Throughout American literature classrooms, there have been books which have considered literary works of art which must be read by every American student. The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne was published during the year 1850. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller was first performed in 1963. Although the two works of literature were written in two different centuries, both of them share similar themes and plot structures. The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are considered classic works of literature because they hold timeless themes and issues.
The Crucible is a play based upon the Salem Witch Trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts during the early 1960s. Arthur Miller ,during the time he was writing the play, was accused of communism. That accusation of communism sparked an idea within the
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author to begin writing the play. The Crucible was inspired by the Salem Witch trials but also his own personal hardship he experienced during the time he accused. Almost a century earlier, Nathaniel Hawthorne completed The Scarlet Letter and unlike Arthur MIller he was not undergoing legal struggle but he was trying to convey a message through his work.
The Scarlet Letter is based upon the Puritan society in Boston,Massachusetts and the repercussions which were faced by people who did not abide by the Ten Commandment. The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are both set in Puritan societies around the time period between 1629 through 1630. Throughout each work, the morals and life choices of the characters are judged harshly and critically analyzed. Each character is given a dilemma and must cope with the internal conflict which was the main plot of each work.
Although the two works have different authors and plots, the similarities between The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are highly prevalent. Between the two writing pieces, Puritan beliefs, harsh punishment, forced social pariahism and internal moral struggle. The Puritans were an intolerant group of people who were merciless in punishment towards people who violated the Ten Commandments. The main character of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, committed the crime of adultery and
was required to wear the letter “A” upon all of her clothing. That form of public embarrassment was merciful in the eyes of the Puritans within her society. Within The Crucible, there were many people accused of witchcraft who were actually innocent but due to the intolerance of the Puritans those who were accused lost their lives. Within both works of literature, the characters who were accused or tried for their crimes underwent defamation of their character and caused people within their society to question their character. Furthermore, it exposed all of the dark secrets that were held between characters. For example, John Proctor ,a main character in The Crucible, was pushed to confess about his crime of adultery between him and Abigail Williams, in front of the court. After his confession and being accused of witchcraft, John Proctor was asked to confess and that confession be placed upon the doors of the church for everyone in the town to view. There is a similar form of public humiliation within The Scarlet Letter as Hester Prynne is placed upon a scaffold in front of the town where she was questioned. Through both works, there is examples of heavy internal conflict within the character which develops into external conflict. However, later within each book, the characters were perceived as people who were more than their sins. Later in The Scarlet Letter, the letter “A” begins to represent able and take on a positive connotation. While in The Crucible, the people accused were considered upstanding citizens who maintain their good reputation throughout their trial. The similarities between to the two pieces transcends time and hold close to each other in many aspects. Despite all of the similarities that lie between The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, the pieces are different and have some contrasting aspect between them. Due to The Crucible being based upon a time in history in which people were killed without the presence of evidence, it differed from The Scarlet Letter where Hester Prynne was tried because she got pregnant without the presence of her husband. Hester Prynne was tried with the presence of evidence and avoided death due to being pregnant. However, in The Crucible people were tried without the presence of evidence and were promptly sentenced to death. Also, Elizabeth Proctor was able to avoiding death for only the 9 months of her pregnancy but she was still destined to die. Both of the literary works shared similarities and differences which have proved to transcend time. Those works are considered classics because they have the ability to relate to people regardless of timing, social or economic status.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, focuses on the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that follows the trials. Miller shows how the dark desires and hidden agendas provokes such extreme behavior. The Crucible was written in a time when the anti-communist movement was strongly protested. During the Salem witch trials, a person was guilty until he proved himself
I have read the The Crucible, The Scarlet letter, and Of Mice and Men. In two of these stories, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, society was very much alike. They were based on a Puritan background. The Puritans had laws to live by. In the story Of Mice and Men, society showed racism and also that people took the law into their own hands.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest written by Ken Kesey is set in an Oregon asylum, and serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind. The novel was written in 1959 and published in 1962. The Crucible written by Arthur Millar is a 1953 play by the American playwright and is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory to McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists.
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.
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
The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. One night, a bunch of girls were caught dancing in the forest and people in the village start accusing the girls for being witchcrafted by a witch. In the progress of finding who the witch is, people start blaming on each other and lie. These lies and false witnesses confuse the entire town. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, uses irony and paradox in the stories.
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.
Many characters in The Crucible fall under the trap of lying, if not to other people, then to themselves. The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in history, surrounding the Salem witch trials. It takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 and 1693. Additionally, Miller wrote the play as an allegory to mccarthyism, which is the practice of making accusations without evidence. In the play, Arthur Miller develops the theme of lies and deceit by showing Abigail lying for her own benefit, John Proctor committing adultery, and Elizabeth lying to protect her husband.
The Crucible is a play that is based on a true story by Arthur Miller.
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.
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.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that was first performed in 1953 in the United States of America in the midst of the persecution of alleged communists during the era of McCarthyism. Although the play explicitly addresses the Salem which hunt, many find that the play is an analogy to McCarthyism due to the striking similarities in which the people behaved. Miller highlight the different groups of characters in order to reveal overlying ideas of the play such as: Self preservation, power, and hypocrisy.
During the nineteenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne graced America with The Scarlet Letter. Out of all of his works, the commended author’s most enduring and well-known novel is The Scarlet Letter. The narrative was set in the 1600s around the same time as the historical Salem Witch Trials. Over the years, this classic story has been reviewed by numerous essayists. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most popular novel reflects the injustice of the Salem Witch Trials and received notable analyses from major literary critics.
Portrayal of Puritan Society in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter In the introductory sketch to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel the "The Scarlet Letter", the reader is informed that one of the author's ancestors persecuted the Quakers harshly. The latter's son was a high judge in the Salem witch trials, put into literary form in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (Judge Hathorne appears there). We learn that Hawthorne feels ashamed for their deeds, and that he sees his ancestors and the Puritan society as a whole with critical eyes. Consequently, both open and subtle criticism of the Puritans' practices is applied throughout the novel.
The popular classic book “The Scarlet Letter”, A place in the Puritan world, which outlines the effect of injustice in a variety of methods. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story of “The Scarlet Letter” disputes between originality and conformity by using Hester Prynne to represent those who oppose hope as intact. Arthur Miller explores a comparable domain to the book “The Scarlet Letter” since in both book’s characters are discriminated against the region. The characters who include the devil, or act of adultery their punishment would be led to death. Arthur Miller’s purpose to indicate the cause for the Salem witch trials and the hysteria that we lean on to misplace our minds when it comes to fear.