The Vain Struggle for Power “The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves” (“Good Night and Good Luck”). Originally this was said in the play Julius Ceasar, but this quote holds great importance in many other works such as The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller and the 2005 film, “Good Night and Good Luck,” directed by George Clooney. Both of these works have a plot and ideas that can tie together and relate to a universal theme that shows society that the fault in humans is only in themselves. The Crucible is an allegory whose sub text about McCarthyism matches the plot in “Good Night and Good Luck.” In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is in search of power in a village where she is treated as though she is nothing while in “Good …show more content…
Night and Good Luck,” a Edward Murrow, a news anchor, reaches out to show the world the issues in John McCarthy’s reach for power. Abigail Williams and John McCarthy both show how in the vain search for power, fingers are pointed and relationships are destroyed. When an opportunity for power opens, many are quick to jump and snatch that power for themselves.
This is the case for both Abigail Williams and John McCarthy. Abigail was a simple teenager in a community that viewed young, unmarried girls as nothing but servants. However, Abigail was also known as a sinner for having an affair with a well know, married man in the village. But when witchcraft is spoken of, Abigail takes the opportunity to start accusing many of the other villagers of being in relations with the devil to save herself. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil” (Miller 48)! Through pointing fingers at the others in town, Abigail realizes this is her chance to claim power and be seen as more than a servant in the village. In “Good Night and Good Luck,” Edward Murrow is out to take John McCarthy out of his position of power. John McCarthy reaches for power by pointing fingers at the innocent and accusing them of being communists. Both Abigail and McCarthy are in such low ranks of society, but soon begin to climb the ranks as they claim the power that is given. Just like Abigail, McCarthy is out for anyone and everyone, waiting and watching while thirsting for more power. “I’ve got my eyes on you, so best beware right or wrong. I sent my spies on you…” (“Good Night and Good
Luck”). Although pointing fingers seems like the easiest way out, doing this still destroys relationships of any type. When those who are to blame begin to lie and attempt to weasel their way out of a situation, people begin to get cross with each other and even themselves. Fred Friendly, the friend of Edward Murrow in “Good Night and Good Luck,” begins to question the accusation of a man in the Air Force who was accused of being a communist due to something his father did and this leads to Fred’s own relationship problems. The Air Force is quick to threaten Fred not to air his opinion on live television, causing him to further pursue airing this and going after John McCarthy, even though his coworkers do not agree. Once Fred and Edward decide to go after McCarthy’s false accusations, McCarthy begins to go after the two men in return (“Good Night and Good Luck”). This situation is much like the struggle between Mary Warren and Abigail Williams in The Crucible. Mary Warren was working alongside Abigail in accusing innocent people in town until she decides to go against Abigail and be right with God. However, Abigail is not pleased with this and sets out to make Mary seem like horrible witch who is out to get her. “Why do you come yellow bird?...My face? My face?...But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin Mary” (Miller 115). Both relationships are strained or ruined and effect other relationships alongside them as well. “Accusation is not proof…” (“Good Night and Good Luck”). Edward Murrow points this out in “Good Night and Good Luck” and through this, the theme of pointing fingers is brought to an even better light. Everyone was out to accuse everyone of something to get themselves out of trouble, but no one ever had proof to back it up. However, these accusations were still believed and lives were ruined. Both of these works show that when someone feels threatened, they will do anything to get out of the situation, even if it means lying and passing the blame on others.
“She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance, and you must see it, I set myself entirely in your hands.” John Proctor says this to Danforth in the movie “The Crucible,” which is a fascinating, and disturbing story based on an important event in history. This event was the Salem Witch Trials. The author Arthur Miller wrote this story in response to the major event the McCarthy Era. The Crucible showed the similarities between the McCarthy Era and the Salem Witch Trials.
In both storylines, there are characters that parallel each other and allow the viewers to see the overarching themes that permeate both movies. In Good Night and Good Luck, the main antagonist, Joseph McCarthy, is a foil for The Crucible’s Abigail Williams. They play the same role in the plot development of the movies and serve as antagonists who cause nothing but trouble. Although they differ in some aspects of their character, much of their motives and methods are quite similar.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” People tend to behave and deal with life differently according to the situation that they are in. In most cases when a person is in a very blissful and comfortable point of his or her life, they tend to act pleasant towards themselves and other people. This is why it is not fair-minded to judge people when they are in a contented part of their lives. It is during times of trial and suffering where the true soul of a person is revealed and judgment can be made. Readers can see the actions that are made by characters through times of hardship that reveal what they truly are in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Crucible by Arthur Millar.
In the novel The Crucible, Arthur Miller paints an image in the reader’s mind of the brutality that ensued in the Salem, Massachucettes Witch Trials and ventures into the personal stories of both the victims and the people who initiated the entire catastrophe. History is constantly repeating itself, this becomes apparent by comparing the Salem Witch Trials, Nazi Germany, and the Communist scare in America. When Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, he kept in mind what some thoughtlesslessly assumed to be an ever expanding Communist revolution and utilized some of the corrupt problems throughout those years in his play. Blind faith, ignorance, disloyalty, fighting for power, and human indecency are all contributing factors of the mass hysteria that ensued during the McCarthyist “witch- hunts” as well as the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible. Millers intention for writing this story was not only to prove a point about the appalling historic tragedies, but to express the dominance that betrayal, thirst for power, and ignorance have over a community through the characters John Proctor, Abigail, and Reverend Hale.
All in all Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible was written to be a perfect allegory to the McCarthy era. Many of the events, strategies and people on both sides are similar in the play and the McCarthy Era itself. Many similarities can be drawn between the two including the basis upon which of the victims were persecuted, the strategy to lessen their sentences and the driving factor behind both conflicts, fear. The Crucible was written as a silent but obvious rebellion to McCarthy because during the McCarthy Era Miller was accused of being communist as well. The Crucible was a play, an allegory and a rebellion to and about the McCarthy Era.
The tragic death of a flawed hero can redeem and save both the hero and those who look up to him/her. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a man named Randall Patrick McMurphy saves a ward and its patients from self destruction. The power hungry Nurse Ratched rules as Chief Bromden narrates. In a similar fashion, Abigail Williams reigns over Salem. Her and her group of girls will eventually be taken down by John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Both novels end with the downfall and deaths of McMurphy and Proctor, helping to save the ward and Salem. Randall Patrick McMurphy and John Proctor begin their journey as selfish but grow to become heroes along the way.
“It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” –Clive Barker. Everybody makes mistakes, but only the people who recognize the good in those mistakes are the people who can be redeemed from them. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many characters are put in desperate situations. Each person learns new things and further develops from each experience. Proctor learns how important his name is, Hale experiences extreme guilt over his actions and Giles learns to think before he speaks. In conclusion, in desperate situations individuals who possess insight are able to experience redemption.
Impactful, inspiring, influential are all words that describe the film Good Night, and Good Luck directed by George Clooney. The film is about Senator Joseph McCarthy on his witch-hunt for communists in the United States of America during the early 1950s and Edward Murrow a journalist and host of a television program. Good Night, and Good Luck is a powerful film that demonstrates the authoritative power of media, the historical representations of the McCarthy Era, and is significant in today’s media culture and US politics.
“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse” (Burke). Lies, power, and selfishness can destroy families, friendships, and towns. When a person has power, they may not use it properly. There have been many instances where this has happened, but two main examples are in the novel The Crucible, and in McCarthyism. The Crucible is connected to McCarthyism by its model of a desire for power, unsubstantiated accusations, and the detrimental effects of these accusations.
The play “The Crucible” is an allegory for the McCarthyism hysteria that occurred in the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. Arthur Miller’s play “the crucible” and the McCarthyism era demonstrates how fear can begin conflict. The term McCarthyism has come to mean “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty”, which is the basis of the Salem witch trials presented in Arthur Miller’s play. The fear that the trials generate leads to the internal and external conflicts that some of the characters are faced with, in the play. The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that discusses many issues and spurs contemplation within the reader. While reading this play, because of the controversy of many issues detailed within, it is difficult for one not to take a look at one’s own morals and determine what one would do if placed in a similar situation. The key issues discussed within this play, the effects of hysteria, marital betrayal, and the murderous powers of lies, are portrayed intriguingly and effectively. The lessons that can be learned from The Crucible are still quite applicable today.
The absolute power of aristocracies is a scourge on society that corrupts minds and imposes too much of an impact on the lives of the majority. At the time when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, society was subject to McCarthyism, the unquestionable authoritative force that could and did ruin the lives of those suspected of communism. Yet, of these people who suffered the brunt of punishment from authority, a numerous percentage of them displayed hypocrisy in accusing others out of survival. In The Crucible, Miller reflects this idea of hypocrisy in an environment where unquestionable authority reigns. His work displays the essentiality in rising out of such an insincere state and acting upon what
The play, The Crucible, is a fireball of guilt, evil, and good compiled into one magnification. It is a play with tremendous feelings, with many inside twists hidden in the archives of the true story. It is a play with emotional feelings; feelings of anger, hate, and evil, yet also feelings of goodness, and pureness. Undeniably, The Crucible is a play illustrating good versus evil. The principal characters, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Ann Putnam and Marry Warren all contain within them elements of good and evil.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that was first performed in 1953 in the United States of America in the midst of the persecution of alleged communists during the era of McCarthyism. Although the play explicitly addresses the Salem which hunt, many find that the play is an analogy to McCarthyism due to the striking similarities in which the people behaved. Miller highlight the different groups of characters in order to reveal overlying ideas of the play such as: Self preservation, power, and hypocrisy.
Although there were various inconsistencies between the film and historical facts Good Night and Good Luck was overall accurate in its portrayal of the broadcasts featured on Murrow’s documentary series, See it Now, especially Murrow’s “A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy”. Murrow’s transition from radio to television was effective due to See it Now which first appeared on television on November 18, 1951. As seen in the film, his program was organized and professional, using Murrow’s insightful commentary in addition to live interviews and images to further. Murrow’s “A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy” was particularly famous because it was the. The report took place on March 9th, 1954, which was stated in the movie. There were many parallels between the film and Murrow’s broadcast in real life and actor playing Murrow actually quoted from the reporter’s famous