The Crucible Essay

688 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effect Of Media On Society

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is a story about Puritans, a group of people not happy with the path religion was taking and were in search of reform. The Puritans in this play live in Salem, Massachusetts and it takes place in 1692. In this story Arthur Miller tells the reader about the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials. The Red Scare was Miller’s way of addressing mass hysteria induced by ignorant people searching for trust and acceptance in the colonies. The Salem Witch Trials are an example of the society’s needs to conform to the political, social, and religious beliefs of the time. The girls and their actions in The Crucible represent the unknown and the threat to the court system. Each of the women in Arthur Miller’s play represent and display many different views and characteristics that are still present to this day. In the play we see each woman representing individuality. The views and attitudes of the young girls in the story represent a variety of widespread opinions and personalities, for instance, one of the main characters, Abigail Williams. Abigail is the niece of Reverend Parris, the main spiritual leader of the town. She is unmarried and desperate for attention. She lies, uses and manipulates people for her own benefit, especially the other women in the town. An example of this action is her hate and jealousy toward Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctors wife. John Proctor is a farmer who lives outside Salem. He preaches about hypocrisy, and yet hides the fact that he has had an affair with Abigail, which tests his personal beliefs. Abigail was an orphan, and was taken in by her uncle Parris and his daughter Betty. They feed and clothe her. Her social position is just above the slaves in town. Abigail Will... ... middle of paper ... ...d all the other girls including Abigail were lying about the Devil. Abby took charge and pretended a bird was attacking her, "But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary." The other girls soon follow and also cried out that a bird was attacking them. This mainly shows that Abigail Williams is a liar. All of her lies show that hysteria can be made by one person, causing the death of innocent people. The Crucible reminds us that honesty and morality are part of humanity and these values do not change with time. Our culture today tends to be influenced by pop culture more than the church and we see a lot of bullying and peer presure which in a way is what Abigail did to her fellow townspeople. Lying and manipulating has a snowball effect and unless it stops early it tends to grow fast and far and it is hard to stop.

Show More
Related

  • Abigail William's Arrogance In The Crucible Essay

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws – mendacity, lust, and arrogance – that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts. Driven by lust, Abigail was able to lie to the Salem community in hopes of covering her and her friends’ deeds and gaining the attention of John Proctor. Her arrogance enabled her t0 advance her deceit.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Act 2 Essay

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Crucible is an incredibly influential play no only in the fact that it displays many important themes, but it also portrays how a theocracy impacts societal actions. The Salem witch trials were the culmination of the problems with theocracy. The actions of society, not only are impacted by their personal thoughts, but also in religious undertones affect them. Act two in the play portrays not only all of these themes, but also some important events leading towards the witchcraft hysteria. Act two in the play portrays how theocracy ultimately leads to chaos.

    Read More

  • Exploring the Concepts of Anger and Revenge in Miller's Play, The Crucible

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the beginning of the play, Miller shows us the complicated relationships between the people in Salem. When Proctor went to Salem, Abigail meets him alone in the room, she says: “You love me John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” The use of tone shows us the increasing anger and desperateness of Abigail and also clues the audience of her past affair with Proctor. Other than this, the quote also shows Abigail as an opportunist who is loyal to herself and uncaring to her social appearance, which is an important characteristic that succeeds her revenge. However, Abigail’s knowledge of sinning in a place such as Salem is ironic, for as the play progresses; she is thought of as a saint in this public. This idea is then seen again in the quote: “I never knew what pretense Salem was…” Showing us the fierce loathing Abigail has for Salem and the overflowing anger in her heart. She thought of Salem as a hypocritical place where the Christian women teaches them of moral sense but lives an entirely different life themselves. Through her new found power, she revenges Salem and makes it pay. By the end of Act one, the audience can have an initial understanding of the cause of revenge and increasing ange...

    Read More

  • The Crucible Synthesis Essay

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, teenager Abigail Williams exhibits the sinister side of human’s natural tendencies towards desire and deceit through her role in the play, identified Jungian archetype, and Kohlberg moral stage. First, as a female and an orphan, Abigail expresses the desperate sentiments of powerless women in the hierarchy of Salem society. Evident in Miller’s stage direction description, seventeen-year old Abigail depicts “a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller I.8). Abigail’s dissembling or “hiding under a false appearance” (Webster Dictionary), reveals women’s inability to express genuine feelings, often out of fear of societal judgment or intolerance. As a female teen and orphan, Abigail represents a character with no authority in the Salem community, forced to act with malice and spite to get attention (as any female with a desire for influence would in this time). Second, identified with the Jungian archetype of the rebel, Abigail Williams acts with rage in an attempt to reveal and upend the immoral expectations present in Salem. Evidence of Abigail’s

    Read More

  • The Crucible: Hysteria And Injustice

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Rebellion In The Crucible Essay

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Crucible, we are introduced to the main protagonist John Proctor; the way that Arthur Miller presents him by rebelling against the authority in Salem. Out of the entire town he is the only person that speaks out, realising that the authority is unfair and unjust; he is not like everyone else in the town who keeps quiet to themselves. There are many situations where we the readers can see very clear examples of him rebelling against the authority that controlled Salem. One example of Proctor rebelling against authority in Salem was when he did not go to church on a Sabbath day and instead decided to pray in his own home ‘Mr Proctor, your house is not a church; your theology must tell you that’. That is one clear example of him rebelling

    Read More

  • Legacy of Torment: The Crucible

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abigail Terrorizes the young girls to keep her own reputation from being destroyed. After admitting to Reverend Parris about dancing in the forest she pleaded by stating to the little girls “Let either of you breathe 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 a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Miller 1268). Abigail understands that if the truth gets out about her drinking the charm to kill Elizabeth Procter she will be sentenced to death, thus evident by how she speaks to Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis while, Betty is non-responsive after being threatened by Abigail. The depths she went to ...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Crucible Lies

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    “One lie is enough to question all Truths”(Anonymous). A lie is, “A false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood” (Lie). A lie has the ability to mess up all truths which can lead to blaming the innocent. Lies are like the Plague, if not stopped before it can get any worse, it will spread. It will just get bigger and become more destructive. People will start going crazy. For lies, they become more truthful to them, this leads to people questioning humanity. It becomes harder to find the real truth and easier to contribute to the lie. In the book The Crucible Written by Arthur Miller The whole city of Salem is trapped in the pit of Abigail’s lie. It became bigger and bigger as they were manipulated, many started to trust the lie. Many people, like the girls that knew what was true, were committed to the lie, and it didn’t help that they were forced to from the threats Abigail bestowed on them. In the beginning, it all started

    Read More

  • Examples Of Jealousy In The Crucible

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    Abigail, a former house servant to the proctor family, began to imagine her life along side of John Proctor. She becomes infatuated with John and although he is married, she is intent on being with him. When their passion becomes too strong to resist, they have a torrid love affair and she becomes more or less obsessed with him. When he says to her “but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again” (Miller 22) and refuses to speak any more of their affair, her jealousy rages out of control and she has to devise a plan to win him over.

    Read More

  • Analytical Essay On The Crucible

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, jealousy plays a huge factor to why conflict keeps on occurring in the village, many situations in the play are affected by jealousy, including Abigail and the putnams, and many others situations.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Abigail Injustice In The Crucible

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    She didn’t care about those lives that vanished because of her nor did she care about lying and turning against her own friend, Mary. One of the reasons why Mary was scared to tell the truth to the court was because of Abigail, She frightened her, and the other girls with threats. Mary knew that if she spoke Abigail would turn against her use everything in her hands to rid her and make sure she never spoke the truth again like Mary says on page 80, when proctor and the others were trying to convince Mary to tell the truth. “She’ll kill me for sayin that” Were the words that came out Mary’s mouth.Those words are the ones that prove that Abigail Williams is not innocent but if not guilty.Once Mary spoke the truth, Abigail turned against her just like mary knew it would happen, She began saying things that were not true once again. She began to pretend as if Mary’s spirit had left her body and were hauting her, She said things such as “Mary please don’t hurt me” making it seem as if Mary was hurting her.This made the other girls also begin to pretend and repeat everything Mary was saying making seem as if they were bewitched by her. This is another thing that shows how she manipulates

    Read More

  • Perspectives on Fear: The Crucible and the McCarthy Era

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    The people in Salem were ruled by the fear being killed. All the lying that occurred in Salem began the build of fear. Abigail is the main character that caused the lying. Her first lie starts in the beginning of the book after being caught dancing with other girls in the woods. Abigail herself feared the consequences she would face if the town found out about what happened in the forest. She made sure to threaten all the girls by saying “...Let either of you breathe 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 a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…” (Miller 20). Her threat established a fear into the girls’ heads that would prevent them from their normal action of telling the truth. Following this event Abigail must save her reputation, In order to do this she lies to Reverend Hale saying “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!”(Miller 43). Abigail's accusation toward Tituba also leads to the accusation of Sarah Good and Goody Osburn. The way Abigail acted was a result of fear, if she feared nothing bad would come from telling the truth then she wouldn't have lied. The girls may have set the wi...

    Read More

  • Innocent Murderer: Abigail as a Victim in The Crucible

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    The true antagonist of the play is the town of Salem itself, because of the judgemental and self concerned peoples, and its oppressive views. Abigail;s outrageous actions are due to her desensitized views on death and actions otherwise viewed as unethical. From her youth ABigail recalls: “ I saw indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine and i have seen some reddish work at night” (Miller 20), because of this Abigail is numb to death and suffering and is in fact quite morbid. There is no problem in condemning other to death in Abigail’s eyes because she doesn’t see the issue with it. Abigail does not seem to comprehend that it is unethical to let people be hanged and stoned to death and has no issue telling others that she “ can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 20). Not only is Abigail desensitized to murder and death, she is also numb to other unethical dilemmas. Abigail is desensitized to corrupting the Proctor’s marriage because of her childish lust and obsession for John Proctor. Such desires can be seen through her encounters with Proctor. In regards to their so called “relationship” she says: “it’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you love me now!” (Miller 22). Abigail does not view her behavior t...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Crucible

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Crucible is a 1996 film written by Arthur Miller, inspired by the Salem witchcraft trails. Around 1962 in the small village of Salem Massachusetts, a group of girls fell ill falling victim of seizures and hallucinations. In the extreme religious Puritan England, people became frightened that the occurrences were related to the devil or his people. The sicknesses urged fears of witchcraft and a lot of tension arouse in the atmosphere of who was involved. The Crucible was written as a symbol for McCarthyism, when the US government shuns people for being communists. The film focuses on Salem’s witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden secrets. Before The Crucible became a film it was originally a play

    Read More

  • The Crucible Critical Review

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.

    Read More

More about The Crucible Essay

Open Document