Free Essays on The Crucible by Arthur Miller

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Recommended: Summary of Arthur Miller's "the Crucible"

The Crucible, a historical play by Arthur Miller, is based on events of the Salem Witchcraft trials. The play takes place in a small Puritan village in Massachusetts in 1692. It begins with Abigail Williams leading a group of girls to the forest with Tituba, a slave woman from Barbados believed to have special powers. After being caught by Reverend Parris, his daughter Betty enters into a coma-like state. In order to protect themselves and the girls, Abigail initiates an accountability session and names all of the innocent people in town. This leads to Abigail’s condemnation of Elizabeth Proctor, which John Proctor believes is solely done to get her out of their relationship that was developed during their affair seven months back. Hoping to free Elizabeth from charges, Proctor goes to the court with the assistance from Reverend Hale and Mary Warren, and explains to the officials that everything is pretense. However Judge Danforth, with disbelief, sentences Proctor and the other locals to death. This play shows the social chaos in the village that results from superstition. The author, Arthur Miller, employs superstition to create a society in which people blindly accept belief that strange events happen out of the ordinary. In Act One, just after Betty falls into a coma-like state, Reverend Parris calls for others to come in to investigate what is happening. Abigail ferociously attempts to wake Betty up. She succeeds, but Betty rushes to the open window, thinking she can fly. Abigail grabs her before she jumps out and drags her back to bed. Out of nowhere, Betty exclaims: “...You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (p. 19) Through the speech of an ignorant, little girl, Miller portrays just how inane this Puritan world really is. The fact that the crowd gathered by Parris is provoked demonstrates the superstition of the people. Betty’s alarmed tone and incredulous words show the gullible nature of the village. It is evident that the Puritans believe everything they see and hear much too abruptly. Miller continuously applies the concept of superstition as a motif in this play. Reverend John Hale of Beverly is called upon by Mr. Parris to investigate the afflicted Betty. He brings in aid with him a half a dozen heavy books. Hale carefully examines Betty and strives to wake her, but fails. Trying to gain better knowledge of the situation, he asks: “Mr.

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    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.

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  • The Crucible Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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    20 were executed” (Blumberg). The Crucible setting is based on The Salem Witch trials, but the plot is based on The Red Scare. The author employs strict tone and rhetorical questions to convey power. This connects to the purpose of how a occurring can devastate a whole community and the people in it. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, employs empowerment by expressing the challenges within each character and their influence on the trial through the characters John Proctor, Abigail, and Danforth.

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  • Essay On The Anti-Hero In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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    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.

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  • Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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    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.

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  • The Themes Of Honor In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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    Arthur Miller displays elements of mass hysteria through the town’s large number of accusations. Even though a person knows they are not guilty when or if they are accused, they still get worried. People act differently independently versus in a group because in a group they can accuse another person or say that someone else is to blame. If someone is alone they have no where to hide. Abigail has slept with the married man John Proctor. Abigail acts like a harlot when alone with Proctor. Yet she still tries to be a perfectly behaved lady around other people. “The belief in witchcraft was, at bottom an

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  • The Marriage of John and Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

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    The Crucible is one of the most bizarre accounts of a historical event to date. The naïveté of the townspeople leads them down a road of madness and confusion, led by a shameless Puritan girl. Abigail Williams was a ruthless girl who showed no mercy upon accusing her victims of witchcraft. Knowing the entire town of Salem would believe her and the other girls, she would not hesitate at charging anyone she wished with the crime of the Devil’s work. However, a challenge arose to Abigail when she decided to accuse Elizabeth Proctor, and eventually her husband John, of witchcraft. The Proctor marriage was not just any simple marriage; it had its times of cold shoulders, heartfelt truth, and undying love.

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  • Lies And Deceit In The Crucible

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    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.

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  • Examples Of Close Mindedness In The Crucible

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    The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller. This play centers around the witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. In Act II, Abigail and her friends accuse several innocent people of witchcraft. Once they leave the court, Reverend Hale goes to John Proctor’s house to inform Elizabeth Proctor that people in the court have mentioned her name. Then officials of the court, Herrick and Cheever, arrive at the Proctor’s house. They claim to have a warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest because the court declares she practices witchcraft. After, Herrick and Cheever take Elizabeth to jail. Injustice in Act II prevails because of the inability to see the truth. Reverend Hale and John Proctor illuminate the theme that closed-mindedness

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  • John Proctor’s Moral Dilemma in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

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    Another important work Miller wrote, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the 17th century. It is a time when jealousy and suspicion poisoned the thinking of an entire town. Neighbor turned against neighbor when events happened that could not be explained. Accusations turned into a mad hunt for witches who did not exist. One of the main characters of the play is John Proctor, a well-respected man with a good name in the town. As the play develops, John Proctor’s moral dilemma becomes evident: he must decide whether to lie and confess to witchcraft in order to save his life, or to die an honest man, true to his beliefs.

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  • Character Analysis of Giles Corey in The Crucible

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    Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is centered around the mass hysteria created by accusations of witchcraft in the Puritan village of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. These accusations can be blamed on Abigail Williams' affair with John Proctor, the secret grudges that neighbors hold against each other, and the physical and economic differences between the citizens of Salem Village. Because suspicions were at an all-time high, petty accusations were made out to be witchcraft, and bad business deals were blamed on witchery. Among the grudges that help spur the resentment and hostility in the village is one between Giles Corey and Thomas Putnam, who argue about a plot of land and its ownership. Once the accusations begin, everyone has a reason to accuse someone else of witchcraft. When Putnam's daughter accuses George Jacobs of witchery, Corey quickly notices a motive and claims that Putnam only wants Jacobs' land. Additionally, even the slightest offhand remark can result in the suspicion of one working with the devil. In another example of hasty accusations, Giles Corey casually mentions that when his wife is reading, he is unable to say his prayers. However, Reverend Hale takes Giles’ claims the wrong way and Martha Corey is quickly arrested and convicted for witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s haunting play The Crucible, Giles Corey often announces his feelings without considering the consequences, but redeems himself by refusing to allow the defamation of one of his friends while keeping his property and dignity intact.

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    ruinously impact a whole community, is very aptly titled. By definition, a “crucible” is “a severe test,” and the challenges faced by Miller’s characters are many. The historical events dramatized in the play reflect how core human values, including truth, justice and love, are tested under life and death conditions. The trials of the characters and the values they hold dearly come when their simple, ordered world ceases to be black and white and easily deciphered, and is turned upside down in the gray shades of ambiguity.

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    In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller goes into detail about the historical event, the Salem witchcraft trials which took place in Massachusetts in 1692. The drama centers on John and Elizabeth Proctor and a young girl Abigail Williams, whom John Proctor has committed adultery with. In order to get rid of Elizabeth so that Abigail can have John to herself Abigail accuses John’s wife of witchcraft, a crime that was highly frowned upon. John proctor goes through a series of changes from being a horrible person who cheated on his wife to a tragic hero who will give up his life to say his wife. John proctor is viewed as many things in this play but at the end he come out an honest and noble man.

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    Although a strict society composed of high morality and disciplinary laws may be necessary for safety, it causes internal conflicts within the individuals. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller a theocracy in Salem rules and guides the citizens into doing what is “right”, but eventually backfires due to issues of reputation and jealousy. Society has a lot of influence on the citizens, and with a bad reputation, it is nearly impossible to live in a Puritan society. Salem’s strict Puritanical social structure causes personal struggles for the individuals involved in the events of The Crucible, and then eventually these personal struggles affect the society overall.

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  • What Is The Lack Of Gun Control

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