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Character and characterisation of the crucible
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In this passage, Susan Glaspell creates a mood of being timid and awkward. This creates a specific mood for each character too. Glaspell portrayed the mood Mr. Hale as hesitant and impatience when he had his conversation with Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Wright, on the other hand, had the mood of being tense and hesitant. Mrs. Wright show that there is something else on her mind when she is speaking to Mr. Hale. She answers back to Mr. Hale in one word phrases for most of the conversation. The only time Mrs. Wright answers in more the one word was when she said, “Cause he’s dead”. She also would reply to Mr. Hale in multiple gestures too. For example when Mr. Hale asked to see John, Mrs. Wright reply in a laugh. Another example would be when Mr. Hale …show more content…
asked, “Dead?”. In response Mrs. Wright “just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth”. Susan Glaspell shows the tense and suspension tone to the characters through the use of hesitation said by Mr.
Hale between each dialog between him and Mrs. Hale. Glaspell also shows hesitation when Mr. Hale said, “she—laughed. I guess you would call it a laugh”. Mr. Hale was uncertain to Mrs. Wright’s response. He was also surprised of her response due to the statement he said which was, “I want to see John”. This is the first sign that something is unusual. Normally people don’t laugh nervously when they are told that someone is looking for their husband. Another example of hesitation was after Mrs. Wright said no when Mr. Hale asked to see John. The conversation went like this, “Can I see John?’ ‘No,’ says she—kind of dull like”. For starters, for someone to say no when ask to see someone is considered as suspicious because there is no reason why you shouldn’t be allow to see someone. When Mr. Hale noted of the dullness in Mrs. Wright’s answer, he knew something was up. In result, he asked Mrs. Wright more questions on John’s location. The final hesitation between the dialog was when Mrs. Wright finally gave in and told Mr. Hale what had happened to John. This portion of the passage went like, “Cause he’s dead’ says she, just as quiet and dull—and fell to pleatin’ her apron”. Mrs. Wright is nervous due to the quietness and dullness in her
voice. Susan Glaspell emphasizes the dull tone in Mrs. Wright’s answers. Glaspell repeats the dullness of Mrs. Wright’s voice twice in this passage, both after she answered a question Mr. Hale asked. This shows that something was one her mind, and it was something that Mrs. Wright didn’t favor. The reader has a sense that something is wrong and that Mrs. Wright morally doesn’t feel right in the actions she takes during exchange. Though these examples, Susan Glaspell has shown the tense and hesitant mood between Mr. Hale and Mrs. Wright during their dialog when Mr. Hale finds out the John is dead.
The character Mrs. Wright is portrayed as a kind and gentle woman. She is also described as her opinion not being of importance in the marriage. It is stated by Mr. Hale that “ I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John” .(745) Her neighbor, Mrs. Hale, depicts her as “She─come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself─real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and─fluttery. How─she─did─change”. (752) It appears that Mrs. Wright is a kind and gentle woman, not capable of committing a murder. But, with the evidence provided and the description of Mr. Wright’s personality it can also be said that the audience will play on the sympathy card for Mrs. Wright. She appears to be caught in a domestic violence crime in which she is guilty of, but the audience will overlook the crime due to the nature of the circumstances. By using pathos it will create a feeling that Mrs. Wright was the one who was suffering in the marriage, and that she only did what she felt necessary at the
Reverend Hale was hoping that Elizabeth would change John’s mind and get him to confess, so he wouldn’t have to be killed. As soon as Elizabeth saw John she poured out her heart to him. She immediately forgives John and apologizes for her anger. She explains to him that the affair was all her fault. John does not blame Elizabeth for the affair, but he is gracious and relieved that she has forgiven him. Elizabeth then tells John that he must forgive himself now. John is living with a constant guilt and Elizabeth is trying to help him get rid of that. Overall, Elizabeth’s forgiveness makes John think about his life, and he realizes he wants to live, even if he must live
The Crucible How does an individual gain so much power through trials? In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a powerful individual by revealing her control over the younger girls and the continuous accusations she makes until the end of the play. Throughout the entire play, it is made clear that Abigail has control over the younger girls in the village. In Act 1, it is right away noticed that her way of controlling them is through causing fear by making threats.
The unfortunate death of John Wright was a mystery to all. A team of individuals consisting of the sheriff, county attorney, Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Peters were on a mission to find the purpose of the murderer. At this point, Mrs. Wright is the primary suspect. Mrs. Hale was asked to join the party in order to give Mrs. Peters, the sheriff s wife, some companionship. In the story, Mrs. Hale leaves cues of guilty feelings. As an example, the narrator states, Martha Hale had a moment of feeling that she could not cross that threshold. The reason being given that she had been too busy to come by but now she could come (Glaspell 2). Another instance to be noted is a conversation between her and the young attorney. During this conversation, he asked if they were friends since they were neighbors. Her answer was sympathetic, I’ve seen little enough of her late years. I ve not been it this house-it s been morethan a year. Then she goes on to explain, I liked her well enough. Farmers wives have their hands full, it never seemed a very cheerful place (Glaspell 6). At this point, Mrs. Hale s empathy toward Mrs. Wright is apparent.
He begins to see a weakness in the position of the townspeople of Salem and tries to not let common accusations be the support for his diagnosis. The conversations that Hale has demonstrated the evolution of his mindset. In Act II, Hale is traveling around the town, going house-to-house, searching for accused women to warn them that their names have been mentioned in the court. Soon, Hale finds himself standing at the Proctor home. At this moment, Hale sees a different perspective on the entire situation.
At the start of the play, all of the characters enter the abandoned farmhouse of John Wright, who was recently hanged by an unknown killer. The Sheriff and County Attorney start scanning the house for clues as to who killed Mr. Wright, but make a major error when they search the kitchen poorly, claiming that there is nothing there ?but kitchen things.? This illustrates the men?s incorrect belief that a kitchen is a place of trivial matters, a place where nothing of any importance may be found. Mrs. Peters then notices that Mrs. Wright?s fruit froze in the cold weather, and the men mock her and reveal their stereotype of females by saying ?women are used to worrying over trifles.? The men then venture to the upstairs of the house to look for clues, while the women remain downstairs in the kitchen where they discuss the frozen fruit and the Wrights. Mrs. Hale explains that Mrs. Wright, whose maiden name was Minnie Foster, used to be a lively woman who sang in the choir. She suggests that the reason Mrs. Wright stopped being cheerful and active because of her irritable husband.
Every event in history can be attributed to a collective of emotions. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls claimed to have seen other villagers working for the devil and began accusing people of practicing witchcraft. This soon created a sense of mass hysteria throughout the town that resulted in the death of twenty people and the imprisonment of over two hundred. We now refer to these events as the Salem witch trials. In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted similar trials accusing people in prominent positions of being Communists. McCarthy implemented unfair investigative techniques, similar to those used in the Salem witch trials. Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, creates a story around the known details of the Salem witch trials and focuses on the relationship
Cruelty is actions leading to the pain or suffering of others, sometimes intended. Throughout society we use cruelty as our reaction to another’s mistake. Cruelty may also act as the source of these mistakes resulting in social, political and personal motivators to others to be cruel. In the movie, The Crucible cruelty acts as crucial social, political, and personal motivator. The antagonist Abigail Williams utilizes cruelty to hide her past faults. Abigail’s cruelty was stimulated by cruelty from John Proctor, the protagonists. Cruelty reveals more about the victims of her than Abigail herself. Cruelty is a continuous cycle that plays a key role in the movie’s overall message on reputations, power, and guilt.
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 year is 1692 in Salem, a small town in Massachusetts, and the Puritans community is in serious trouble. In the story “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the Puritans community is in the Salem court where John Proctor admits to committing adultery to Abigail Williams who at the time was very young. Abigail Williams is where the court started after she is involved in the case where John Proctor is accused of committing adultery with her. Abigail also lead the girls and their witchcraft accusations in court. Abigail truly believed that John Proctor still had love for her.
Mr. Hale found his neighbor, John Wright, strangled upstairs in the Wrights’ house with Minnie Wright, John’s wife, sitting calmly downstairs. With John Wright dead and his wife in jail, Mr. Hale, the sheriff, their wives, and the county attorney all crowded into the Wright’s house to try to find clues about the murder. While the men go upstairs, they leave the women downstairs “.worrying over trifles.” (“A Jury of Her Peers” 264) Unbeknownst to the men, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find clue after clue that would convict Minnie Wright of the murder. Instead of telling the men about the clues, the women hide the clues and the men have no idea what the women have found.
In the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, men and women are treated unequally due to gender roles during this time period. In the play they are treated differently, And woman would be accused of something they didn’t do just because they weren’t “normal”.
In the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows us how fear and suspicion can destroy a community. As the play develops, Miller shows us how fear and suspicion increase and destroy the community. Throughout the play it becomes apparent that the community gets more and more divided as time goes on. In the beginning there were arguments about ownership of land between some of the villagers. As the story progresses people fear for their own safety and begin accusing their neighbours of witchcraft in order to escape being hanged.
The rational facility of man cannot successfully be revealed, in its entirety, through literal and direct language. Recognizing this reality generated by the nature of such a faculty, Wright utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices, indirect in their capabilities, to establish a realistic and all-encompassing paradigm throughout his story. Consequently, Wright uses irony to shape his characters. Such a methodology is primarily revealed when the writer, assuming the ignorance of his wife, discuss the circumstances intended for her untimely end. Developing exceptional situational qualities, irony is used once more during Lucy’s execution of her dead husband’s plot. Furthermore, that same situational irony is present at the murder of her husband.
“Well, all the plays that I was trying to write were plays that would grab an audience by the throat and not release them, rather than presenting an emotion which you could observe and walk away from.” by Arthur Miller. All great works provide a way to reach in and grab the audience through the reoccurring themes like, greed, jealousy, reputation and hypocrisy. Arthur Miller had one of those great works and it was called “The Crucible”. The play was based off of the witch trials that happened in Salem in the year of 1962. Some of the characters were actual characters involved in the witch trials. Arthur Miller wrote this play during the time of the “Red Scare”. Miller wrote The Crucible because he wanted to turn the The Salem Witch Trials into