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Arthur miller and american society
Salem witch trials in today's society
Salem witch trials in today's society
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The Social Issues Happening in the Crucible The reputation of a person is very important to their standing in the community, and especially in a religious community. In the play the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows the importance of social standing by religious beliefs and contemporary social dynamics. Therefore, the play was based off of a historical context, witchcraft, some characters represent as a scapegoat while others act as an antithesis of being a witch to meet the society’s standards. The play, the Crucible was based on a historical context which was witchcraft. The setting of the play was in Salem, Massachusetts in the year of 1962. The big phenomenon going on at that time was witchcraft. Witchcraft which is also called witchery …show more content…
or spell craft is the practice or belief of magic skills and abilities that are used in communicating with the devil or spirits. Back in time witchcraft was a huge dilemma because it was known as evil and fellowshipping with the devil. In The Healer and the Witch: Sexually and Power in Arthurs Millers the Crucible, it says most of the witchcraft problems were based on ancient Greek conceptions of “hysteria” and the belief that as the intentions of Eve’s “originalism” women were born sensual, sinister, carnal, and prone to evil (Tunc, 266-270). The Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions and hearings of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials appeared in the executions of twenty people, fourteen of them women, and all but one by hanging. Twelve other women had formerly been executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the 17th century. As you can see, women were the main target of being accused of witchery. The women who are accused of the witchcraft are not those who don’t conform to socially constructed gender roles, such as Tituba who hold social power (Tunc, 266-270). In the play the Crucible, the author addresses the whole phenomenon about the Salem witch trials. The title of the book seems like it wouldn’t relate to the theme or the entire play. When you think of a crucible, it all of a sudden comes to your mind that it is something that you melt metal in. Well in How to Read Literature like a Professor it talks about how symbols in books can really have a small range of meanings but usually symbols can’t be related to meaning one thing; if they can it’s not a symbol, its allegory (Foster 98). This really relates to the title of the play because although you think it is the first definition it is not. A crucible has another meaning to it which really relates to the topic and that is, a test or a trial. In the Crucible they have a series of trials and test taken place in the play. Obviously the trials are the Salem witch trials but it has several test. One of the tests is taken by the characters. The main test that they had to take was to disobey their religion by lying to save them from getting trailed for witchcraft or tell the truth and get accused of lying and get hanged. This test was the hardest test that the characters had to take. They took the wrong test and chose the one where they had to lie and disobey their religion and ruin their social standing. The setting of the play is taken in Salem, Massachusetts 1692 which was populated by puritans. They viewed the world by good vs. evil. This is why their religion was so important to them and if anything bad happened it could cause destruction in their community. Their type of government was a Theocracy, which means that God was their only ruler and their community was led by men and women who were directly connected to God. Gods power was resolved through men, and only men made the rules. Men were the leaders in the churches and in the courts. This shows you that women didn’t have an equal stand place at that time. They were just to stay in the house, do housework, watch and take care of the kids, and go to church to worship God in a spiritual way. Foster explains in the book How to read Literature like a Professor that, geography can define or develop a character (Foster 167). Another geographic standpoint is the forest. The forest is where the characters Abigail, Tituba, Betty and others were discovered performing witchcraft. This started the whole entire problem with this crazy act. The geography of the forest defines each character who gets accused of witchcraft because this is where it all started at. McCarthyism was also practiced in Salem.
McCarthyism is the practice of making unfair allegations using unfair allegations and unfair investigative techniques. In the Committee for Cultural Freedom and the Roots of McCarthyism it articulates how McCarthyism is the practice of making unfair allegations and basically in this article it talks about communism and Hitler/Nazis. The situation with witchcraft and with the other two situations are both unfair techniques. In the Crucible basically each character was accused for doing witchcraft when they weren’t even doing it therefor they got sent to trial and put in jail to wait to be killed. This compares to the other two situations because Hitler was doing some unfair things to the Jews because of their race (Bullert, …show more content…
25). The crisis of the Salem witch trials leads the characters into a lot of distress and confusion during the whole time the situation is going on. The social perspective of the play ties in well with the idea of social issues of a literary work. Each of the character’s tasks is to protect their background because of how the society is set up, which is to basically to be a great religious follower of their religion. If they fail to do this is, which they will, they will be sent to get hung. This only happens when they have been convicted of doing witchcraft. Since most of the people lie about doing witchcraft and not doing it to protect their selves and others, puts them in a position where they all get punished for it. This messes up the whole community’s reputation and it turns into a huge confusing complication. The play starts off with a scene of witchcraft with the slave Tituba and the rest of the girls Abigail Williams, Ruth, Betty and the rest of the other girls dancing around a fire naked in the forest. The girls and Tituba gets caught by Parris and this starts the entire scandal of witchcraft (Miller, 5). This scene starts the whole situation with the everyone getting accused of witchcraft. The slave Tituba is the one that was held responsible for the act because for one the girls blamed her for it. When they get back to the premises of where all of the people lived Parris calls in Reverend Hale, who is an expert on witchcraft, because his 10-year-old daughter Betty Parris lies in an unmoving unresponsive state. After this happens they also find Ruth in the same state. This happens after the night they get caught (Miller, 6). Everyone is afraid and since this occurred it made witchcraft in the town more suspicious. Because of the situation Parris prays a lot for his daughter because they think that they are dead, but then they find out that they are not dead because one of the girls which was Ruth “sneezed” (Miller 13). This also makes you wonder if they are just playing about the whole situation and acting unconscious because when they call their names they do not respond. Parris is very in denial that the direction was leading to witchcraft because it is unknown and has no real evidence but the others including Reverend Hale believe it is witchcraft. Later during the play Betty is awaken from her but this all happens when Abigail tells Betty to wake up and when she did she started off saying that Abigail Williams drank blood, chickens blood (Miller 15). This causes an altercation between the two because Abigail explains that it is not true. Then shortly after that, Betty asks for her mother, which who is dead. When they mention this to her, he starts off my saying that she is going to “fly to her” which is suspicious (Miller 15). Then it goes back to the conversation about the blood and betty says that Abigail drank the blood to kill John Proctors wife, Goody Proctor. After all of this, betty collapse in Abigail’s arms. She thinks and the other girls think that she is dead. Referring back to the reason why Abigail tried to kill Proctors wife.
This was also suspicious and of course she didn’t say it was true. The only reason why she did this is because she didn’t like his wife. Later on in the play it specifies that Proctor and Abigail had an affair. This is wrong on both parts. Abigail is an underage individual and Proctor is married. By doing this activity, Proctor committed adultery which is a sin. He could go to court and be hanged for this. Not only he has to live with this forever, he also hurt his wife and put his relationship in a bad condition. Abigail was there maid in their house, this is how they got to hookup. She was always jealous of Goody Proctors and John Proctors relationship. This could have influenced her to commit this act. When Goody Proctor found out, she was hurt but she still managed to stay with Proctor. One reason is because they had children and she loved him. They didn’t have the same relationship that they used to have but they still managed to stay with him. Goody Proctor also fired Abigail from her job. This made Abigail even more fired
up. In the Society vs. the Individual in Arthur Miller’s the crucible it talks about how they play shifts between two related topics, the individuals must be purged separately so that the community as a whole can be preserved. The Crucible is about the individual and society is obvious by the bug amount of characters presented to the audience. The character’s range from farmers and maids to ministers to court-officials. Discipline and obedience are the primary rules of the town; the society was based on an implicit motto saying that in unity lay the best promise of safety. Being an individual and trying to separate yourself by being different is not usual in the
Throughout the many acts of the play, we sense the anger rolling off Abigail’s words. “I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” By these words, we know that Abigail Williams is angry. She’s angry at John Proctor for trying to hide the crime he committed with her, and for the lack of closure she
When these women of Salem Massachusetts started to do witchcraft and pass it on to other people, they were put on trial for their actions, which at the time was, illegal. It had caught on all over England and was spreading fast. Arthur Miller made a play called the Crucible that was about the Salem witchcraft trials. Arthur Miller took the historical accounts and changed them to be suitable for the play. The crucible had many alterations to the historical documents that took place in 1962 which were in the characters, the historical differences, and why the theme of history was changed.
Context: This part of the text is included at the beginning of the drama, telling the audience about Salem and its people. The author explains how a theocracy would lead to a tragedy like the Salem witch-hunts. This is the initial setting and is based on the principle that some people should be included and some excluded from society, according to their religious beliefs and their actions. This is basically the idea that religious passion, taken to extremes, results in tragedy. Miller is saying that even today extremes end up bad- communism, like strict puritans, was restrictive and extreme. It only made people suffer.
The Crucible is paralleled directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s. The story of The Crucible takes place against the background of the Salem Witch, trials but the themes lie much deeper. The main themes expressed in The Crucible relate to the events that occurred at both the Salem Witch Trials and during the McCarthy era. At the Salem Witch Trials, one hundred fifty people were accused of practicing witchcraft and nineteen of those were convicted and executed. The evidence against these people was hardly substantial. At the McCarthy hearings, thousands of people were “blacklisted.” Anyone who tried to oppose the accusations was also viewed as a Communist. No one was convicted due to the more advanced legal system; still, that did not erase the fear that was instilled by the allegations.
The crucible’s setting was in the year 1962, in the small Puritan society of Salem. One night some of the girls in the village were in the woods doing love potions when they were caught. The girls lied and said that witches made them do it. In an extremely religeous society the influence of witches was immensely frightening and as the thought to identify witches arose, so did mass hysteria of the...
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.
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 The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, justice and injustice is portrayed through the characters of John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. It is also shown through the minor characters of Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis, followers of Abigail Williams, and through Danforth and various townspeople.
The Crucible – Human Nature Human nature was fully to blame for the disaster which took place in Salem in 1692. Human nature is what your character is made of in trying situations, and in 1692 scientific knowledge was extremely poor by today's standards and so all reoccurring problems were blamed on an evil force, whether it be the devil or witches or anything the imagination could conjure, hence human nature was being tested regularly. The decisions people made were critical to the disaster's progression, in today's scene in would have been dismissed within minutes, but the paranoia floating around in the town kept the ball rolling. People were so terrified of the thought of evil that any suggestion of it would create a preordained judgement in the mind of anyone, especially those who made judgement of the accused. To get to the supposed
Fear, resulting in chaos, and overturned lives affected the personal decisions of John Proctor, thus creating inner conflicts, as well as desperation in the story. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor's stand in a society where opinion drove fate created ignominy towards him and his beliefs. At first he hid his horrible sin inside, fearing the consequences. When he finally did, he was placed in a tangled labyrinth of feelings as to what his next action should be. Lastly, it's Proctor's defiance and integrity in his own self that proved him stronger than the entire community of Salem. Proctor's tremulous feelings and general unease of the situation built up to his defining point of confession. Theocracy came together to take coerce control Salem and it's actions. Proctor saw this and feared, for diabolism was a practice unheard of. Danforth states, "You must understand, sir, a person is either with the church or against it, there be no road between. We live no longer in the dusky afternoon and evil mixed itself with good and befuddled world. Now by God's grace the good folk and evil entirely separate"(63).
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.
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.
Explore Miller’s dramatic presentation and development of the theme of power and authority. Even though The Crucible is not historically correct, nor is it a perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, it still stands out as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance, hysteria, power and authority is able to tear a community apart. The most important of these is the nature of power, authority and its costly, and overwhelming results. “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or against it,” says Danforth conceitedly. With this antithesis, Miller sums up the attitude of the authorities towards the witch trials that if one goes against the judgement of the court
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.
A group of teenage girls were secretly dancing in the woods with a black slave, named Tituba. When they were discovered of what they were doing, the girls started accusing certain individuals in the village of dealing with witchcraft. Within a blink of an eye, the entire village is controlled by a devil that exists within the fear of each person. A drama of suspense and impact, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, explores through the individuals' vengeance, fear, reputation, and quest for power.