Numerous works of art have been produced by great American artist. "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller and Edith Wharton’s "Roman Fever" are two stories that can easily be compared and contrasted to the movie Easy Rider. Easy Rider is the 1960’s "Road Film" tale of a search for freedom in a corrupt and conformist America. "The Crucible" can relate to the world seen in Easy Rider. Unlike "The Crucible" Edith Wharton’s "Roman Fever" would not understand the world represented in Easy Rider.
In the movie Easy Rider Jack Nicholoson’s character George Hanson comes in contact with two long-haired social misfits Wyatt and Billy. Wyatt and Billy are different from George and are accustomed to an alternative lifestyle. This alternative lifestyle is appealing to George and he decides to travel with his new friends as they journey to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Along the way the trio run in to trouble. They travel through a small American town and the local townspeople who do no like them because of their appearance. Later on, the three men are attacked by the townspeople and George is brutally beaten to death. This is very similar to the executions that took place in The Crucible. In The Crucible, many people were accused of being witches and worshipping the devil even though they were not. An example of this would be John Proctor. He was accused of devil worship because he was singled out by his peers who were looking for someone to blame. Much like George, John was an innocent man who died because an enraged group of people let there emotions get the best of them. John could sympathize with George because of the similarity of the injustice done to both of them.
In the short story "Roman Fever," the characters Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade are two wealthy widows that are reflecting on their lives together. We see that they are people of a high social standing. They talk about their pampered lifestyles and plan for their daughters futures. These woman would not understand the life of a "hippie" living in 1960’s America, nor would they approve. Wyatt and Billy were used to living on the open road and going where the wind takes them. They were rebellious and completely carefree. Mrs. Ansley and Mrs.
Throughout The Crucible, Miller is concerned with conscience and guilt. Through the character Abigail Williams, he shows how people are willing to abandon their firmly-established values in order to conform with the majority and protect themselves. Those who refuse to part with their conscience, such as the character of John Proctor, are chastised for it. For this reason, the Salem witch trials raise a question of the administration of justice. During this time in the late 1600’s, people were peroccupied by a fear of the devil, due to their severe Puritan belief system. Nineteen innocent people are hanged on the signature of Deputy Governor Danforth, who has the authority to try, convict, and execute anyone he deems appropriate. However, we as readers sense little to no real malice in Danworth. Rather, ignorance and fear plague him. The mass
Arthur Miller writes about the tragic results of human failings in his play, The Crucible. He presents characters from the past and infuses them with renewed vitality and color. Miller demonstrates the horrifying results of succumbing to personal motives and flaws as he writes the painful story of the Salem witch trials. Not only do the trials stem from human failings but also from neglect of moral and religious considerations of that time. Characters begin to overlook Puritan values of thrift and hope for salvation. Focusing on the flawed characters, they begin to exhibit land lust, envy of the miserable and self-preservation.
In the The Crucible by Arthur Miller, justice is raped by the immorality of those who kill for pleasure. Salem 1690’s, an epidemic of accusations is going around the village. Women, Men and Children are accusing others of witchcraft. More than a dozen of girls fell ill, everything attributed to the devil. Men and Women are being killed by immoral accusations, some of them because of land disputes, but others because of forbidden passions. A forbidden passion between Proctor and Abigail leads into the tragedy of the play. Proctor is a man with a lot of moral problems, who always concerns only for the care of his family and social welfare. When avoiding his involvement in the trails of witchcraft, he is accused of witchery and sentenced to death.
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is set in Salem village where an atmosphere of enmity and mistrust has been created through the conflicts and disagreements many villagers experience throughout the play. Many of these are caused by or, similar to the conflict between Parris and Proctor, are inflated by the many accusations of witchcraft occurring in the village.
Imagine that someone is accused of doing a crime and went to jail and died there, but then new evidence came up and that person was proven innocent. The people in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, would have the same fate. The play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1700s, during the witchcraft trials. People were being convicted of being a witch, just like what happened to John Procter during the Salem witch trials. Injustice of the courts is shown in Miller's The Crucible as well as in the unfortunate case of Robert “Bob” Doyle.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, portrayed a reimagined version of the Salem Witch Trials. The trials took place in 1692 when a group of girls accused innocent women of being witches in order to save themselves from punishment. As the accusations escalated, a court was erected to determine whether or not the suspects were truly guilty. Allegations were made against two hundred people, and ultimately, twenty innocent men and women were tortured and hanged in order to cleanse Salem of ‘the devil’s magic’ (Miller, 33). Arthur Miller wrote this in the midst of the McCarthy Hearings, which pursued the eradication of communist sympathizers
The Salem witch trials were a time period when any individual could be accused of witchcraft for numerous reasons. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller focuses on the deviation of the trials and how the town’s most religious and honest members of the community are tried with witchcraft. John Proctor, the town’s most honest man, is accused of being a witch and must decide if he should confess or not. Proctor’s confession will stop the town from rebelling and uphold the reputations of Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris. Hale also wishes for Proctor’s confession so he does not have to feel responsible if Proctor were to be hanged for his witchcraft accusations. The confession of Proctor would convince others in the town to confess to their
Explore Miller’s dramatic presentation and development of the theme of power and authority. Even though The Crucible is not historically correct, nor is it a perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, it still stands out as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance, hysteria, power and authority is able to tear a community apart. The most important of these is the nature of power, authority and its costly, and overwhelming results. “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or against it,” says Danforth conceitedly. With this antithesis, Miller sums up the attitude of the authorities towards the witch trials that if one goes against the judgement of the court
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.
Being a persecuted man Arthur Miller understood the paramount importance of resisting a despotic society that is compelled to trifle the rights of individual persons for standing out as non conformists or undesired outliers from the general populace. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller effectively parallels the paranoid style of life of the early Puritan culture of 17th century of New England during the witch trials, with his own modern era of paranoia in the 20th century Red Scare. Like Miller, John Proctor, a well respected farmer and husband of 1692 Salem was a man who broke the mold of his paranoid society and challenged the powers that be. Arthur Miller had a fixation for tragic heroes as he makes perfectly clear
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
In the play: The Crucible Miller reveals the effect of the Salem Witch Trials on the people due to their growing fear. Miller shows that fear exasperates man’s innate vices of self-preservation, greed, and hypocrisy. In The Crucible Miller demonstrates these vices through Danforth, a prestigious judge that should represent the peak of human morality and reason.
Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, and the movie with the same name have many differences and similarities, all of which contribute to the individual effectiveness of each in conveying their central message.
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.