In The Crucible, by Authur Miller, he was successful in fulfilling his purpose of the theme, truth versus faith. As known before, Miller wrote this play in relations to the Salem Witch Trials, and also, McCarthyism - two both very similar topics. Not to mention, both topics share a repeated theme of truth versus faith. Miller had a story to tell, along with the opinions of his own (indirectly, of course), and the only way he knew how to relate it to what was happening then, was to take something from the past. Truth and faith are two indomitable foundations, per say, that go head-to-head throughout the play. Truth is speaking without lies, while faith is confidence in what the speaker is speaking. However, faith is a continuous factor in why people are accused when they are innocent, and vice versa. Therefore, the truth is the only side to depend on. After all, truth is what tests our faith. In the introduction of the play, Miller begins describing the bedroom of where Reverend Parris is weeping over the sickness of Betty, due to what everyone deems to be witchcraft. Later on in the introduction, Miller states, “ The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for their failure to convert the Indians.” This statement means that the …show more content…
Elizabeth exclaims, “ Why -! The girl is murder! She must be ripped out of this world!” Cheever then turns to Herrick exclaiming that he wasn’t the only one to be heard. Miller put this in this scene because it shows that Cheever made a straight foward assumption of Elizabeth, instead of taking the time to ask her what she’d meant by it - which is what happened during McCarthyism. Proctor begins expressing that the accuser isn’t always holy. Here, Miller shows that Proctor has a hatred for Abigail stronger than any
Compassion is an emotion that is oftentimes viewed as a weakness instead of a strength. However, using the corrupted society portrayed in The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates how compassion is necessary for people to survive together, as a society. He establishes this by using the self-centered Parris, whose lack of compassion is responsible for the witch-craze present in Salem. Parris’ dysfunctional relationship with his children causes the girls to lie about their activities in the forest which starts the hysteria around witches. Parris’ selfish desires of having a good reputation also causes him to lose compassion towards the people who are hanged because of the girls’ lie. Therefore, Miller shows how selfish desires lead to a society’s self-destruction because its members lack the compassion needed for the society to thrive.
In The Crucible, John Proctor is considered the anti-hero. Honest and humble, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. He has fallen for Abigail Williams leading to her jealousy of Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife. Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can terminate Abigail’s accusations; however, he can only do so if ha admits hi own guilt. Proctor is a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation and such an admission would ruin that. He eventually makes an attempt to name Abigail as a sham without revealing the crucial information. When this attempt fails, he finally breaks out with a confession, calling Abigail a “whore”...
Sometimes people are so narrow-minded that they do not see the whole picture. People see what they want to see because they cannot handle the actuality or do not like the truth. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Danforth refuses to come to the truth that the witch trials in Salem were the result of a cover-up, and that the court hung a handful of innocent people because of a lie. Miller once said, “The tragedy of The Crucible is the everlasting conflict between people so fanatically wedded to this orthodoxy that they could not cope with the evidence of their senses.” In other words, the tragedy of The Crucible involved the theocracy’s failure to control Salem’s witchcraft mania. At the time, Salem was governed by a theocracy, in which the ministers also had judicial power over society. Because the judges were ministers, religion took precedence over realism and pragmatism; they were unable to come to their senses and realize that the accusations of witchcraft were out of human emotions.
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
In Act Ⅱ Scene 2 of The Crucible, a 1953 play by the Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, meets John Proctor, the protagonist, in the forest at night, where John asks Abigail to free his wife in court the next day, or otherwise he will expose their affair in public to ruin her. This fast-paced short scene portrays Abigail as pious and possessed, which contradicts the impression given by previous scenes. Most importantly, the scene reveals the crucial plan of Proctor which he is planning to use to take down Abigail. By excluding the scene, Miller eliminates the unfavourable danger of jeopardizing the credibility of the characters due to the inconsistency of descriptions, heightens the dramatic effect when Proctor confesses in Act Ⅲ, and prevents the readers from being misled by the affection Abigail has displayed in the scene.
Every event in history can be attributed to a collective of emotions. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls claimed to have seen other villagers working for the devil and began accusing people of practicing witchcraft. This soon created a sense of mass hysteria throughout the town that resulted in the death of twenty people and the imprisonment of over two hundred. We now refer to these events as the Salem witch trials. In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted similar trials accusing people in prominent positions of being Communists. McCarthy implemented unfair investigative techniques, similar to those used in the Salem witch trials. Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, creates a story around the known details of the Salem witch trials and focuses on the relationship
A very famous man once said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933). This is certainly true when it comes to Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Arthur Miller lived through the Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism. After living through this era and being one of the accused communists Miller wrote the book titled The Crucible in 1952. This book told the story of the Salem witch trials with some modifications to make it more relevant to the current situation. The book ultimately became an allegory devoted solely to McCarthyism. In The Crucible it uses situations such as the actual trials; direct comparisons of the characters in the book to those that participated in the McCarthy trials and, the atmosphere of the two events were almost identical.
The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is based on the actual people of the Salem witchcrafts trials. Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the early 1950s in response to experiencing his own modern “witch trials” in the United State. During this time, the panic of Communism has arisen in the United Stated and Senator Joseph McCarthy convinced himself that the American government was slowly being taken over by communists. He began hunting them out, forcing them to confess, and getting them to name their associates, which is very similar to the events in Salem witch Trials. Although Miller researched on the historical records of the Salem witch trials, The Crucible displayed many historical inaccuracies regarding
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory written about the Salem witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 and 1693. The play includes a number of characters, both those who fully conform to the trials and their consequences, and those who do not conform and decide to fight it. Naturally, all stories have characters that are doubtful of which side to pick. They play along with it, not wanting to take a stand, but in their minds they are not entirely sure whether or not what they’re doing is correct. The best example of this outward conformity and inward questioning is Reverend John Hale, one of The Crucible’s principle characters, a member of the religious court that investigates accusations of witchcraft and tries
‘The Crucible’ is an allegory. An allegory is a story with an obvious meaning but if you look deeper into it, there is another meaning. In this case, the obvious meaning is the Salem witch-hunt and the hidden meaning is McCarthyism. McCarthyism started in the early 1950’s and it was governmental accusations with no evidence. Joseph McCarthy started doing trials on those he thought were communist, but he had no evidence for it. This is the same as the witch trials in The Crucible. Arthur Miller wrote this in response to McCarthyism.
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.
The statement,“The Crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is proven true numerous times, throughout the play. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, about the true events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, between the years 1692 and 1693. The Salem witch trials consisted of many hangings, lies, and complete mass hysteria. The citizens of Salem followed the religion of Puritanism, and the ideas of predestination. The root of the mass hysteria comes from their belief in the sense that in something happens then it must have been planned by God. In Miller’s portrayal of the story, Abigail Williams was the ringleader of the witch trials, and she used the idea of predestination to cover up her own sins. Abigail was a very manipulative girl and ruined many lives. John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor were just a few of the victims in Abby’s game. John, Mary, and Elizabeth exhibit the traits courage, weakness, and truth, whether it was in a positive or negative way.
When faced with a problem, humans usually try to find the easiest, fastest, and most convenient way out of the issue. In order to overcome problems, motivation is needed. However, motivation comes from different places within a person based on the individual’s desires. When looking back to 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts the problem during this time period was witchcraft, and "to be accused was to be assumed guilty, to accuse was to avoid punishment" (Jimerson 37). Fear of punishment causes people to accuse the innocent, and the innocent has no redemption for they were automatically guilty. No one was safe at this time as the cycle continued on and on. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren is motivated by fear that transitions from Abigail
In the story The Crucible, the plot and structure add meaning to the play. Arthur Miller does this by connecting the events of the Red Scare to the Salem Witch Trials. He does this by making the comparisons of how easily it is to trust false things, jump to conclusions too quickly, and believe irrational fears.
Parallels between Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, and his article Why I wrote the Crucible, can easily support Miller’s reasons for writing this classic play. Miller’s purpose in writing both the play and the article was to emphasize the similarities between the 1692 witch hunt and the 1950’s Red Scare. Miller simply wanted to convey the message of fear over reason, express himself in a new language of old English, to warn of mass hysteria, and most importantly compare his life in the 1950’s to the irrational trial in 1692. Miller’s reasons are numerous, and while they are all stated flat out in his article, they are also clearly stated and understood in the play.