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Finding the Characters in The Crucible Sympathetic
Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible', portrays the hysteria created in a
paranoid society that is pent-up with vengeance and retribution, when
'the balance within a community begins to turn towards greater
individual freedom'. When discussing this play we must look at the
audience's awareness of the parallels between the period when the play
is set and the time when it is written. The initial audience of the
1950's would be aware of the paranoia in Salem and the persecution of
people who value their morals. However audiences today are aware of
the double paranoia created by the clear parallels between the witch
trials and Arthur Miller's personal experiences of being accused of
having communist sympathies. This awareness enhances all the themes
throughout the play, including the sympathy felt by the audience. The
development of sympathy for characters depends greatly on the part
they play in the development of the trials and the factors that
justify their doing so. With reference to language, structure and the
social and historical settings, four of the protagonists will be
investigated to identify the techniques used by the author to evoke
these feelings of sympathy within the audiences.
Abigail is undoubtedly an instigator of the mayhem that led to the
trials. She is the ringleader of the girls. As she leads them through
the trials her opinion and issues with people are a major influence in
the false accusations of witchcraft. This, on the surface, makes her
appear to be one of the characters who receive the least sympathy.
However during the play the audience is shown the factors that have
caused her actions, it is these factors that prompt sympathies.
A...
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...rsons 'name', which would remain forever soiled if blackened once.
She was in fact a victim not only of Abigail's love for her husband
but of the constrictions of a hugely religious society and her
consequential high moral standing.
Arthur Miller successfully endears the audiences into sympathising
with key characters in order to enhance the already captivating story
line through his subtle use of structure, language and his knowledge
into the social and historical setting of the trials. He allows the
audience to have their own opinion on the characters that he
influences with their progressing development. Arthur Millers play is
a creative dramatic and well-researched exploration into the hysteria
that surrounding the 'perverse manifestation of the panic which set in
among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater
individual freedom'.
Moral ambiguity is lack of sense in ethical decision-making. This means morally ambiguous characters are difficult to classify as either good or evil, as they contain strong aspects of both. These types of characters generally have real problems, causing their inner conflicts, which also makes them sympathetic. Stories that have morally ambiguous characters usually create built-in tension, because there is always the question of whether their conniving nature will be able to take hold, causing them to fail in their pursuit. In the play The Crucible, an example of a morally ambiguous character is Mary Warren.
The focus of Miller’s The Crucible is an appalling witch trial that morfs the once-peaceful town of Salem into a cutthroat slaughterhouse. As a lucrative playwright and a not-so-subtle allegory author, Miller is a seasoned wordsmith who addresses people akin to himself, and is not secretive about that information. The Crucible best serves its purpose as a learning device and a social statement, especially at the time of its publishing. Miller‘s piece showcases the appeals in an easy-to-identify manner that is perfect for middle or high school students who are new to the appeals, or for English majors who have no problem pinpointing them, making this play ideal for a classroom setting.
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 Anti-hero in The Crucible A hero is defined as "someone admired for his bravery, great deeds or noble qualities". There are three categories to which all heroes can be classified into, one of which is the anti-hero genre. An anti-hero has the role of a hero thrust upon them.
Abigail Williams is manipulative and wants everything to go her way. She is the main character and causes trouble everywhere she goes. The Salem Witch Trials is about hearings and prosecutions of people who were accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible Abigail is a no good villain. Abigail first commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband.
Also important to the play is how Arthur Miller depicts how one selfish, evil person like Abigail Williams can bring others down and make others follow her to commit evil acts. These evil acts affect even the most honest people in the town like John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse who cannot fight the accusations made against them by those following Abigail. Those following Abigail are considered to be holy men that are full of honesty and justice, but the play shows that even those who are thought to be respectable and right, like people of government or community leaders can bring death to innocent people if they are driven by something wrong. II. Plot: The plot begins with the inciting incident where Rev. Parris finds his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty along with his slave Tituba doing some dance in the forest.
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
Here, Miller has displayed Danforth not to speak, with the crafty technique of silence again, and this allows Abigail to have more control of the courtroom than anyone else. Even though Abigail has no essence of authority, she still manages to gain power by quietening Danforth. Structurally, Act 3 is the most complicated section of the whole play. Miller does not place his trial scene in the courtroom itself but we can still listen to what is happening there, and then, by a natural sequence of events, judges and defendants remove themselves to an anteroom on stage. Thus Miller can bring into play the hysteria of such drama, but in a much freer setting.
Throughout The Crucible, Reverend Hale is a faithful and intelligent minister. He comes to Salem as the spiritual doctor to respond to the rumors of witchcraft, which have been flying in Salem after the strange illness of Reverend Parris’s daughter, Betty Williams. Hale never declares witchcraft, but he relies on people’s evidence of it because of the large amount of evidence. As the play goes on, Hale’s intelligence leads him to other sources of hysteria and accusations. The change in the character of Reverend Hale is noticeable throughout the play. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend Hale grows from a confident, authoritative figure, trying to end witchcraft in Salem, to a regretful, fair character who wants to end injustice and save innocent lives.
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.
In The Crucible, the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials caused paranoia amongst the people of Salem. Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a symbol and allegory of the fear surrounding the spread of communism during the 1950s in America. The community’s sense of justice was blinded by the mass hysteria and for some, a desire for vengeance and personal gain. The Putnams
The Salem Witch Trials, Who is Really Guilty? After all of the witch trials in 1692 concluded, a total of 20 people were hanged, all because of people craving attention and personal gain. There are three people depicted in Arthur Miller's The Crucible that are most responsible for this and they are, Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Thomas Putnam. Abigail Williams is mostly responsible for the Salem witch trials because she was the first person to start accusing innocent people of witchcraft.
A crucible refers to a harsh test, and in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, each person is challenged in a severe test of his or her character or morals. Many more people fail than pass, but three notable characters stand out. Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor all significantly change over the course of the play.
How can a girl who condemned seventy two to a death sentence and drank a charm to kill a man’s wife, a man she has slept with on more than one occasion be the victim? It’s possible when the town she lives in is worse than her. Although Abigail Williams is typically thought of as the antagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, she is in fact a victim as much as any other tragic character in the play.