The Crucible, by Arthur Miller

1581 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What was commented about society in arthur millers plays

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible shows the protagonist, John Proctor, tragic downward spiral as he unearths the error of his way. Proctor is used as a vehicle for Milers social criticism against the House of Un-American Activities Committee. It was led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1953. This was a time when anyone with left wing views was prosecuted with insignificant evidence, an identical affair to the Salem Witch Trials around 300 years earlier. John Proctor begins in Act One as an egotistical man, more concerned about his own reputation than the lives of others around him. Nevertheless, by the end, his moral epiphany shows him in a new light which thus compel the audience to forgive him for all his imperfections. Proctors transformation in character and his journey to redemption in the audience’s eyes is what this essay will discus.

In Act One, Proctor is a character that the audience immediately loathes and despises due to his arrogant way; self obsessed nature and hypocritical manner towards others. “Put it out of mind Abby, we never touched” is a perfect archetype of Proctors hypocritical manner. He is denying the affair between them ever happened to make sure his name stays unsoiled in the town. Reputation is a crucial aspect of the Salemites lives and most of Proctors decisions have taken into account what would happen to his reputation. This quote also portrays him in a domineering way with an air of superiority over Abby as he is telling her what to do and refusing to let her think otherwise. The word put is an excellent choice of word as it is an imperative verb, supporting the suggestion of Proctor being controlling.

The way he talks with Abby during the Act is interesting yet hypocritical. “(A knowing smile ...

... middle of paper ...

...alem at least try to show to God they are not fully condemning a man to death, they are at least giving him a chance to confess. However, when Proctor refuses and consequently condemns himself to death, redeeming him in the audience’s eyes. He has made the right, honourable choice.

Throughout the play we’ve pursued Proctors journey from his arrogant nature at the beginning to someone we not necessarily have sympathy for however at least empathise with his situation. Miller’s message about McCarthyism is extremely apparent throughout The Crucible about it being just as preposterous as the Salem witch trials in 1692. Proctor can be read in numerous ways from a tragic hero’s journey to a rude awakening into morality, but what is important is the meandering passage he took which lead to him redemption in the audiences eyes.

Works Cited

The Crucible - Arthur Miller

Show More
Related

  • Near The End Of The Play John Proctor Says To Elizabeth ‘I Am A Good Man.’ How Does Miller Present John Proctor? Is He A Good Man In Your View?

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miller presents the character of John Proctor in an important way to show two sides to his character. These qualities make him have the most important role in ‘The Crucible.’ The key events that show him in this way is when the audience find out about the affair, how he tries to defend his wife, his confession in court and his hanging for the sake of others. Through the events in The Crucible, Miller then portrays John Proctor’s character with tension and suspense. This then makes the audience question whether or not he is a good man.

    Read More

  • Proctors Grave Mistake In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    Corruption has always existed in our society since the beginning to present time due to conspiracies such as the witch trials and the communism era. The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written during the era of communism to mere the hysteria. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. It’s a corrupt witch trial in Salem that’s due to false accusations of witchcraft for personal gains. John Proctor is the protagonist in the story The Crucible who goes through the ultimate test by choosing his reputation over integrity. He also had an affair with a young girl named Abigail who is the antagonist and is the main reason the bloodshed is occurring in Salem. Initially, Proctor hesitates to deal with his sin, but as the play progresses, he begins to understand its effects; this ultimately leads him to find goodness in himself as he stands for the truth.

    Read More

  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Crucible

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through time it can be seen that the world’s history has a nature of repeating its self. Author Miller, was aware of this as he experienced a repitition of history of society’s flawed government. In the text The Crucible, the writer, Author Miller has identified and illustrated the problems society faced during the 1950’s setting by drawing parallels with the setting of the 1962 Salem witch hunt. This setting helps readers to understand the characters of John Proctor and Giles Corey.

    Read More

  • Honor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Elizabeth: I think she sees another meaning in that blush (59).” Elizabeth knows that there may be something going on between Proctor and Abigail. But proctor feels like he has to keep honor to his household and so he keeps everything that he feels inside and tries to hide it from his wife. Proctor does redeem himself by the end of the book. Where he refuses to have his name be used as a flag to be displayed as a symbol of the trials. This is most prominent when he is telling the judge, “

    Read More

  • John Proctor: A Character Analysis

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.

    Read More

  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    597 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many years ago, the culture and atmosphere was amazingly different. The expectations of people and communities are extremely high. During the Puritan times, many laws and regulations existed pertaining to government, religion, and witchcraft. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the one word that best describes the Puritan beliefs and the community structure is strict.

    Read More

  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • John Proctor's Courage Throughout The Crucible

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this act he finds the goodness in himself to take responsibility for something he did not do just to make up for his sins. He says to Elizabeth, “Spite only gives me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs…” (4.136) He wants to confess, but he has to find the courage in him to confess it. He has to swallow his pride in order to confess of something he did not do. After he finds the courage to confess, Danforth makes him sign a confession statement, but he cannot. In support of this Proctor says, “I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!” (4.142) Proctor has already confessed and he feels as if that is already enough, but he has to sign the confession or he will be hung. He finds the courage to sign it but then rips it apart before it is hung upon the church, and he could not build up the courage to re-write it. This leads him to being executed. Henry Popkin once again helps support my sources by stating, “The real, the ultimate victim in this play is John Proctor, the one independent man, the one skeptic who sees through the witchcraft "craze" from the first…This is a climactic moment, a turning point in the play. New witches may continue to be named, but The Crucible now narrows its focus to John Proctor, caught in the trap, destroyed by his effort to save his wife, threatened by the irrationality that only he has comprehended.” (143) Abigail’s idea did not go as planned because Proctor rebelled against her. Therefore Proctor was accused and died because he was not going to let Abigail ruin the pureness of his

    Read More

  • John Proctor's Moral Struggle in The Crucible

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... integrity are among the most important things. He also uses Proctor to demonstrate what an unjust system can do to an individual with good intents. The play is a parallel to the anti-Communist McCarthy era. Through John Proctor we see the ludicrous nature of mass hysteria that exists when society has gone awry.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast John Proctor And Hale

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Arrogance In The Crucible

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miller uses John Proctor’s prideful nature to explain how it can ruin even a morally upright man’s life, as Proctor is portrayed as a good man throughout the play. Hale’s visit to the Proctors

    Read More

  • Arthur Miller's The Crucible

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Foolish Death of John Proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor, a proud and frustrated farmer of Salem, chooses to die rather than to give a false confession to witchcraft. Many might view this act as that of a selfless martyr; on the other hand, it can more readily be seen as the height of human stupidity in the face of vanity and pride.

    Read More

More about The Crucible, by Arthur Miller

Open Document