The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play set in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts. The play opens with Reverend Samuel Parris kneeling in front of his daughter, Betty Parris, who has been lying motionless in bed since midnight. Parris begins to pray and weep in front of his ten year old daughter when his slave, Tituba, enters the room. Parris gets to his feet and angrily yells at the forty year old lady to get out. Afterwards, his seventeen year old niece, Abigail Williams, comes in. She is also worried about the well-being of Betty and informs Parris that Susanna Walcott is here with news from the doctor. Parris allows Susanna in and asks her what the doctor had said. The little girl notifies him that the doctor had nothing in his books that matched …show more content…
Betty’s condition therefore, he is assuming that it is an “unnatural” cause. Reverend Parris immediately contradicts this idea and urges Susanna to tell the doctor to continue looking for medicine. Abigail advices her uncle to go outside and let the crowd gathered know that Betty’s illness doesn’t have anything to do with witchcraft.
Parris confronts Abigail about how he caught her and Betty dancing in the forest in front of a fire that Tituba seemed to be chanting in front of and Abigail concedes that they were dancing however, she denies that her and Betty were doing witchcraft. Parris warns his niece that she and the other girls would be punished for witchcraft and that if they were trafficking with the spirits that it would be known and could ruin his reputation. Abigail again denies that they were doing witchcraft and explains that they were dancing for fun while Tituba was singing near the fire and that Betty passed out because of embarrassment when she saw Parris in the forest. Parris brings up how Abigail was recently fired from a job at the Proctors and hints that Elizabeth Proctor has not been attending church. Abigail denies any wrongdoing and says that she was fired because Elizabeth dislikes her since she did not want to be her slave. Mr. and Mrs. Putnam enter the room and Mrs. Putnam asks Parris how Betty flew since it was rumored that Mr. Collins saw Betty magically flying over Ingersoll’s …show more content…
barn. Parris ensures her that Betty was not flying and does not perform witchcraft. Mr. and Mrs. Putnam’s daughter, Ruth, is sick as well but unlike Betty, her eyes are open and she can walk. Parris denies that witchcraft was the reason for Ruth and Betty getting ill and pleads the Putnams not to say anything about that idea for it would ruin his good name in the village.
However, the Putnams believe that murdering witches are doing magic against their children because Mrs. Putnam recently had seven babies which were all healthy but ended up dead the night they were born. Parris still refuses to believe it is witchcraft and the Putnam’s servant, Mercy, comes to check on Betty. When they are left alone Abigail tells Mercy that if someone asks about the forest to answer that they were just dancing so nobody would find out they were performing witchcraft. Another girl named Mary Warren frantically arrives and urges the girls to admit the truth, fearing that they would be severely punished if caught. At that moment Betty wakes up and begins to cry for her dead mother. While Abigail tries to calm her Betty starts to yell that Abigail performed magic to kill Goody Proctor and then stops when Abigail hits her. The girls leave and John Procotor arrives and fights with Abigail about their affair since he doesn't want rumors about him and Abigail reaching his wife’s ear. As Parris begins a psalm Betty begins to whine and
scream. Parris rushes in and says that she cannot take hearing God’s name. Mercy runs to get a doctor for help. Conflict in this story seems to root from the laws that people have to follow in Salem. The government of Massachusetts is a theocracy that combines state laws and moral laws to make a legal system based on the Bible. Since it is a small village every individual’s life is public concern. This is why Abigail was angry that Mrs. Proctor was soiling her name. Also, Parris seemed to be very worried about his reputation if the community were to find out that his daughter was performing witchcraft rather than worrying about what actually would happen to Betty and his friends that have their children dying. Most of the punishments include whipping, hanging, and stocks are done in front of the villagers to shame the lawbreaker and to demonstrate to the public that disobeying the laws is equivalent to disobeying God. Since religion is such an important matter in Salem, in order to regulate the people and make sure everyone follows the law the whole village has to keep an eye out for one another and report anything suspicious, such as girls dancing in the forest. Therefore, the population concerns itself with finding the lawbreakers and turning them in so they could have a good name in the village because even when an individual is invested with God’s will, if the rumors state otherwise they are to be punished. The idea that no one can be trusted develops tension and paranoia through the city and the people which produces various conflicts.
The focus of Miller’s The Crucible is an appalling witch trial that morfs the once-peaceful town of Salem into a cutthroat slaughterhouse. As a lucrative playwright and a not-so-subtle allegory author, Miller is a seasoned wordsmith who addresses people akin to himself, and is not secretive about that information. The Crucible best serves its purpose as a learning device and a social statement, especially at the time of its publishing. Miller‘s piece showcases the appeals in an easy-to-identify manner that is perfect for middle or high school students who are new to the appeals, or for English majors who have no problem pinpointing them, making this play ideal for a classroom setting.
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.
Abigail meets with the other girls and tells them to keep quiet and to not admit to anything. A crowd gathers at Reverend Paris 's house to discover what had happened and Reverend Pars tries to calm them down. During this commotion John Proctor, a farmer who lives outside of the town, speaks with Abigail. Abigail had worked for Proctor but was fired when his wife suspected that they had engaged in an affair. Abigail still desires to be with Proctor and tells him so but Proctor shoots the idea down telling her to stop fooling around with the
As the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris, the rumors of her affliction brought much attention to her and her family. The play described Betty as a young girl, nine years of age, who began showing symptoms around the same time as her cousin Abigail Williams. Betty accused many people, and testified against them in multiple court cases. From the evidence that the Witch Trials shows, Betty was most likely pretending to be possessed in order to gain attention, or rebel from the strict lifestyle the Puritans followed. “She could not concentrate at prayer time and barked like a dog when her father would rebuke her. She screamed wildly when she heard the ‘Our Father’ prayer and once hurled a Bible across the room” (Walsh). As a distinct personality in both the Witch Trials and The Crucible, Betty Parris created a lasting affect on the course of history in
The Crucible is set in this mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts during the mad witch hunts in the late 17th century. It tells a true tale about a town, after accusations from a few girls, which begins a mad witch hunt for witches that did not even exist. In result, many townspeople were hanged on charges of witchcraft. The Crucible demonstrates the cruelties people face when society turns their back upon them.
The Crucible – Characters and Changes & nbsp; Change is good for the future. " We hear the catchy phrase everywhere. From company slogans to motivational speeches, our world seems to impose this idea that change is always a good thing. Assuming that the change is for the better, it is probably a true statement in most cases. The root of this idea seems to come from the notion that we are dissatisfied with the state that we are in, so, in order to create a more enjoyable environment, we adjust.
The town the story takes place in is governed by a theocracy. A quote from The Crucible says “For good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies.” All the events that led up to the execution of innocent people also led to the breaking apart of the theocracy. The story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692. It starts after a couple of girls have been caught dancing in the woods by Reverend Samuel Parris, the town’s minister. Two of the girls are related to him. Abigail is his niece and Betty is his daughter. When Betty gets sick, rumors start to spread that there is witchcraft involved in her illness because they were out in the woods all by themselves. Salem is a very tightly sheltered town that is pretty much run by the church, which is against the devil and all forms of the devil such as witches , and it is also against enjoyable acts such as dancing. Not only that but in the book the town is described as the following, “They had no novelists--and would not have permitted anyone to read a novel if one were handy. Their creed forbade anything resembling a theater or ‘vain enjoyment.’ They did not celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer.” The town was very strict when it came to following the church. This is why when the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect themselves and their reputation by saying that the devil took them over and influenced them to dance. The girls also say that they saw several other members of the town standing along side of the devil. Abigail says, “I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand.
After Abigail Williams and the girls are discovered dancing in the forest by Reverend Parris, there are rumours of witchcraft among them, when Betty Parris and Ruth Putnam are found "witched". Once the girls discover this, they become more and more frightened of being accused of witchcraft. Abigail is the first to "admit" to seeing the devil, and all the other girls join in, so the blame will not be placed on them. "I saw Sarah Good with the Devil. I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil. I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil."
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
The Crucible starts out in the bedroom of Betty Parris, the sick daughter of the towns preacher Samuel Parris. The village people began to spread the rumor that witchcraft is the cause of Bettys illness. The Reverend John Hale is sent for by Mr. Parris to find out what is happening, because Hale is a investigator on strange events involving witchcraft. Samuel accuses and questions Abigail Williams, his niece, of dancing and chanting around a fire in the woods with Betty and his slave, Tituba to conjure up evil sprits. She denies these claims and says that she and the other girls were only dancing. The other girls are then threatened by Abigail to keep them from telling what really happened in the forest. Later in the scene, John Proctor enters the room, and Abigail talks of their affair.
When Mary Warren is in the court testifying against Abigail, Parris prompts Mary to faint as she said she was pretending before, “Then no see no spirits now, and prove to us that you can faint by your own will, as you claim” (99). Parris wants to continue to support his story about the girls in the forest and so he targets Mary as she is fearful and weak. She is not able to faint as it was an electric impulse she felt with the girls and the power of suggestion that made her faint at the time. As the girls pretend to have Mary’s spirit on them, Parris joins in, “Cast the Devil out! Look him in the face! Trample him! We’ll save you, Mary, only stand fast against him and-” (109). Parris is insidious as he pretends that the devil is in Mary to convince Judge Danforth of Abigail’s lie. Parris manipulates the courts along with Abigail to discredit Mary’s story. On the other hand, Elizabeth is willing to accept culpability even for the sins she has not committed. Elizabeth attempts to tell John that she cannot decide whether he should confess or not for him, “I have read my heart this three month, John. I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery” (126). Elizabeth has been away from John for three months and in this time away from
-(5 point): The definition of paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. For example: “Life is too important to be taken seriously” -”Oscar Wilde”(A quote by Oscar Wilde (Goodreads).This is a paradox because usually if something is important you’re supposed to take it seriously, Wilde is contradicting this by saying life is so important that it just needs be lived, not thought about.
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.
Humans can only take so much until they reach a certain breaking point. People will crumble filled with rage and commit many immoral acts. Once they execute these evil motives they must be punished. “You will give me your honest confession in my hand, or I cannot keep you from the rope.” (Miller,1272). A great example of this is the Salem witch trials. A few individuals may know it because of The Crucible. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he conveys the corrupted decisions and processing in the justice system. Miller clarifies this through the irony of the characters involved in the court, who are presented adequate evidence, and are blinded by their reputation and self worth.
Another important work Miller wrote, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the 17th century. It is a time when jealousy and suspicion poisoned the thinking of an entire town. Neighbor turned against neighbor when events happened that could not be explained. Accusations turned into a mad hunt for witches who did not exist. One of the main characters of the play is John Proctor, a well-respected man with a good name in the town. As the play develops, John Proctor’s moral dilemma becomes evident: he must decide whether to lie and confess to witchcraft in order to save his life, or to die an honest man, true to his beliefs.