Imagine that you have had a respectable reputation in your community for a long time but then have it taken away from you because you have been accused of witchcraft. This is what happened most of the time in Salem, many of the residents in Salem have been stripped from their name and killed or jailed for what they were accused of, which most of them were innocent. People with money had power and a reputation but if they were accused of witchcraft then they will lose everything they had, most of the people of Salem dealt with that for an extended period of time. They had to be cautious, Abigail and Reverend Parris had to keep their reputation safe from those who try to accuse them. To the people of Salem having a bad reputation meant them having a bad result in social or physical punishment, Miller’s the Crucible claims that those who are most concerned with their reputation, …show more content…
In order to drive the action of the play. One way that has been shown throughout the novel was the reason of the human mind and the fear of being blamed. The hysteria builds as the citizens of Salem are deflecting the blame. Arthur Miller expressed his story as the portrayal of the unreasonable hysteria during the era of the Salem Witch Trials. One of the conflicts that was revealed fairly frequently was between Reverend Parris and his niece Abigail Williams. Miller brings the conflict to our attention of the reader by when Reverend Parris asks if Abigail has a blush to her name. She ultimately denies that her name has a blush and believes that she is pure.
Roles and relationships play an enormous part in the Crucible. They clarify where the social position of individuals and how this impacts the action of the play. It also clarifies how one can easily take that away from them by the accusation of what they fear the most –
In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the town of Salem faces a mask of hysteria from the accusations of witchcraft. Reverend Parris, one of the many characters mentioned throughout the play, was a man who did not want his good name to be tarnished. Reverend Parris is known throughout the town as the churchly figure. Most citizens do not like his personality, but they ultimately respect him for his belief in religion. Although many people were hung for the accusations of dealing with witchcraft, Reverend Parris is the most guilty to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trials, because he was a fearful and terrified religious leader who really didn’t know what he was doing, as well as a selfish and greedy idiot who made quick and irrational decisions for the benefit of himself that non-surprisingly ended up killing tons of innocent people
Abigail Williams forms a continuous string of deceitful lies about the presence of witchcraft in Salem and her involvement with it, triggering the beginning of the trials and causing mayhem to permeate the town. Playwright Arthur Miller characterizes Abigail as "a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling"(8). Her fabrications induce calamity in Salem, and entangles many innocent people in her slanderous web of stories. In most cases, Abigail lies to evade discomfort or punishment. This pattern is first displayed when Reverend Hale interrogates Abigail:
Many of the characters in Arthur Miller's The Crucible have specific human flaws that cause the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem villagers exhibit failings, including greed, vengeance, and fear, which eventually lead to the downfall of their town. Many villagers, especially Abigail Williams, take advantage of the opportunity to seek vengeance on others through the trials. Greed for power and land often holds precedence when the hysteria takes over. Fear of being arrested or put to death is the key motivation in turning others in as witches. From these three human flaws, the town of Salem falls into chaos with many innocent people paying the price.
Life as a human is dictated by an inborn hunger or purpose, and people, in general, will act on this hunger for their own personal gain in their individual ways. This hunger, be it for wealth, land, love, power, revenge, or pride, can, and will be the undoing or failing of all mankind as Miller so clearly points out in his play The Crucible. This essay will explore the motives of characters within the play and even the motives of Arthur Miller himself and therefore show how conflict stems from certain recognisable human failings, including those mentioned above, fear, and hysteria. Reverend Parris is the character that initiates the hysteria of the Salem witch trials, in a community where authorities wasted no time minding the business of its citizens, what should have been seen as teen frivolity was blown into one of the ugliest moments in American history. Parris sparks this by firstly acting on his own paranoia, which the reader would find in the introduction 'he believed he was being persecuted wherever he went';, and calling Reverend Hale in an attempt for self-preservation '….
For instance, Parris, Abigail’s uncle and the main reverend of Salem, feels great at first when people started to get accused of being witches. He knows that witchery is unlikely in Salem because the girls admitted to just playing. However, when Parris claims that Abigail can see spirits, he saves his position in the church. It is only when he sees that he may lose his life due to this lie, that he wants to stop. Parris expresses this to the judges, “Tonight, when I open my door to leave my house—a dagger clattered down” (200). Parris starts to care when his life is at stake, but he was stress-free for a while. He foresaw positive effects of this lie, but he understands his mistake of letting the executions continue. Lastly, Proctor admits to the judge that he had an affair with Abigail because he wants this injustice to end. The judge takes Abigail’s side, but they still ask Elizabeth to confirm or deny Proctor’s confession because she is known for only telling the truth. The judge demands an
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is set in Salem village where an atmosphere of enmity and mistrust has been created through the conflicts and disagreements many villagers experience throughout the play. Many of these are caused by or, similar to the conflict between Parris and Proctor, are inflated by the many accusations of witchcraft occurring in the village.
In Arthur Miller 's famous play The Crucible, innocent people are falsely accused of witchcraft and are killed as a result. Even the thought of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s would put the whole village into mass hysteria. Mass hysteria refers to collective delusions of threats to society that spread rapidly through rumors and fear. This is the main cause of why so many people were arrested and killed for witchcraft. One way people could save themselves was by falsely confessing to have performed witchcraft. Many people did not do this though. This is because the townspeople were held to very strict moral values and must uphold their good name in society. They did not want a bad reputation. In The Crucible, by Arthur
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that discusses many issues and spurs contemplation within the reader. While reading this play, because of the controversy of many issues detailed within, it is difficult for one not to take a look at one’s own morals and determine what one would do if placed in a similar situation. The key issues discussed within this play, the effects of hysteria, marital betrayal, and the murderous powers of lies, are portrayed intriguingly and effectively. The lessons that can be learned from The Crucible are still quite applicable today.
This is a character essay on the “The Crucible”. The character I have chosen to be my
Parris: "Aye, a dress. And I thought I saw – someone naked running through the trees.” The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller had very many themes in it. Some of these themes stood out more then others. These themes would be hysteria, reputation, and hypocrisy. These themes were present throughout the entire play, from the beginning till the end. When you think of a Puritan religion you may think of a very good, morally perfect society. This wasn’t the case in Salem, Massachusetts. It was actually the opposite in the play, there was lying, cheating, stealing and just about everything else you wouldn’t want in your society.
Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. A famous American poet once said: “Oh reputation dearer far than life”. James Russell Lowell highlights the importance of reputation by declaring it more important than even human life itself. This idea is also found in ‘The Crucible’ as many characters will be challenged between telling the truth and dying, or saving their reputation. In ‘The Crucible’, this theme beholds a key position in the unrolling of the story as an impression of control over the outcome of people’s lives is created by its importance.
The Crucible is a play which brings to our attention many timeless issues. The nature of good and evil, power and its corruption, honour and integrity and our tendency to create scapegoats for all manner of problems are all brought up through the course of the play - sometimes in very dramatic fashion.
The theme of reputation and quest for people is also portrayed clearly in The Crucible. In the old days, children were considered unimportant. They weren't allowed to speak until given permission to, and they didn't make important decisions at all. However, during the witch court trials, Abigail and other girls had the power to say who was innocent and who was guilty. Probably, for the first time in their lives, they had power over Salem and they wanted to maintain it. Moreover, the authorities of Salem were afraid of losing authorities and power. For example, the judges, Governor Danforth and Ezekiel Cheever didn't want to admit that they were being fooled by a bunch of girls so they insisted that witchcraft existed in the town of Salem.
In The Crucible, keeping up with one's reputation is a common theme. I believe a good name is more important than the truth. Although the truth may seem like the right thing to go by, your reputation determines where you go in life.
Reputation is a very important aspect of social life. It can dictate who you are able to be friends with, or even control where you can live or get a job. Reputation is a key part of social life today, and has been for several centuries. In Salem, this aspect of social life is very important, sometimes meaning more to the members of the society than their family and others in the community. The theme of reputation is shown through several characters within the play, The Crucible. The Crucible is a play filled with many unreliable and immoral people, but there are fortunately some that are willing to put their reputations in jeopardy to defend others, such as Reverend Hale and John Proctor. John Proctor, a middle-aged farmer in Salem, makes a very