Tension in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Though 'The Crucible' is set against the background of the Salem witch trials in 1629, it reflects the McCarthy anti-communism trials of 1950s America. The citizens of Salem (Massachusetts) had Puritan beliefs and were very religious. Due to their strong Christian beliefs, there was a great fear that people could form compacts with the devil and they even believed witchcraft and supernatural events really existed. Arthur Miller describes the mass hysteria which hit Salem to establish to the audience the vulnerable, narrow-minded personalities of the characters, by their height of paranoia and level of anxiety. This obvious breakdown in Salem's Puritan social order led to the tragedy that saw nineteen innocent people hung on the accusation of witchcraft. Arthur Miller brings out the absurdity of the incident in the play, which is expressed through the struggles of the main character, John Proctor. Elizabeth Proctor has been 'cold' towards her husband, which has tempted him to have an affair with their servant Abigail Williams. Abigail has fallen for John and wants him for herself. When she is found dancing with some of her friends in the forest, it is suggested that they had been tempted by witchcraft. The girls take this opportunity to accuse women from the village for performing witchcraft. Act two starts at a very tense part of the play, when Elizabeth finds out she has been accused of witchcraft by Abigail. Throughout the play it is evident that Arthur Miller uses dramatic techniques to build up tension for the audience. At the beginning of the act this is portrayed clearly in the row... ... middle of paper ... ...mper the audience have not seen him so mentally disturbed, and this is clearly out of his character. "(He throws her to the floor, where she sobs, 'I cannot I cannot…)" The fear of John Proctor is brought about by his violent actions. This is also very effective as the audience are uncertain of how far John will go. "(Grasping her by the throat as though he would strangle her)" At this moment in the scene the audience are made to feel that John is capable of anything and the tension is at its peak. Overall, I think that Arthur Miller has built the tension and suspense effectively throughout act two, through the use of the dramatic dialogue, entrances and actions. It is clear that he has done this very skilfully because it creates a mixture of emotions such as tension, excitement, suspense and fear for the audience.
It is then that suspicions about witchcraft begin. It is in Act 1 that the audience first meets John Proctor. He comes across as a young, respected and confident man who is happy to speak his mind. Early on we discover that in fact John had recently had an affair with Abigail Williams, one of the teenage girls, who had before been a servant in his house. Abigail appears to still have feelings for John, although the feeling doesn’t appear to be mutual.
Many of the characters in Arthur Miller's The Crucible have specific human flaws that cause the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem villagers exhibit failings, including greed, vengeance, and fear, which eventually lead to the downfall of their town. Many villagers, especially Abigail Williams, take advantage of the opportunity to seek vengeance on others through the trials. Greed for power and land often holds precedence when the hysteria takes over. Fear of being arrested or put to death is the key motivation in turning others in as witches. From these three human flaws, the town of Salem falls into chaos with many innocent people paying the price.
In The Crucible, the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials caused paranoia amongst the people of Salem. Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a symbol and allegory of the fear surrounding the spread of communism during the 1950s in America. The community’s sense of justice was blinded by the mass hysteria and for some, a desire for vengeance and personal gain. The Putnams
The statement,“The Crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is proven true numerous times, throughout the play. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, about the true events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, between the years 1692 and 1693. The Salem witch trials consisted of many hangings, lies, and complete mass hysteria. The citizens of Salem followed the religion of Puritanism, and the ideas of predestination. The root of the mass hysteria comes from their belief in the sense that in something happens then it must have been planned by God. In Miller’s portrayal of the story, Abigail Williams was the ringleader of the witch trials, and she used the idea of predestination to cover up her own sins. Abigail was a very manipulative girl and ruined many lives. John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor were just a few of the victims in Abby’s game. John, Mary, and Elizabeth exhibit the traits courage, weakness, and truth, whether it was in a positive or negative way.
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.
Also important to the play is how Arthur Miller depicts how one selfish, evil person like Abigail Williams can bring others down and make others follow her to commit evil acts. These evil acts affect even the most honest people in the town like John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse who cannot fight the accusations made against them by those following Abigail. Those following Abigail are considered to be holy men that are full of honesty and justice, but the play shows that even those who are thought to be respectable and right, like people of government or community leaders can bring death to innocent people if they are driven by something wrong. II. Plot: The plot begins with the inciting incident where Rev. Parris finds his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty along with his slave Tituba doing some dance in the forest.
Arthur Miller’s dramatic play The Crucible, takes place during 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The setting is important because it takes place during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. The play begins with the town’s girls, led by Abigail Williams, gathering in the forest and starting to dance around a fire, chanting. Reverend Parris catches them dancing, sending the girls into a panic and causing two of the girls to go into a coma-like state. The townspeople spread rumors that there are witches lurking throughout the the town that have put the girls under their spells. This causes Reverend Parris to send for Reverend Hale, an expert in witchcraft and the devil's work, who hopes to rid the town of all witchcraft. John Proctor, a local farmer, asks Abigail to stop accusing innocent people and start telling the truth about what happened in the forest. Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor's wife, excused Abigail from their house because she found out about an affair between Abigail and John. She lies to the court when she is asked about John’s affair to save him from any punishment. In doing so, they were both sent to jail for witchcraft because they knew she had lied. Abigail and the girls continued to lie about people in the town being witches, causing many innocent people to be killed, including John Proctor. Miller shows the dangers of scapegoating when lies that are regarded as the truth, and can kill innocent characters.
Miller's Tension in Act I of The Crucible The anti-Communist hysteria during the 1950's led to a mass persecution of people associated with Communism. Post WW2 America was a nation if fear and suspicion because of the on going cold war with Russia, anyone one remotely connected to a known communist could be persecuted, this sparked a fear that Russia could take over the world. At the time a playwright, Arthur Miller could not express his feelings due to society's strong support for McCarthyism. So Arthur Miller wrote a play about the Salem witch-hunts during 16th century America. Miller had to be subtle in how he expressed his feelings about the political movement McCarthyism, so he used the play as an allegory.
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 Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century believed lies to be deadly sin. They were of the opinion that the smallest false-telling could turn a person from a path to Heaven to one straight into the arms of the Devil. However, during the Salem Witch Trials in the spring and summer of 1692; lies, deceit, and false accusations became common currency. The character of Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller’s 1952 play, The Crucible, illustrates this type of behavior. Abigail Williams’s lust for John Proctor and her desire for attention motivate her to falsely accuse innocent women of witchcraft, resulting in the regret and desperation she feels in regard to the choices she made, and subsequently her decision to run away from Salem to escape the pain she has caused for herself and for others.
The night of January 2, 1953 in the heart of New York many have traveled to see the first premiere of the crucible of who they have heard to be the over-slightly liberal Arthur Miller. The play is not reportage of any kind,” Miller said. “Nobody can write a tragedy and make it reportage. What I was doing was writing a fictional story about an important theme." Words such as these were the very ones that began to make people question the truth in his words. Considering the due date of this play “so happened” to be at the peak of the red scare, Miller further on was known, or rather accused, as a communist sympathizer. However, the more sympathetic of
The devil is defined as being a spirit or power of evil. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, numerous citizens of Salem Village are prosecuted and convicted for having made contact with the devil. While historically, the Salem Witch Trials were an effect of greed and vengeance and are said to be false, the devil was indeed present in the town of Salem; he takes the shape of a young girl named Abigail Williams. Abigail depicts her evil spirit and coalition with the devil though her deception of anyone willing to listen, her irrational behavior, and her immoral actions, which directly defy the Puritan church.
The play, ‘The Crucible’, illustrates how people react to mass hysteria created by a person or group of people, as people did during the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s and the Salem witch hunts of 1962. Many Americans were wrongly accused of being Communist sympathizers. The activities of the House of Un-American Activities Committee began to be linked with the witchcraft trials that had taken place in the town of Salem. This provided Miller with the catalyst to write ‘The Crucible’. Without the knowledge of the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch hunts, ‘The Crucible’ may be seen as a melodrama and the events in the play, sensationalised. It is not a melodrama because it is not overly dramatic; the McCarthy hearings and the witch hunts inject realism in the play. The play deals with historical events and with characters that have a historical context.
John Proctor faces many decisions in response to his moral dilemma to try to save his life. One of the difficult decisions John makes is to reveal that he had an affair with Abigail Williams and thereby has committed adultery. If the local court convicts him of this crime, he faces being jailed. Also by admitting this crime, John reveals a weakness in his character. This flaw in his personality will make it harder for him to stand up in the community as an honorable and believable person. In trying to convince others that witchcraft does not exist John’s dishonesty with his wife will make him less convincing to the community.
In the novel The Crucible, author Arthur Miller uses varying degrees of goodness and evil to control the flow of the story while showcasing a Puritan town's superstitions and fear of the devil to justify the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The central character in Salem is John Proctor, an outspoken, successful, and well-respected farmer who chooses to maintain a certain distance from the church. Religious at heart, this man who has sinned, openly condemns the witch trials while hiding a secret that could discredit the main accuser, Abigail Williams. John Proctor is a man consumed by guilt, who draws on his contempt for Reverend Parris, his love for his wife, and his need to take responsibility for his actions to gain the strength of character it takes to publicly confess his sins, denounce Abigail Williams, and save his soul.