The Crucible Rhetorical Analysis Essay

1627 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of the film The Crucible by Arthur Miller

“He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean man and no gentle man and he bid me rise out of bed and cut your throat!” (Miller 47). Speaker: Tituba proclaims these statements in front of Parris, Hale, Abigail, and the ill Betty. Situation: After the girls were caught in the woods dancing, the girls face a strict interrogation from Parris and Hales. To escape her own punishment, Abigail puts the blame on Tituba by claiming that Tituba forced her to drink the chicken blood. Tituba, left to fend for herself, quickly realizes the only way she has to overcome this conviction is to confess to it. She boldly claims that she is in fact working for the devil, and continues by claiming that the devil had asked her repeatedly to kill Parris. Significance: As a slave to Parris, Tituba has essentially no power in her society. She is forced to obey the commands of Parris without fail, and constantly put up with his strict nature. Anything she speaks is not seen as important. However, Tituba uses Abigail's accusation against her to express her emotions in a way so that the townspeople listen. She uses the words of the devil to express her own …show more content…

At that time in American history, paranoia spread around the concept of communism and its potential threats. People began to wrongfully accuse others of being communist or supporting communism, similar to how the characters in the play wrongfully accused people of being witches. Just as those accused of being witches were asked to name whom else they knew of to be witches, those accused of communism were asked to do the same. With this system came the spread of uneasiness throughout the country of America and the town of Salem. Miller wished to showcase the crazy nature of McCarthyism in a way that people would be able to comprehend. The hysteria in both cases was caused simply by fear and not by actual

Show More
Related

  • Girls who Cried Witch in The Crucible

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.

    Read More

  • Comparing The AIDS Hysteria And Salem Witch Trials

    439 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many young girls were in the woods trying to conjure spirits. Tituba was trying to teach them how to do so (Blumberg). Witchcraft was punishable by death, and these young girls were trying to avoid being caught(miller). They were falsely accusing many people so they would not be accused of witchcraft(miller). Several innocent people died during this time

    Read More

  • How Does Mary Warren Use Lies In The Crucible

    1863 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ph McCarthy accused 205 Americans of being “card-carrying communist”. In Miller's play, an ambitious teenager, blinded by the married man she loves, fans Salem into a blood-lust frenzy in revenge. Abigail Williams, like Joseph McCarthy accuses many not of communism, but of witchcraft. Communism, as well as witchcraft, are two philosophies that are feared in communities and often results in imprisonment and aggressive investigations. Blacklisting during communism is comparative to hangings in witchcraft, and there is a standard in both scenarios that must be met for one to be considered citizen. Abigail, eleven years old at the time, is portrayed as seventeen in The Crucible, one of many events altered in the play to exaggerate specific scenarios. Why does Arthur Miller change history? Miller ultimately makes the decision to change history to unveil a hidden truth:

    Read More

  • The Crucible And 9/11 Compare And Contrast Essay

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her accusations were the reason why the entire witch hunt in Salem came to be. “She comes to me while I sleep; she 's always making me dream corruptions!” This quote from Abigail falsely accusing Tituba of witchcraft is the main reason for the messed up justice in the town of Salem. The good and the innocent start to be accused and convicted by those without integrity. The audience starts to realize the deep problems in Salem. Eventually later on in the book, Abigail comes to realize the power she possesses over the people. She realized that she had the power and control to run the entire town and get what she wanted. This same situation is seen with Corporate America after 9/11. After the attack of 9/11 they saw that people were very paranoid when it came to wanting safety which is why the Bush administration took advantage of Americans by getting them to believe certain laws they wanted were necessary for their safety. Also, the Bush administration tried to get more control of the people by passing a bunch of unneeded laws to Congress. They lied to get what they wanted. The same scenario is shown by Abigail’s followers as they helped lie for her

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Letter Rhetorical Analysis

    1688 Words  | 4 Pages

    I chose this word because the tone of the first chapter seems rather dark. We hear stories of the hopes with which the Puritans arrived in the new world; however, these hopes quickly turned dark because the Purtains found that the first buildings they needed to create were a prison, which alludes to the sins they committed; and a cemetery, which contradicts the new life they hoped to create for themselves.

    Read More

  • How Does Goody Putnam Use Jealousy In The Crucible

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    The town is accusing Tituba for hurting children, not loving God, and witchcraft. She responds saying, “Aye, sir, a good Christian woman” (45). The townsfolk prosecute her for actions she has not committed; many townsfolk assume she has made these mistakes. She is

    Read More

  • I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the story of Tituba unfolds, it reveals a strong and kind hearted young woman, very different from the Tituba we meet in The Crucible. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem unveils for the reader, Tituba's life, loves, and losses. Her long and arduous journey through life is inspired by her many female counterparts, yet also hindered by her insatiable weakness for men, who also press upon her the realities of life.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Tituba Quotes

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    It leads to mischief and suspicions because the dance they did is definitely witch-like and isn't allowed in Salem. In Salem, the dance is seen as something dangerous and very risky because it ties into witchcraft and demonic actions, just like Tituba’s ritual. Tituba’s ritual lead to a possibility of her receiving whips and to be hanged, although she “confessed” in front of Parris, Hale, and the girls. During that moment Tituba exclaimed “No, no, don’t hang Tituba!..” (Miller 157). This clearly shows that Tituba is trying to save herself from earning whips and getting hanged and is now stating false confessions. Along with her false confessions, Parris noticed some type of leadership among Tituba. After all, she is the one who leads all the innocent girls to the dance and allowed them to go insane with her. She soon stated that she did not “...compact with no Devil!” (Miller 157). Once Tituba said this, she was soon seen as an innocent one by Parris and Hale. To put it in another way, she convinced both of these men with her confession. It was obvious for Tituba to be blamed for this whole chaos since she was the one who commenced the lies and deadly rumors around Salem. She commenced them after getting whipped in front of both Hale and the girls.This caused her to gain horror and state lies instead of

    Read More

  • Theocracy In The Crucible

    1537 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Theme Of Conformity In The Crucible

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Is Tituba A Victim In The Crucible Essay

    1659 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lastly, Tituba can be classified as a victim because Abigail is trying to blame everything that happened the night in the woods all on Tituba. One again because Tituba is a slave she cannot be taken seriously when it is her word over Abigail 's. Abigail 's accusations can be seen taken into account without input from Tituba’s side during this one scene of the play,

    Read More

  • The Role of Fear Depicted in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mass Hysteria

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.

    Read More

  • Why the Play is Called The Crucible

    518 Words  | 2 Pages

    Just as it was a sin drift on to the side of the devil in the time of the crucible, it was the same to drift on to the side of communism in the 1950's, when Arthur Miller wrote this play. In the 1950's Senator Joe Macarthy set up a campaign to rid the United States of all communist supporters. These communist trials would be broadcast on national television. It would involve the accused to admit their guilt even though they were completely innocent, and give the names of 10 other would-be communists or face exile, torture, invasion of family privacy etc. Arthur Miller uses the events of the Salem witch-hunts to represent and show what the communist trials of the 1950's were. They were both based on false premises and paranoia, and as more people got involved, more people suffered, this can be summarised by calling it the 'Snowball effect.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Political Issues In The Crucible

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miller uses Tituba, a black slave, to represent how racism is always prevalent no matter what the year is. From the beginning of the story, Tituba is accused of witchcraft even though it was Abigail's convincing nature that made her do what the Puritans called “black magic”. Tituba was never given any slack, mainly because of her race and her social status of a slave. When Abigail accuses Tituba of witchcraft, Tituba cries to Reverend Parris that she does not talk to the devil, but no one listens to her. Miller does not explicitly bring up racism in this play, but we see with the way Tituba is characterized that it was her race that ultimately decided her fate.

    Read More

More about The Crucible Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Open Document