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Justify millers use of the crucible as the title to his play
Arthur Miller's hidden meaning behind the crucible
Analysis of the Crucible by Arthur Miller
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The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Every great playwright has his or her time in the spotlight, for Arthur Miller it is believed this time came when he created The Crucible. The play is based on the corruption of the Salem witch trials which condemned many to an unjust death. Numerous amounts of criticism and interpretations were published to help the reader visualize a clearer picture of the play and understand what was happening during that period of time. The setting of language and the force of evil along with a review on hysteria and ideology and finally and interpretation on the devil in Salem can all be discussed in The Crucible as well as in this paper.
The Crucible for Miller was a turning point as far as being a playwright was concerned. It was the first time in his playwright career that he did not base his play on a Greek background. Miller's creation also turned heads because the reader noticed a more diverse choice of characters with individual descriptions on characters such as Hale, Abigail, Putnam and Proctor. Miller also uses the basic subject of his play very well, he bases the fate of one Massachusetts town on the decision of a few people. Curtis believed the greatest drama occurred during the collision of divine and secular law. (68) I feel this statement to be true, all was quiet in Salem and the whole fiasco could have been avoided if Rev. Parris had told the town Betty was sick in bed instead of blurting out that she was possessed. Most likely divine and secular law would not have conflicted and the townspeople would not have been accused so harshly. The role of titles in the play shows one characters greatness over another. One's integrity, reputation, prestige, functional power and selfish...
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...h their description. One as a controlling, materialistic priest and the other a spoiled teenager who ruins the lives of many people. Arthur Miller's The Crucible was full of controversy and superstition as well as many other elements of great playwriting.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Barron's ed. Services. Baron's Book Notes, Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". New York: Barron's ed. Services Inc., 1984.
Burns, Margo. Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" Fact and Fiction. 2 pp. Online. Internet.
Burns, Margo. The Witch Index. 4 pp. Online. Internet.
Miller, Arthur. The Assault on Privacy. New York: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Miller, Arthur. Electric Library. Encyclopedia.com. 1 pp. Online. Internet.
Miller's, Arthur. Collected Plays. 2 vols. The Viking Press, 1981.
Sparknotes.com. The Crucible. 8 pp. Online. Internet.
Authors often have underlying reasons for giving their stories certain themes or settings. Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, The Crucible, is a work of art inspired by actual events as a response to political and moral issues. Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, The Crucible proves to have its roots in events of the 1950’s and 1960’s, such as the activities of the House Un-American Committee and the “Red Scare.” Though the play provides an accurate account of the Salem witch trials, its real achievement lies in the many important issues of Miller’s time that it dealswith.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, yet is as much a product of the time in which Arthur Miller wrote it, the early 1950s, as it is description of Puritan society. At that particular time in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote the play the American Senator McCarthy who chaired the ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’ was very conscious of communism and feared its influence in America. It stopped authors’ writings being published in fear of them being socialist sympathisers. Miller was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and that human beings were capable of such madness. In the 1950s the audience would have seen the play as a parallel between the McCarthy trials and the Salem Trials.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
John and Elizabeth continue to argue. John Hale appears at their doorway. He is traveling to each house, talking to those who were mentioned in court, trying to find out more information about them. John says that he knows that Abigail and the other girls are not telling the truth. Two Salem citizens that have had wives arrested show up and a short time passes before a party comes to arrest Elizabeth.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that discusses many issues and spurs contemplation within the reader. While reading this play, because of the controversy of many issues detailed within, it is difficult for one not to take a look at one’s own morals and determine what one would do if placed in a similar situation. The key issues discussed within this play, the effects of hysteria, marital betrayal, and the murderous powers of lies, are portrayed intriguingly and effectively. The lessons that can be learned from The Crucible are still quite applicable today.
The Crucible, takes place in the small Puritan village called Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials grew out of the moral system of the Puritans. This split the town into two, those who were considered witches and those who wanted good.
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
Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” in 1953. Miller wrote “The Crucible” because one of the most common issues in society is when an individual's freedom goes against the conformity of others. In “The Crucible” there were similarities to several investigations that had created fear and suspicion in American society. During the play there were several who were investigated because they created fear and suspicion among those who accused them of witchcraft. Many consider the play to be an attack on Joseph McCarthy, who had led all the series of investigations held in search to find communists that created fear and suspicion. However, “The Crucible” not only referred to the time period. Only because it has been a universal conflict. Witchcraft
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that was first performed in 1953 in the United States of America in the midst of the persecution of alleged communists during the era of McCarthyism. Although the play explicitly addresses the Salem which hunt, many find that the play is an analogy to McCarthyism due to the striking similarities in which the people behaved. Miller highlight the different groups of characters in order to reveal overlying ideas of the play such as: Self preservation, power, and hypocrisy.
Playwright and essayist, Arthur Miller, in his play, “The Crucible”, utilizes pathos, symbolism, and irony to convey his purpose of how the events of the Salem Witch Trials had detrimental effects on the society and how far the elites went to protect their reputation . Miller’s reasoning is to expand Parris’ and Danforth purpose for their side of the argument during the witch trials. He adapts a contrasting tone in order to appeal to similar feelings with reasoning in his american readers.
Written in the 1950s, Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible delineates the situation of the McCarthy conflicts in America while the plays’ events revolve around the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. In the play, two major characters are Reverend Hale, an expert on witches sent to Salem for investigation, and John Proctor, a man known for his leadership and hard work. Proctor and Hale, in addition to both being Puritans, are alike in their actions and motives since they both see the depravity of the court and seek to protect people from it. However, they have major differences in their characters as they have contrasting dedication to Christianity and the values that they live by.
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.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, include similarities to its historical context which lie in the attitude of Salem. Du...
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller. Initially, it was known as The Chronicles of Sarah Good. The Crucible was set in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. It talks of McCarthyism that happened in the late 1600’s whereby the general public and people like Arthur Miller were tried and persecuted. The Crucible exemplifies persecutions during the Salem Witch Trials. The people were convicted and hung without any tangible proof of committing any crime. Persecutions were the order of the day. When a finger was pointed at any individual as a witch, the Deputy Governor Danforth never looked for evidence against them or evidence that incriminated them; he ordered them to be hanged. This can be seen through his words “Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for those, weeps for corruption!” (1273), the people were persecuted aimlessly. The four main characters in the play, John Proctor, Abigail Adams, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris, are caught in the middle of the witchcraft panic in the religious Salem, Massachusetts in late 1690’s. Persecution is the most important theme in the Crucible, the leaders and citizens of Salem attacks and persecutes one of their own without any tangible evidence against them.
The issues of power, that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, portrays are concerned with, who has the power, the shifts of power that take place and how power can consume people and try to abuse it, for either vengeance, jealously, material gain or sexual desire.