The Crucible by Arthur Miller
John Proctor says, I'll tell you what's walking Salem,
vengeance is walking Salem. Discuss the real evil in Salem, who
contributed to it and their motives who do you blame the most?
John Proctor says, "I'll tell you what's walking Salem, vengeance is
walking Salem." Discuss the real evil in Salem, who contributed to it
and their motives who do you blame the most?
Before I begin to tell you my opinion on who was to blame, and my
reasoning for saying so, I will give you a brief insight into the real
point of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. Arthur Miller first
produced his play in 1953, in the middle of the McCarthy political
'witch-hunt', although the story had applied for playwright for many
years prior to this. This meant that the play was seen as a political
parable - it represented the goings on in actual political life.
Since 1938, an organisation had existed in America called the House
Un-American Activities Committee with the right to investigate any
movement, or anyone who seemed to put at risk America's safety. The
chairman of this was Senator Joseph McCarthy. Under his rule, the
committee became paranoid in its search for people who sympathised
with communists.
Almost any criticism of the government or its instructions was seen,
in the eyes of McCarthy, as an admission of devotion or loyalty to
communism beliefs. Witnesses were made to appear in court and answer
charges that they were sympathisers of communist followers, and made
to name others that they saw at these meetings which took place as
long as twenty years ago. Liberal writers, film directors and actors
all appeared before the committee and, as a result, many of them found
it hard to fin...
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... tries to convince all the others that Mary just acting out of fear
but he fails, and John Proctor is accused of witchcraft.
In the last scene in the whole play, when Proctor is to be hanged,
Danforth makes him sign a written copy of his confession so that he
can hang it on the church door. Proctor signs it, but then refuses to
have his name hung on the church that he built, with so many people
feeling disgust with him. Also, seeing the others that are to hang
influences his confession as he feels guilt for letting the others die
by not submitting to lies. He pleads with Danforth to leave things as
they were, saying his confession by mouth was enough, but Danforth
will not accept anything unless it be written and signed. Danforth is
heartless in doing this, as he knows the confession is not necessary,
for he has not taken a confession from anyone else.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, both pride and excessive pride influence the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity and worth. Excessive pride is being overly confident of one's own self worth. Throughout, pride influences the actions, reactions, and emotions of the characters in such ways to establish the outcome of the story. Three characters are impelled by their pride. Hale, who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft; Elizabeth Proctor, whose pride makes forgiving her husband difficult; Proctor, whose excessive pride causes him to overlook reality and the truth.
were always someone who got the blame put on them. Lately the blame has been
I think that even when our acts are driven by an automated machinery - the brain, that should not be an excuse to exculpate us but instead an approach to find solutions. II. Why blameworthiness is the wrong question. Eagleman states that the question no longer makes sense because a person and its biology are now understood to be the same.
Conover inferred many times that when something bad happens there will always be another person pointing the finger at another o...
Why is it that we as human beings feel the need to blame someone for every negative situation, which occurs? If we really look at the situation with any great depth, we may discover that an almost endless amount of things may be 'blamed' for the tragedy blaming an individual is pointless - only fate can really be blamed.
Through out the ages the inevitable dilemma of the balance of power is always seen where the governing super power wants to fullycontrol an individual through every aspect of their life. This description nodoubt, fully describes the Puritan belief system in Salem, where the church/court has the authority over everything or else itâˆ(tm)s of the devil. The conceptof individuality is highly resented making everyone follow the leader withoutthought. However there are those who question the authority when situation seemto surpass reason. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Proctor, astrong steadfast farmer resides in the small town of Salem, which is engulfedin hysteria due to the accusations of children that many of the townâˆ(tm)s peoplehad partaken in witchcraft. Among the accused is he (Proctor). Proctor is theonly individual willing to question the puritan belief system. He believes thatno man (church/court) should have control over the life of the other. Only Godhas the power to judge and condemn. Therefore, choosing the more tragic outcome by not allowing himself to lose his individuality and sense of self;conflict of ethics between what is right from wrong as well as sheer lack ofcommon sense. Through Proctor, miller shows how an individual should notallow society to divest their sense of self, Instead, hold unto onesindividuality as well as integrity and not let society have the upper hand,leading one to lose their sense of right and wrong.
Context: This part of the text is included at the beginning of the drama, telling the audience about Salem and its people. The author explains how a theocracy would lead to a tragedy like the Salem witch-hunts. This is the initial setting and is based on the principle that some people should be included and some excluded from society, according to their religious beliefs and their actions. This is basically the idea that religious passion, taken to extremes, results in tragedy. Miller is saying that even today extremes end up bad- communism, like strict puritans, was restrictive and extreme. It only made people suffer.
likelihood of victory is small.” It is a person’s mental or moral strength to resist extreme
The people also deflected the blame to another person, here are a few examples. "Les Goodman's the one. His car started! Let's wreck it," another is "What about Steve's radio. He's the one that called them. Smash the radio. Get me a hammer. Get me something." The last one is... "It isn't the kid...it's Bob Weaver's house." There are a lot more than that, but they all have the same explanation, and that is, none of them wanted to get blamed because they saw the things that they said they were going to do to the person when they found whoever it
The crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem witch trials and how people react to hysteria created from the fear of witches. In the play, after hysteria breaks out, the Salem government starts persecute and hang people it believes are witches. This prompts people to start to accusing people of witchcraft. Some people who accuse others of committing witchcraft are Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam. They do not accuse people of witchcraft to stop witchcraft, but for personal gain or to hurt others. Thomas Putnam, one of the many characters who takes advantage of the witch trials, is able to use the fear of witches to bend the court to his will. Hysteria causes people to believe claims that are clearly false. This allows Putnam to persecute his enemies. He and many other are able to get away with this because hysteria driven persecutions are not run like regular courts and the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime allows evidence to be made up. The theme of The Crucible is when any persecution is driven by fear and people can and will manipulate the system so they can gain and hurt another.
I am able to make an informed factual conclusion to this incident due to the fact that I took the time to ask the right questions. I did not make assumptions. I had a purpose when searching for information. I looked for and collected all the information I needed to make a decision on facts. I asked myself questions which focused on depth and breadth. I took time to understand the logic. I weeded through opinions and looked for relevance within the articles I read. I took all of my questions and wrote them down on a separate piece of paper. As I did the research I answered my questions. This gave me the ability to deeper learning of this problem. My opinion on this differs from that of a minimal student simply because I applied the standards of a critical thinker. I broke down the issue and searched for the reasoning which enabled me to make an informed no biased
The Crucible – It can withstand extreme conditions. While heating metals in it, the impurities come up to the surface and the pure substance can be obtained. It basically helps in separating pure and impure substances.
Thomas Putnam plays a major role in the Salem witch hunt in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Inheriting a handsome amount of property makes Putnam a wealthy person; however, it doesn't seem to satisfy his ambition. After the town terribly rejected Putnam's brother-in-law, Bayley, Putnam's bitterness has increased. Finally his prodigious involvement in the relentless accusations places him in the center of the spot light, making him a salient character in both the play and the indignant period of the American history.
Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation. Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured to death. In the crucible, people were persecuted because of alleged witchcraft.
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.