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Criticism of arthur miller
Arthur Miller themes of his work
Criticism of arthur miller
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This is a character essay on the “The Crucible”. The character I have chosen to be my subject of this essay is Reverend Hale. This essay is going to be over seven parts of this character’s life. His background, problems and concerns, development through the story, first impressions, what he thinks of himself, what others think of him, and what he thinks of others.
Background He is a man in his forties from the town of Beverly. After his experience with a mother and her child that was afflicted with a behavior change that he allegedly cured within a few days with his kindness and a few days of rest. This even in his lie caused him to start pondering the invisible world more than ever and in return became he well respected specialist
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Problems And Concerns
Mr. Hale has plenty of faults in his character like everyone else. Some of his more serious concerns is that his trusts in the courts is way too strong and coupled with the fact he is proud of his specialties and very religious. this make near impossible for
anyone to not be convicted of witchcraft if something bad happens in his presence.
Another major fault Is that he knows that he people he is gathering and sending to jail by siding with Abigail could be innocent the proof of this is in this quote “I-I have, indeed”. This was said in response o that the people will agree to being witches if they can live longer by saying it
Development through the story
At the beginning he believed that Salem was being messed with by the devil himself and that Abigail was is pointing out all the witches throughout Salem and later as the number of victims being put in jail has increased it started to make him question his opinion of Abigail, there methods of exposing witches and, his trust of the court and the confession of Mary warren caused him to completely change. Now he believes that
Abigail is a fake and he is now trying to save Elizabeth
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While the court, the girls and
Mr. Parris I would say dislike him slightly now because of the dis agreement he had with the court trying to disprove Abigail
What He Thinks of Them
He has some suspicion in town like his old friend Mr. Parris, who replaced the old church candles with gold ones because he didn’t find then good enough. He also has suspicions with Mr. Proctor because of him not going to church every Sunday. The girls prosecuting he didn’t believe after a while because of Mary warren and the number of
“witches” they found. The victims of the court he started to believe was innocent now because of the conversation he had with john proctor. He started to question the court now because of the new evidence.
What He Thinks of Himself
He views himself as a very intelligent man that has a great understand of the world of witches and witchery. He also views himself as a religious official. He also thinks he should be treated with the upmost respect.
First Impressions
My first impressions of Mr. hale was that he was a very regions man because of all the books he brings when he was first introduced to the story. He might have been a
Hale takes this job to a personal level when the the crisis takes a turn for the worse. He pleads with the people convicted of witchcraft to confess. He feels he is responsible for their lives because his purpose was to rid the town of witchcraft, not innocent lives. He beholds himself a failure when he cannot convince the accused to confess. His well justified pride is broken. He came into this village like a bride groom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. He urges Elizabeth not ot let her pride interfere with her duty as a wife, as it did with his own duty.
‘The Crucible’ is a great example of morally ambiguous characters. A plethora of characters with blurry ethics exist within the world of ‘The Crucible’, this makes it difficult to distinguish who is truly good and who is evil. Arthur Miller has a fantastic approach to how he displays his characters and their moral standpoints. Adultery, lying, and even the suspicion of witchcraft, within the community brings out the worst in the townspeople. John Proctor is an example of how thin the lines are drawn between a complete saint and a damned sinner.
“No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” In the case of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Edward Murrow is uncannily accurate. The Crucible, set in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials, proves that when one antagonist has accomplices, they can destroy the lives of many. In this story, Abigail destroys the lives of everyone in Salem. That being said, in times of stress or panic, people's’ true traits and personalities can be discovered, as shown in the cases of John Proctor and his damning indiscretion, Rev. Hale’s panicked realization, and Mary Warren’s naive and fearful indecision; all of which develop throughout the play in response to different stimuli.
Reverend John Hale is motivated by honor and righteousness, but at the same time by reputation and pride. He is certain about the witchery in Salem and while having doubts refuses to speak up. Hale before the executions start to get out of hand is all for the witchery theory and absolutely believes that the girls are telling the truth. Hale’s wavers on the witchery theory after his talk with John Proctor. Hale realizing his error decides to say nothing out of pride and worry for his credibility. In essence he starts to question his own certainty about the situation. Hale’s motivation slowly changes as the executions continue. Hale’s motivation changes from pride and reputation to honor and righteousness. This is especially evident when he quits and breaks all affiliation with the court. He
At the beginning of the play Reverend Hale supported the court, believing that it would bring just...
Hale first enters salam he is proud and confident in his ability to find and eradicate witchcraft where he believe he’s found it. “In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises” (Hale 37). He claims to be able save anyone from the supposed witchcraft taking hold in this town. As more truths are uncovered Hale begins to question his beliefs and if the witchcraft he came to extinguish was really their at all. When people were questioning why they were accused and were genuinely confused. Hale picked up on people not knowing why or how they were accused, but he had to follow through with who were to be accused of being guilty until proven innocent. When Mary Warren I confessing that she had lied and had never seen the Devil and that none of them had. Hale is just starting to take them seriously that maybe they were falsely accusing people. That’s why by the end of the book (Act 4) he is in their cells asking them to lie because he has noticed that they were just lying. He believed that he should not have held the power to sign all their deaths because of his ideas. His ideas took control of him and with the power of the state used those ideas to sign death
Reverend Hale connects to the theme of ideology since he is an authority figure who supports the church/court by investigating any signs of witchcraft.
The play, The Crucible, is a fireball of guilt, evil, and good compiled into one magnification. It is a play with tremendous feelings, with many inside twists hidden in the archives of the true story. It is a play with emotional feelings; feelings of anger, hate, and evil, yet also feelings of goodness, and pureness. Undeniably, The Crucible is a play illustrating good versus evil. The principal characters, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Ann Putnam and Marry Warren all contain within them elements of good and evil.
The person who is summoned to the town is Rev Hale, who’s a considered expert in witchcraft and one of the most noticeably dynamic characters in the movie. He first comes to the town believing there is a witch and goes to all lengths trying to find who it is. He given the information that the girls were secretly dancing in the woods with Tituba singing a strange song and boiling a pot over the fire. He truly believes that Tituba was corrupted with the devil and makes her say praises to the lord. Abigail tells him that she is also a victim of the devil and begins to weep, the other girls who had been said to be dancing start to weep too and all of the girls start to say names of people around the town they claim they saw with the devil. After many trials and deaths John Proctor eventually opens his eyes to reality when he goes to visit the Proctor household. John tells him that the girls
Many characters had an effect on the story of The Crucible but Reverend Hale was at times good and sometimes bad. The main question was Hale for the good side or did he accidently help the bad side. Being very young and with almost no experience is hard for the witch expert. This paper will include Hales personality and how he helped the story.
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is a Non-Shakespearan Drama which presents societal issues still affecting mankind today. This play proves the idea that major characters do not always undergo important changes; rather they reveal their true nature as the play progresses. The antagonist, Abigail Williams, proves this theory as during the hysteria of the 1692 Salem witch trials, it is her integrity that is challenged and her true character that is revealed, rather than any catalysed change.
The test that Reverend John Hale faces is whether he can change his character early enough to redeem himself for the lives he has caused to be lost. He is the character that shows the most significant transformation overall. When he first comes to Salem, he is eager to find witchcraft and is honored that his scholastic skills are necessary. He feels that as an exorcist, it is his duty to help pe...
In the very beginning of this play, Reverend Hale starts off being very calm and collected about the situation. As he enters the Parris household he is described as: “This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for. Like almost all men of learning, he spent a good deal of time pondering the invisible world, especially since he had himself encountered a witch in his parish not long before. That woman, however, turned into a mere pest under his searching scrutiny, and the child she had been allegedly afflicting recovered her normal behavior after Hale had given her his kindness and a few days of rest in his own house” (Miller 1146). This quote shows that
A crucible is a severe test of patients or belief, a trial. The play The Crucible is a journey through the trials of many townspeople caused by the superstitious belief in witchcraft. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller progresses and evolves the outlooks and views of the townspeople of Salem and shows how events, people, and catastrophes cause the characters to change their views on whether the people prosecuted were guilty or innocent of witchcraft. Reverend John Hale changes his view, more and more drastically as the play advances, as a result of the events that he underwent and the experiences he had. Soon he had a total belief in the innocence of all those convicted and hung in Salem.
American playwright, Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible (1952), suggests that witch hunts still exist in American Society. Miller supports this claim by drawing parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and the Senator Joseph McCarthy trials. His purpose is to warn his readers of the dangers of concerning with mass hysteria. He uses emotional appeals and logic to convince the reader that mass “hunts” are still a danger to Americans today. The main way, however, that Miller achieves his ultimate goal of demonstrating the concept of reputation vs integrity is through his characterization of Reverend John Hale. Reverend John Hale is portrayed as an internally conflicted character in The Crucible because