You can compare and contrast anything in the world. In each thing you will find similarities and differences. It is hard to compare two stories like The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, just because they cover similar yet different topics. The crucible covers the Salem Witch Trials, while The Scarlet Letter is a story about an adulterer and her lover. The Crucible has many layers that all help build the problem of the story. On the other hand, The Scarlet Letter is all based around one major problem. Both of these stories have many similarities, from the personalities of the women to the basic plot line. Admittedly, both of these literary works have more similarities than differences, but there are indeed differences. There are many …show more content…
Arthur Dimmesdale is a preacher, an esteemed preacher during the mid 1700’s in Boston, Massachusetts. As said by Dimmesdale in chapter 23 page 224“. . . When we forgot our God,—when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul,—it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion.” He commits one of the greatest sins you can commit, especially as a pastor of the time. According to Grudem “We may define sin as follows: Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.” Sin was no small deal to them. The only reason he doesn't confess right away is because he didn't want to appear hypocritical preaching about the commandments when he himself had committed adultery. John Proctor is a simple farmer, but very religious. When he had to sign his confession that was to be posted on the church doors, in Act IV, he just couldn't do it. John could not have that lie of his be up for his boys and the entire town to see. John says on page 1231, “I have three children, how may I teach them to walk like men in the world.” As defined by Durston, “The beliefs and practices of people who follow very strict moral and religious rules about the proper way to behave and live, are wholly Puritan.” John was held to strict moral values, and kept them as best …show more content…
Everything during the Salem witch trials is an effect of the girls information. All of it is a complete lie and they are all just trying to save their own skins because they were doing unspeakable things in the forest. Reverend Parris claims on page 1130, “And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?” According to Hoffer “...the girls turned themselves from a circle of friends into a gang of juvenile delinquents…" In Act I, they all ‘confess’ and say they saw so many others with the Devil. Abigail Williams, a whore no less, is the leader in these lies, and everyone rallies with her in the beginning. The sad part was that the adults believed the girls over the adults. These weren't just some regular adults either, they were very puritan and righteous adults. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester is all on her own. She even states “I have thought of death—have wished for it—would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything.” She is completely shunned for committing adultery. She is punished everyday for the rest of her life by wearing a Scarlet A sewn to her dresses. She has no influence over anyone, no power, nothing. All Hester is her daughter and that's it. Abigail Williams on the other hand has all the influence. She has the power
The successful and what could have been successful societies in both Lord of the Flies and The Crucible eventually decayed and fell apart. There were struggles with good and evil in Salem and on the island that were the result of three main elements. Fear, misuse of power and fanatical religious beliefs were the cause of the two societies failure.
I have read the The Crucible, The Scarlet letter, and Of Mice and Men. In two of these stories, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, society was very much alike. They were based on a Puritan background. The Puritans had laws to live by. In the story Of Mice and Men, society showed racism and also that people took the law into their own hands.
Men and women walk around in the same neutral colored clothing, hand in hand with the lord and their Puritan values. However, these seemingly ordinary Puritans are all similar in one form— sin. In archaic theme-based literature, similarities can be distinguished between two stories and their attributes. Within the works of The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, a plethora of correlative elements can be identified by the reader.
The people in Salem were ruled by the fear being killed. All the lying that occurred in Salem began the build of fear. Abigail is the main character that caused the lying. Her first lie starts in the beginning of the book after being caught dancing with other girls in the woods. Abigail herself feared the consequences she would face if the town found out about what happened in the forest. She made sure to threaten all the girls by saying “...Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…” (Miller 20). Her threat established a fear into the girls’ heads that would prevent them from their normal action of telling the truth. Following this event Abigail must save her reputation, In order to do this she lies to Reverend Hale saying “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!”(Miller 43). Abigail's accusation toward Tituba also leads to the accusation of Sarah Good and Goody Osburn. The way Abigail acted was a result of fear, if she feared nothing bad would come from telling the truth then she wouldn't have lied. The girls may have set the wi...
At that instant, Abigail was able to abuse her new found authority and use it as power against the people of Salem. This new found power led to 91 citizens of Salem to be accused of witchcraft. To begin with, Abigail had her own amount of authority that she had used as power in order to keep the other girls quiet about what had happened in the woods. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you (20).” Abigail Williams had her own personal conflict of confusing authority for power. Abigail and the other girls thrived on this chance to take control of the situation. It was an opportunity for Abigail to not have to follow rules, speak hesitantly, or be precautious of her actions. At the time of the Salem witch trials, everyone had their own duty to preform. The woman would cook and clean and the men would work to provide. Having an opportunity where the tables were turned and the young women had the possibility to have an input was overpowering. It was easier for Abigail to have power over others rather than having the power to control herself.
Salem Witch Craft In 1962 the penalty for witchcraft was to be hung or smashed. There was a big outburst of witchcraft and spells that were going around among the people of Massachusetts in 1962. Some of the women of Salem began the witchcraft, many people started to catch on and follow them. A lot of these people were hung up to what the Bible said about the wrongs of witchcraft.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her. After close analysis, it becomes evident of the amount of work that is put into each, but one must ask, why has the director adapted their own style of depicting the story? How has the story of Hester Prynne been modified? Regarding works, major differences and similarities between the characterization, visual imagery, symbolism, narration and plot, shows how free adaptation is the correct term used.
The main theme of The Crucible is hatred for the “unholy.” This is supported by all the evidence given, McCarthyism, the Cold War Era, actions made by the Roman Catholic Church, the persecution of innocent people believed to be communist in the United States during the Red Scare, the persecution of innocent homosexual people, and the belief that women are not equal citizens in our society. Also, Humanist back up that all people should be equal in the eyes of one another and that all people are created equally.
You had to attend Church every single day, the most important being Sunday, and that already itself shows you how strict the religion is. However, with that strictness it does not apply to John Proctor at all. As I mentioned earlier attendance of Church is very important, but in this case John Proctor did not attend in some weeks showing the signs of rebellion ‘…a minister may pray to God without he have golden candlesticks upon the altar’. We see how John Proctor is refusing to go to Church and pray and that is a clear sign of rebellion against the authority, but as well as that we see the other side of him. This meaning that he believes in God and prays to him directly without needing the ‘golden candlesticks’ or actually going to church, in addition to that he does not need people knowing if he has gone to church or not. He has a mind-set that only God should know if he has prayed or that he has confessed to his sins. No one in the town should know information about that other than God himself ‘God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my
Author Arthur Miller, of The Crucible an excellent job of showing the cruelty of the witch trials. The movie based upon The Crucible, is almost an exact replica of the book. When showing many similarities, it also had some vast differences. These differences don't have much of an effect on the actually story. They are added for dramatic effect and to entice the viewer. Although there are many similarities there are some vast differences.
Death is a major theme through both Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In the first text, mass hysteria rips through Salem after a group of girls danced in the woods and blame everything and anything on witchcraft. The girl who could be identified as the main trouble-maker is Abigail Williams. She kicked up all of the witch suspicions because she had an affair with John Proctor, the identifiable hero. The story climaxed with the death of characters that drew affection from the readers. In the second piece of literature, the main conflict happens to be that of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and had a child. There was a lot of public ridicule in this instance and many underlying plots within it. Again, the climax of the story could be argued to be the death of a beloved character. These two particular titles do in fact share a lot of common ideas and themes, while at the same having very
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.
Justice played a big role in The Crucible. In the play, a manipulative girl is infatuated with a married man and will go to any lengths to get what she wants, even accusing others of witchcraft and putting their lives at risk. Her accusations cause mass hysteria in the town of Salem. The Salem community’s obsession with trying to provide justice only caused injustice against the accused.
Authority and power and chaos and order are the main discourses that are present in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Arthur Millar’s The Crucible. Through the context of each novel both authors use different dialogue, plots and situations to get their viewpoint across to the audience. In comparing the two texts with the similarities and differences, it is clear that both authors have had a different effect on the audience of today. It would appear as though both texts are focused around the theme of power and disempowerment, with the authors using different techniques to get their point across to the audience. Both texts will be discussed further through comparing and contrasting and discussing the description of the discourses present in both texts.
Events have played out in history that made people realize the inhumane acts of people and the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era were two of them. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were almost 260 years before the McCarthy “witch hunts” in the 1950s yet there are similarities between them. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is about the Salem witch trials and is an allegory to the practicing of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare in the United States, which Miller was a victim of. Although there may be differences between “The Crucible” and McCarthyism, ultimately the anger, lack of evidence, and the people were alike in both events.