The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthornen the Inside

1564 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on the characters of the crucible

Protagonists are like the tricksters of the jungle, the margays. Margays imitate baby monkeys, tinamous and agoutis. Then when the adults of the species go to investigate the cries, they are attacked by the margay. Protagonists may not devour their prey, but they are cunning and deceptive. On the outside they look like the hero of the story, but on the inside they are evil. This was supported by the books of prose, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter took place before The Crucible, but in both of the settings the townspeople were religious worry warts who blamed witchcraft (a sin) for the their troubles. Both were Puritanical societies, meaning that enforcement of the laws was very strict, as sinning was generally taken very seriously back then. One sin that was found in both books was that of adultery. Adultery can be defined as essentially a sexual relationship between a married person and someone who is not their spouse. Adultery leads into the focus of this paper. John Proctor and Hester Prynne (the protagonists of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter respectively) were bad influences because they were protagonists.
John Proctor was the protagonist of the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller. As a general rule, a protagonist fights the antagonist. He was the protagonist because he refused the advances of antagonist Abigail Williams, then accused her of criminal activity. Abigail confronted John in hopes of convincing him to be with her (sexually) once more. In response to her pleadings, John replied, “No, no, Abby. That’s done with” (Miller 14). Already he was denying a sweet girl what she desired. It’s possible that he deceived her from the beginning of their r...

... middle of paper ...

...n better off.
John Proctor and Hester Prynne (the protagonists of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter respectively) were bad influences because they were protagonists. Both are tricky and deceptive like the margay. They were merely concerned about their own well being and are poor imitations of what should be good. Protagonists appear to be heros of the story, but turn out to be evil on the inside.

Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Pocket, 2004. Print.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2005. Print.

Works Referenced
60 Second Recap, prod. "60 Second Recap the Crucible." 60 Second Recap. Recap Media, 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <.>.
- - -, prod. "60 Second Recap the Scarlet Letter." 60 Second Recap. Recap Media, 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. .

Show More
Related

  • Chocolat And The Crucible Analysis

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the texts Chocolat, by Joanne Harris, and The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the author and the playwright use techniques to create central characters who rebel against their surroundings. In The Crucible, the protagonist is John Proctor and in Chocolat, it is Vianne Rocher. Miller and Harris use similar techniques to create these characters, such as imagery, symbolism, titles, nature references and the narrative perspective. In both texts, these characters are seen as corruptive influences who are used by Miller and Harris to rebel against authority, the expectations of society and the Church.

    Read More

  • Hester Prynne and Abigail Williams in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    American literature often examines people and motives. In Nathaniel Hawthorne&#8217;s novel, The Scarlet Letter, and in Aruthur Miller&#8217;s modern dramatic masterpiece, The Crucible, people and motives often depict patters of Puritans struggling for life during a shaky time. Two main characters from both pieces of works share the traits of a struggling Puritan as adulators. Even tough Hester and Abigail have similar traits, their sins differ dramatically and were punished differently.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Morally Ambiguous Characters In The Crucible

    464 Words  | 1 Pages

    ‘The Crucible’ is a great example of morally ambiguous characters. A plethora of characters with blurry ethics exist within the world of ‘The Crucible’, this makes it difficult to distinguish who is truly good and who is evil. Arthur Miller has a fantastic approach to how he displays his characters and their moral standpoints. Adultery, lying, and even the suspicion of witchcraft, within the community brings out the worst in the townspeople. John Proctor is an example of how thin the lines are drawn between a complete saint and a damned sinner.

    Read More

  • Proctors Grave Mistake In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    Corruption has always existed in our society since the beginning to present time due to conspiracies such as the witch trials and the communism era. The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written during the era of communism to mere the hysteria. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. It’s a corrupt witch trial in Salem that’s due to false accusations of witchcraft for personal gains. John Proctor is the protagonist in the story The Crucible who goes through the ultimate test by choosing his reputation over integrity. He also had an affair with a young girl named Abigail who is the antagonist and is the main reason the bloodshed is occurring in Salem. Initially, Proctor hesitates to deal with his sin, but as the play progresses, he begins to understand its effects; this ultimately leads him to find goodness in himself as he stands for the truth.

    Read More

  • The Crucible’s John Proctor As A Tragic Hero

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Paris, and Abigail are the main characters. The book is about witchcraft or what the town thinks is witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.

    Read More

  • Free Essays on The Crucible: John Proctor

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Proctor plays the leading role in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He was persistent, honest, and full of integrity. He was simply, a man with pride. A wise woman once said, "Do what you feel in your heart to be right--for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." (Eleanor Roosevelt). Proctor was the protagonist of the dramatic piece of literature.

    Read More

  • The Martyr and the Hero: Comparion of Arthur Miller´s The Crucible and Nathanial Hawthrone The Scarlet Letter

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter share remarkable parallels not only in their examination of early Puritan America, but also in the dilemma of the two main male characters, John Proctor and Arthur Dimmesdale. Both these men had sinful relations with another member of the town, and must deal with the adversity that resulted from their sin. Although both John Proctor and Reverend Dimmesdale become hypocrites in their society, Proctor overcomes his sin and is able to redeem himself, while Dimmesdale’s pride and untimely death prevent him from fully experiencing redemption.

    Read More

  • Compare The Crucible And The Scarlet Letter

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    Death is a major theme through both Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In the first text, mass hysteria rips through Salem after a group of girls danced in the woods and blame everything and anything on witchcraft. The girl who could be identified as the main trouble-maker is Abigail Williams. She kicked up all of the witch suspicions because she had an affair with John Proctor, the identifiable hero. The story climaxed with the death of characters that drew affection from the readers. In the second piece of literature, the main conflict happens to be that of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and had a child. There was a lot of public ridicule in this instance and many underlying plots within it. Again, the climax of the story could be argued to be the death of a beloved character. These two particular titles do in fact share a lot of common ideas and themes, while at the same having very

    Read More

  • John Proctor's Moral Struggle in The Crucible

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first struggle that John Proctor faces in The Crucible is his guilt over committing the sin of adultery. This moral problem continues throughout the play, and it is the primary moral predicament that Proctor faces in the play. He has broken his own moral code as was as the moral law in the Puritanical Salem in his affair with Abigail.

    Read More

  • Free Essays on The Crucible: Forgiveness

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Crucible is a story of mass hysteria in a period of time in which men dominated women. However, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Procter as two women with drastic roles to play. John Procter is a man who has great influence over the people of Salem. They speak to him because he is a man of truth and integrity. There are many other characters in the novel, although these three stuck out in my mind the most.

    Read More

  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Honor in the Crucible

    1778 Words  | 4 Pages

    John Proctor is an honest, though harsh, man who is clearly the protagonist of The Crucible. Before the beginning of the play, John had an affair with Abigail Williams, a girl who worked in his household, which was abruptly ended when Elizabeth Proctor, John's wife, fired her. This event causes Abigail to desire revenge against Elizabeth while she still pines for John. Once the trials are well underway, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, which leads to her arrest. John goes to the court in defense of his wife, where he reveals that he did indeed committed adultery with Abigail in an attempt to expose her as a fraud and a liar. Unfortunately, John's appeal falls on deaf ears and he is arrested as well. While his wife manages to get a temporary stay of execution, due to the fact that she is pregnant at the time of the trials, which in the end saves her by insuring her life until the chaos, hysteria, and persecution comes to an end, John is sentenced to death. The play ends with his hanging, but his death puts an end to the trials.

    Read More

  • An Analytical Essay Explaining Why Arthur Miller Wrote The Crucible

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    Authors often have underlying reasons for giving their stories certain themes or settings. Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, The Crucible, is a work of art inspired by actual events as a response to political and moral issues. Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, The Crucible proves to have its roots in events of the 1950’s and 1960’s, such as the activities of the House Un-American Committee and the “Red Scare.” Though the play provides an accurate account of the Salem witch trials, its real achievement lies in the many important issues of Miller’s time that it dealswith.

    Read More

  • Archetypes in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

    1582 Words  | 4 Pages

    When analyzing literature from an archetypal perspective, one does not simply look at the character’s behavior in that literary piece. Rather, when using the archetypal theory, one connects the traits and actions of the characters in the literary work, the settings, the surroundings, and the situations to a familiar type of literary character. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the characters Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale exhibit common archetypal behavior and fit into a certain archetypal figure.

    Read More

  • Character of John Proctor

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is a statement to the 17th century witchcraft. The Crucible renders John Proctor as a puritan, a husband, and a highly respected man. His name is his prime possession. John Proctor is a farmer and a villager who is faced with intense dilemma. He also commits adultery, which becomes his tragic flaw. Therefore he is to make a decision to tell the truth and ruin his name or lie and save his most prized possession. By this John Proctor is portrayed as an honest, tenacious, and faithful man.

    Read More

More about The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthornen the Inside

Open Document