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Analysis on the crucible by miller
Discuss the characterization of the crucible by arthur miller
Discuss the characterization of the crucible by arthur miller
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The Crucible by Arthur Miller
On the 17 October 2000, I went to see The crucible by Authur Miller.
It was performed at The Mercury theatre in Colchester. When I first
heard the title, I was expecting a spooky play. I had already heard a
small amount about the play and knew that it involved witchcraft.
The Crucible is set in 1692, Salem, Massachusetts. We do not see the
event that actually sparks the play, but we learn about it later. Five
girls, led by Abigail, were in the woods with a slave woman, Tituba.
They were rousing spirits and dancing naked. By chance, Reverend
Parris sees them. When the girls realise they have been spotted, two
girls take ill. As the town is so religious, the immediate suspicion
is witchcraft.
The girls realise that admitting witchcraft will not only get them out
of serious trouble, but also give them power to. They abuse this power
to get revenge on their enemies. Abigail, determined to get revenge on
Elizabeth Procter, accuses her of witchcraft. John Procter fights to
save his wife and expose the girls, but ends up hanged.
The staging was different to that which I expected. Because it was set
in 1692, I thought that the set would have looked old, cosy and full
of period ornate furniture. In fact, the staging was very bare with
pale, glossy wood walls and floor. There was minimal furniture and
this too was wooden. The stage was a proscenium March stage. It had an
apron at the front. It was well made so that scene changes were quick
and the set still looked convincing. Behind this set were spooky, dark
trees. These theatre flats enhanced the feeling of isolation about
this small town.
My two favourite characters in the play were Reverend Parris and
Rebecca Nurse. Reverend Parris is the man who discovers that his
daughter and niece have been involved with witchcraft. At the very
start of the play, we hear his prayers and sobs for his daughter who
is lying inert on a bed.
Abigail and her friends start to accuse people in the town of witchcraft; by saying a person’s spirit attacked them. The people who were accused were usually the outcast of the town or someone Abigail and her friends
For example, as a result of the lie Sarah is put in the position by the court that she may either confess to the crime and save herself or not confess and get hung. The act also affects the town of Salem because the girls notice how much influence they have over the court and begin to accuse of witchcraft anyone they do not like. Although Mary Warren does contribute to the hanging of many people, but when Proctor begs to her to go to the court with him and confess to save Elizabeth, she gets a chance to redeem herself. She tells the court that the whole witchery situation was just the girls pretending. Mary says, “I cannot charge murder on Abigail” and adds, “[s]he’ll kill me for sayin’ that!”
In 1953, the play called “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller created hysteria in all parts of the country. This play describes the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 and the irony of a terrible period of American history.
In the beginning of the play, after caught dancing in the woods by Reverend Parris,
Daughter of the reverend, no one expected witchcraft, until rumors started to brew. Reverend Parris confirmed some suspicions when he claimed to see Abigail Williams and several other girls, including his maid, Tituba, in the forest dancing at night.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, both pride and excessive pride influence the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity and worth. Excessive pride is being overly confident of one's own self worth. Throughout, pride influences the actions, reactions, and emotions of the characters in such ways to establish the outcome of the story. Three characters are impelled by their pride. Hale, who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft; Elizabeth Proctor, whose pride makes forgiving her husband difficult; Proctor, whose excessive pride causes him to overlook reality and the truth.
Through out the ages the inevitable dilemma of the balance of power is always seen where the governing super power wants to fullycontrol an individual through every aspect of their life. This description nodoubt, fully describes the Puritan belief system in Salem, where the church/court has the authority over everything or else itâˆ(tm)s of the devil. The conceptof individuality is highly resented making everyone follow the leader withoutthought. However there are those who question the authority when situation seemto surpass reason. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Proctor, astrong steadfast farmer resides in the small town of Salem, which is engulfedin hysteria due to the accusations of children that many of the townâˆ(tm)s peoplehad partaken in witchcraft. Among the accused is he (Proctor). Proctor is theonly individual willing to question the puritan belief system. He believes thatno man (church/court) should have control over the life of the other. Only Godhas the power to judge and condemn. Therefore, choosing the more tragic outcome by not allowing himself to lose his individuality and sense of self;conflict of ethics between what is right from wrong as well as sheer lack ofcommon sense. Through Proctor, miller shows how an individual should notallow society to divest their sense of self, Instead, hold unto onesindividuality as well as integrity and not let society have the upper hand,leading one to lose their sense of right and wrong.
Buddha once said, “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Buddha states that the truth is one of the things that cannot be overlooked as the truth is eventually revealed, and the truth might end up having bad effects. Buddha’s quote is significantly true in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller which discusses the Joseph McCarthy era. Miller shows that McCarthy manipulated and abused his power and fame, leading to his downfall. In The Crucible, Miller uses parallelism between Judge Danforth and Joseph McCarthy to accentuate the horrific, unlawful, and untrustworthy complications that they brought to the United States in the 1690's and the 1950's.
likelihood of victory is small.” It is a person’s mental or moral strength to resist extreme
The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, yet is as much a product of the time in which Arthur Miller wrote it, the early 1950s, as it is description of Puritan society. At that particular time in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote the play the American Senator McCarthy who chaired the ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’ was very conscious of communism and feared its influence in America. It stopped authors’ writings being published in fear of them being socialist sympathisers. Miller was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and that human beings were capable of such madness. In the 1950s the audience would have seen the play as a parallel between the McCarthy trials and the Salem Trials.
Thomas Putnam plays a major role in the Salem witch hunt in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Inheriting a handsome amount of property makes Putnam a wealthy person; however, it doesn't seem to satisfy his ambition. After the town terribly rejected Putnam's brother-in-law, Bayley, Putnam's bitterness has increased. Finally his prodigious involvement in the relentless accusations places him in the center of the spot light, making him a salient character in both the play and the indignant period of the American history.
However even though the church cannot be openly defied it can be manipulated, Reverend Samuel Parris uses the authority of the church to place himself higher then others in the community. He makes his own requests through the church, demanding that he should be given golden candlesticks. This shows manipulation on a small scale; on a much larger scale, Abigail and the other girls (who have no power whatsoever in the beginning of the play- eg them dancing is prohibited, young girls are used a maids until they are old enough be married) are able to manipulate people’s beliefs and the law of the Bible. They claim to have seen witchcraft and accuse many people of using it. And because the village is filled with devoted Christians, whose whole world revolves around God, what would expect their reactions to be, to these accusations?
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 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.