the trials were not enough drama for you, John Proctor reveals that he and Abigail had an affair in order to prove how uninnocent she is.
He correctly claims Abigail framed Elizabeth in order for them (Abigail and John) to be able to get married. Again, to save herself from punishment Abigail lies and denies the affair so then Mrs. Proctor is called in to affirm if the affair really happened. Cheater is a very negative label nowadays and an even bigger deal in the Puritan’s “pure” ways of life, so Elizabeth lies to protect John’s reputation (and of course, she was unaware of him having confessed). One of the many reverends, Reverend Hale tries to help John and persuade the judges that he did have an affair with Abigail, but the girls are mischievous and create a commotion around Mary supposedly attacking them as a bird which turns the court against John even more as he asked her to testify previously. Rev. Hale doubted Abigail’s claims. To protect herself from death by a hanging, Mary lies and accuses John of being a witch! John is arrested as he says God is dead, when asked if he will “return” to God. Thrice Abigail lies and attempts to accuse Rev. Hale’s as a witch but because he is a minister and she is his wife, she is pure and can not possibly be a witch. Sometime later, as the drama is about to settle down, Abigail the troublemaker steals money from her uncle to flee the colony. She ventures a move on John once more, asking him to leave with her
but he refuses. On the day of his hanging, John is pushed to sign a confession and have others confess after him but instead rips the confession apart before being hanged along with the other accused. CONCLUSION In retrospect, the film was artistically wonderful. It kept the audience on their toes, jumping at every accusation. While there a few minor inaccuracies and things left out, such as Abigail never having been a maidservant for the Proctors, the gist of the movie was spot on. The movie can be used to analyze the extent of the influence of religion in everyday early American colonial life. It can be used to compare how sexually open women were to now, how accepted and spoken of sexuality was and even the difference in women’s roles. Overall, the film deserves a solid 8. An 8, because although it was a wonderful film, parts of it were rather open ended and did miss a few facts. I would highly recommend the movie to anyone looking to explore religion, witchcraft, law and social change in early America. Works Cited "The Crucible (1996)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 9 May 2017. The Crucible. Dir. Nicholas Hytner. Perf. Winona Ryder, Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield . Twentieth Century Fox films , 1996. DVD.
In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch. To start from the beginning, Abby, Tituba, and the girls were out in the forest one night, dancing, and were caught by Reverend Paris. Abby blamed Tituba for calling the Devil. Tituba then said it was not her, for there are many witches in the community. Tituba named some of the town’s women as witches.
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.
In the Town of Salem Massachusetts, 1692, a group of adolescents are caught dancing in the forest. Among the adolescents in The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Mary Warren. The girls are horrified that they have been caught dancing, a sinful act, therefore they devise a story to evade punishment: they claim to have been bewitched. The first person who they accuse of witchcraft is a the black maid, Tituba. This results in her jail sentence as well as fearful suspicion throughout the town. Arthur Miller demonstrates the impact of lying as the girls recognise and manipulate their power in the town. Lead by Abigail, they go further, claiming countless others guilty and dooming them to exile. Miller demonstrates that there power is so great that even when Mary attempts to stand against her friends, she is quickly overwhelmed and once again plays along with their trickery. As the girls’ conspiracy continues, controversy arise over their truthfulness; people choose sides often lying themselves to support their side, further altering the lives of all involved.
The Crucible. Dir. Nicholas Hytner. Perf. Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Paul Scofield. 20th Century Fox, 1996. DVD.
When faced with all the false accusations, she also exhibited grace, good judgment, and dignified behavior. Her case involves a love triangle between her, Abigail Williams and John Proctor. I couldn't imagine being in her shoes where you are forced to face both your internal dilemma of whether to forgive your husband and an external one. The jealousy and wickedness of a young girl who used to be Elizabeth’s husband’s mistress is the main reason why she is accused and charged. Abigail Williams childishly refuses to accept the truth when she was rejected by John Proctor. She plotted against his wife, Elizabeth, in a desperate attempt to take her husband and also, her place in the society as a mistress of a prospering home. Elizabeth Proctor bravely replies, “I cannot think the Devil may own a woman's soul, Mr. Hale, when she keeps an upright way as I have. I am a good woman, I know it; and if you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you I do not believe it.” when questioned by Reverend Hale. Furthermore, she exhibits a much greater strength and courage than her husband, despite her gentle and meek appearance. Elizabeth is the one who is not afraid to speak her mind openly and plainly and is not afraid to stand up to the judges. At one point she inspired her husband to act in a similar way when she openly challenged the doctrine. Elizabeth was the
John Proctor committed lechery with Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams wants John Proctor to love her, but he is married to Elizabeth, and he doesn’t want to leave her for Abigail. Abigail knows that John doesn’t want to leave his wife, so she tries to get rid of her, first by drinking a charm to kill her, and she then accuses her of witchcraft. John knows that Abigail is trying to get rid of his wife so he knows that he has to tell the courts about what happened between the two of them so that they will realize why she is making the accusations on his wife. When he admits his fault to the court the girls turns around and accuse him of witchcraft in order to save themselves. John is put in jail for three months because of this accusation. After all of this time he nearly decides to admit to it, but he then realizes what it would do to himself and his name.
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
The crucible’s setting was in the year 1962, in the small Puritan society of Salem. One night some of the girls in the village were in the woods doing love potions when they were caught. The girls lied and said that witches made them do it. In an extremely religeous society the influence of witches was immensely frightening and as the thought to identify witches arose, so did mass hysteria of the...
Abigail accuses innocent people of witchcraft, including John’s wife, Elizabeth. She does this so her and John would be together and Elizabeth wouldn’t be in his life, even after John told Abigail he does not love her. He faces this crucible throughout the play and changes his demeanor towards Abigail. John becomes infuriated and he wants to expose Abigail for making false accusations of witchcraft, although it might include his confession of adultery. John eventually confesses his sin of adultery but refuses for it to be made public and posted on the church door, resulting in his
It was easier for them to blame the devil for the problems of society than fix the problems of their own strict way of life. So the girls involved with Abigail, like Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren, named many people in the town as witches. These people were put in jail and would be hanged if they did not confess to the crime of devil worship or witchcraft. Another part of the developing plot is that John Proctor knows Abigail and her friends are lying, but he is afraid to say anything because eight months before he had an affair with Abigail and did not want to be seen by the town as a lecher, which means wife cheater. So, Mr. Proctor has to fight with himself to come out and tell the truth, or his wife might die because of Abigail saying she was a witch.
History remembers Tituba only as the West Indian slave blamed for bewitching the young girls of Salem, Massachusetts, ultimately inciting the famous “Salem Witch Trials”. However, her lack of historical background has allowed authors to give her historical figure new life. Maryse Conde’s novel “I Tituba, Black Witch Of Salem.” provides us with insight into Tituba’s history. For the first time Tituba, a marginalized member of society, gains a voice. She explores the different dimensions of the slave experience and explains how a young woman's sexuality and her skills as a healer made her an object of wonder and terror. Conde delves into the power of sexuality and its absolute control over Tituba.
author of the play, was put in prison in the early 1950s owing to his
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.
Religious beliefs in todays society and in the Salem Witch Trials are strikingly similar. In current events, religious groups come together to protest, and rival against people and even other religions. Religion is favoured over morality and misused as an excuse to cover up wrongful acts leading to false perceptions of what religion is really for. The Crucible by Arthur Miller shows just that. How the stubbornness of religious beliefs in 1692 lead to compulsive lying, false accusations, witch trials and executions in Salem. Were these events in Salem to rid of sin or to simply have an excuse to sin? Are we just as stubborn as the people in Salem believing that we are doing right by doing wrongful acts in the name of God?
How many religions are mentioned in The Crucible? To start, The Crucible is a play by, playwright, Arthur Miller (Burns). The Crucible is about the salem witch trials, which was a event in early America where people were falsely hung for practicing “witchcraft”. Many people believe that Miller chose that time as a metaphor about the red scare, as it was a current event during the release and writing of the play and cost him his career as a playwright. There are only two religions directly mentioned in The Crucible (“Themes”). One religion is Christianity, which is defined as: “Of, relating to, or derived from Jesus Christ or His teachings” ("Christian"). The other religion mentioned is Wicca: “A nature-oriented religion having rituals and practices