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Textual analysis of The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Dramatic structure of the crucible
Textual analysis of The Crucible by Arthur Miller
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We are all someone else’s witch. Every single person at this very moment has someone meaning to undermine him or her for personal gain. Fueled by wrath and driven by gluttony and greed does the flagship of envy sail. Regardless of occupation, social rank, or wealth, someone is jealous of what you have or are. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, we follow a close to truth telling of the 1692 Salem witch trials where he tells of a time when many accusations of witchcraft led to death of innocents. These liars who falsely accuse those they despise posses great strength under their shroud of deceit. People like this still exist today, and in great numbers. Although these people are everywhere, they do little to truly belittle you. Why is this the case? Why do we not see accusations of lust and deceit more often? Why don’t more …show more content…
Living in fear of dying isn’t living, its waiting. At any moment, someone can accuse you for being a witch and doing the devils work and there’s nothing you can say or do about it besides accept it and live unhappily or deny it and die. Fear was everywhere. People feared the devil, they feared each other, they feared the courts, and the lifestyle that they had always lived. Death was always nearby, and people lost their faith. People dared not challenge the courts and risk facing the wrath of an angry judge. Nothing has changed in the 300 years that have past. Today, whether we admit it or not, we all fear something. Of course there are tangible fears such as spiders or heights, but we all share the fear of the unknown. We fear death because we do not know what comes of our consciousness. We fear wars because they cause death. We fear communism because we know capitalism, and change is feared. We fear others regardless of the amount of trust we place in them because we can never truly see into their minds and be certain that they will never turn on us for whatever fiendish
Life as a human is dictated by an inborn hunger or purpose, and people, in general, will act on this hunger for their own personal gain in their individual ways. This hunger, be it for wealth, land, love, power, revenge, or pride, can, and will be the undoing or failing of all mankind as Miller so clearly points out in his play 'The Crucible';. This essay will explore the motives of characters within the play and even the motives of Arthur Miller himself and therefore show how conflict stems from certain recognisable human failings including those mentioned above, fear, and hysteria.
In Arthur Miller 's famous play The Crucible, innocent people are falsely accused of witchcraft and are killed as a result. Even the thought of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s would put the whole village into mass hysteria. Mass hysteria refers to collective delusions of threats to society that spread rapidly through rumors and fear. This is the main cause of why so many people were arrested and killed for witchcraft. One way people could save themselves was by falsely confessing to have performed witchcraft. Many people did not do this though. This is because the townspeople were held to very strict moral values and must uphold their good name in society. They did not want a bad reputation. In The Crucible, by Arthur
Throughout history, the power to decide one’s fate has been given to those with the utmost ethical and moral beliefs. However, often times there are flaws in the system and the miscarriage of justice, where the innocent are deemed guilty, occur. Those sentenced with wrongful convictions affect the lives of their loved ones and tarnish the society’s reputation. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Danforth is most responsible for the tragedy in Salem because he allows his personal characteristics to take precedence over his professional duty. Danforth allows the trials to continue under fake pretense and therefore justice is not brought forward.
In every conflict there always seems to be at least one person to blame. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many problems arise that deal with live and death. Many innocent people in this play were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there are many people that may be blamed. In The Crucible, one may find Abigail Williams, The Putnams, and Mary Warren to blame. Abigail was manipulative, The Putnams were very jealous, and Mary Warren was weak-willed.
In life, mostly everyone’s goal is to be honest and true. Keeping a good name is what many people want for themselves. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, shows many examples of characters showing dishonesty and honesty. Some characters favor their integrity by admitting mistakes and refusing to lie just to save their own lives. Other characters choose to lie to save themselves. I don’t believe it is right to lie to save yourself or someone else no matter the circumstances.
For all of its praise of ethics and morals, humanity ironically condemns itself through its innate corruption and tyranny. The birth of this corruption lies in the presence of control, as world leaders constantly assert their dominance over their nations, steadily desiring continued control over the people. In the modern People’s Republic of China, the public witnesses an extreme ruling that controls its media consumption with continued government support of the “Great Firewall of China that prevents free access to information on the Internet,” effectively establishing a foundation for the corruption that holds the nation (“China”). With government officials only propagating the extensive maldistribution of power, as Wong analyzes the Chinese
There are many different themes in The Crucible; however, I feel that jealousy is portrayed the most. The most jealous person in The Crucible is Abigail. She is jealous of Elizabeth because she wants to be married to John Proctor. Abby creates lies about Elizabeth saying that she is a witch and that Elizabeth “is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me!” (Pg. 1140). Abigail gets Elizabeth accused as a witch. Just like people are jealous of each other, sometimes people are jealous of other people's’ land. The people would accuse others as witches if they wanted their land. Giles Corey accuses Thomas Putnam of doing just that. Giles claims that Thomas is “is killing neighbors for their land” but since Giles won’t give
There are many examples of people in the town of Salem are blind to the fact of witchcraft. One of the main examples is when Rebecca Nurse is accused of being a witch. Her personality is a faithful and graceful person in the town. She is one of a few people who are like this. Those who are respected in the town are less disposed to these accusations. This causes arguments over the biased system. This causes arguments because the system is discriminating to the unqualified and lower-class people of the town. This leads them to be very
As the world changes and evolves, the modern court system does as well. More now than ever, today’s courts aspire to be the epitome of justice and liberty. However, corruption by court officials, such as accepting bribes and breaking the law themselves, continues to plague the justice system, and in fact, creates speculation in society of whether the court of law is ruling in the people’s favor or its own. In historical fiction, such as The Crucible, the characters mimic this current-day situation; authorities, like Danforth and Abigail, take advantage of their power by silencing the townspeople, ultimately crumbling the foundations of their society as well as the breaking the peace that was once present in Salem. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, religious officials’ belittlement fosters
Within the two plays Macbeth and The Crucible Shakespeare and Arthur Miller evidently display the roles of power and manipulation through many characters that are used within these plays these also the affects that it has on the other characters and readers. The characters within these plays all have unique personalities that end up leading them straight into conflict. In the play The Crucible the characters are trying to achieve something, but they don’t get it that easily. This leads to the deaths of many innocent lives that were falsely accused. While in Macbeth, the characters are trying to achieve a higher social status. But, by doing this they end up hurting the ones that were once close to them. Both of Shakespeare and Miller’s
A good name is important however, is it more important than the truth? The Crucible displays many circumstances where a character asks themselves this question. For instance, Abigail and Rebecca Nurse's perspective on this would differ.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The truth is beautiful, without doubt; and so are lies.” We always see the truth as ameliorating to lies, but what if the lies are just as beautiful? What does it mean to have beautiful lies? When one tells lies, they are almost always saying them in hopes to appear better than the think they are. They will make themselves out to be whoever they want, someone they would like to be but is not. Therefore, they are beautiful in the sense that they can create a persona that people look to and admire, but they're just lies. The beautiful truth simply means that when we learn the truth of someone, there is beauty in knowing that someone has opened up to tell you the truth about who they really are. Whether the actual
Imagine that you have had a respectable reputation in your community for a long time but then have it taken away from you because you have been accused of witchcraft. This is what happened most of the time in Salem, many of the residents in Salem have been stripped from their name and killed or jailed for what they were accused of, which most of them were innocent. People with money had power and a reputation but if they were accused of witchcraft then they will lose everything they had, most of the people of Salem dealt with that for an extended period of time. They had to be cautious, Abigail and Reverend Parris had to keep their reputation safe from those who try to accuse them. To the people of Salem having a bad reputation meant them having a bad result in social or physical punishment, Miller’s the Crucible claims that those who are most concerned with their reputation,
In Salem, during the times of the Salem witch trials, the church and the people were very close. This is what led to the hysteria and chaos which was the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book, because anyone who was against the church was considered a criminal. Some of these conflicts were between; Abigail and the other children, Danforth and the town folk, and John Proctor with himself and his wife.
Throughout time we have seen people have the innate ability to manipulate the minds of others; many are able to do this due to having gift naturally from birth. In the Salem Witch Trials many saw the weaknesses in their society as an opportunity to give succor to their own ambitions. These people saw the consequences of the trials and exploited the feeble state of mind of their town 's inhabitants. Whether it be for personal or monetary gain, it is impossible to deny the existence of the power of ones mind on another as a huge cause for the trials. In order to observe the characters innate ability to manipulate in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one must analyze the prior state of Salem, the manipulator Abigail, and the