The Crucible is a strong and captivating play that explores several themes from power and politics to social injustice in Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1600s. The play can be analyzed through different criticisms. Firstly, it can be scrutinized for the fundamental merits instead of its standing as a political extent. Secondly, it can be criticized for its feminist nature. The last kind of criticism that can be used to analyze Miller’s play is through psychoanalytic one. Examining the piece from the three different angles offers the reader a deeper perspective about the story by motivating to reflect more deeply on the actions of the characters. Fundamental Merits The first form of criticism that can be used when analyzing the play is by looking …show more content…
His triumph over the self-helps to reinstate some feelings of ethical order in a society is split by ignorance, malice, and hysteria. The illusory lack of knowledge of the residents in Salem converts a youthful exploit into a fiendish act. Despite the strong religious beliefs held by Ann Putnam, she still allows sending her daughter to conjure up her dead babies’ souls so that her only remaining kid can discover why they seem to be dying unnatural deaths. All the villagers seem to believe that the infants were bewitched, and nobody questions these superstitious assumptions apart from …show more content…
For instance, she starts by making witchcraft accusations against social outcasts in the community. Then, gradually, she makes her way up the social strata, until she gets to a point where she makes accusations against a high-ranking social member like Elizabeth and manages to convince people that she is also a witch. She made these allegations with the aim of getting Elizabeth hanged so that she could have John to herself. From this example, it is clear that Abigail’s mind is in the id stage of development because she wants to have her personal needs satisfied instantly. Abigail does not take into consideration the consequences or outcomes of her actions. If she cared, she would not have put the lives of so many innocent people in danger just to get rid the community of Elizabeth. This demonstrates that she does not have an ego that usually helps an individual to think about the consequences of his/her actions. Also, it is certain that she lacks a superego that would internalize moral ideals and standards that she would have acquired from her parents. However, it is unfortunate that she was not lucky enough to have an opportunity to learn about such ideals and moral standards since she was orphaned at a very young age. Again, her uncle who raised her was too involved in his life to pay attention to her upbringing. While Abigail is surely not the only character that is suffering from a
The focus of Miller’s The Crucible is an appalling witch trial that morfs the once-peaceful town of Salem into a cutthroat slaughterhouse. As a lucrative playwright and a not-so-subtle allegory author, Miller is a seasoned wordsmith who addresses people akin to himself, and is not secretive about that information. The Crucible best serves its purpose as a learning device and a social statement, especially at the time of its publishing. Miller‘s piece showcases the appeals in an easy-to-identify manner that is perfect for middle or high school students who are new to the appeals, or for English majors who have no problem pinpointing them, making this play ideal for a classroom setting.
The tragic tale of the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts was re-written by Arthur Miller in the form of the play “The Crucible”. The trials have been studied to figure out what really happened, but no one will ever know since it happened decades ago. The play is the closest reenactment we have to help us see how people could have reacted to life. “The Crucible” shows how using others as a cushion to keep from being punished can go extremely bad. Amidst all the chaos a man by the name Reverend John Hale came to help but ended up with making it a huge amount worse.
During the early years of the colonies, there was a mad witch hunt striking the heart of Salem. Anger, reputation, and even religion play an important part during the play of The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. The author allows us to witness the vivid idea of the hysteria taking place in Salem, Massachusetts, and why it was so vulnerable during the time.
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.
Anna Julia Cooper’s, Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress, an excerpt from A Voice from the South, discusses the state of race and gender in America with an emphasis on African American women of the south. She contributes a number of things to the destitute state African American woman became accustom to and believe education and elevation of the black woman would change not only the state of the African American community but the nation as well. Cooper’s analysis is based around three concepts, the merging of the Barbaric with Christianity, the Feudal system, and the regeneration of the black woman.
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.
Arthur Miller expresses the concept of oppression being present in every society through the characters of The Crucible. "It is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions." As discussed, personal motives, disputes and misuses of power, as well as distorted religious beliefs are the roots of the maltreatment in Salem. Miller’s statement and message is valid and applicable in every society, and for every
Comprised of a theocratic justice system, The Crucible highlights Salem’s prodigious tendency to believe ‘that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world’, ‘for they were united from top to bottom by a commonly held ideology whose perpetuation was the reason and justification for all their sufferings’. However, ironically it was this common ideology that lead to the corrupt legal system which eliminated the goodness and integrity of the common man. Justifying even the smallest of circumstances with phrases from the Bible, the Puritans of Salem turned to holy book hoping for an explanation for the girls’ odd and “extremely” sexual behaviour in the forest. ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live’ arose when Mr Hale an ‘eager-eyed intellectual’ with a knowledgable outlook in witchcraft—the ‘most precise science’—journeyed to Salem to observe the strange conduct of the girls. Nevertheless, as bravely put in Wendy Schissel’s Feminist Reading of The Crucible, the girls were ‘caught in scandalous behaviour in a society that provides no outlet for exuberance, much less sexual exploration’ it might be worth considering ‘whether eating disorders today, or other related dysfunctions, could be similar last-ditch for girls facing dilemmas to which they see no healthy solutions.’
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 Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, feminism was not only allowed, but encouraged. This book demonstrates countless examples of feminism, and displays life as a puritan woman during the Salem Witch Trials. The definition of feminism is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.(Feminism-Webster) During this time, women were treated unequal to the men, and looked down upon. They were held to very high standards, and had a lot expected from them. No women was allowed to have opinions, or feel emotion about anything. This is feminism at its best.
Throughout The Crucible, author Arthur Miller uses dramatic conflict, metaphor, imagery, descriptive staging instructions, biblical allusion and a variety of other representational techniques to illuminate and develop the issues surrounding people and politics throughout the play. Such issues include the characterisation and portrayal of those in power; the driving motivations of a range of characters; the means through which characters achieve and maintain power; and how the role of power differences in relationships between characters. The use of these devices within an extended metaphor for the 1950’s context of US McCarthyism allows Miller to demonstrate the relatively stagnant nature of people and politics (in that a situation within the
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, as most know, was written as a commentary on the Red Scare in the 1950s and the massive paranoia surrounding it. There is another interesting connection to history that can be made, however, to Elizabethan era England. Shakespeare wrote many classic plays, and he often utilized the tragic hero to elicit the desired feeling and to examine the foibles of mankind. Miller uses a common farmer from the town of Salem as his main protagonist, and Miller writes the play in such a way that John Proctor is given the attributes of a tragic hero. Not only is the play a nuanced perspective on the current day (1953) linking the witch hunts to the spread of Communism, but it also reveals
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.
Mary Warren started out in a manner reminiscent to that of Peter Pettigrew from the famous “Harry Potter,” series; she was a timid follower of a popular group, and admired the bravery and kindness she lacked. After Mary and her so-called ‘friends’ are found dancing naked around a fire in their conservative town, they know they will likely be accused of a crime that could punish them with death; witchcraft. Mary’s friend Abigail, tells the girls to stick to their story that they were dancing in the woods and threatens to kill the girls if they reveal the truth; that Abigail was practicing witchcraft and drank blood in order to take the life of the wife of a man she had had an affair with; Elizabeth Proctor, the boss and friend of Mary Warren.
The power of the mind is truly extraordinary. It allows humans to learn new things and do good for the world. Contrarily, it drives humans to create conflict and initiate tempting desires. The Crucible explores many of the mind’s capabilities as it tells the tale of a series of witchcraft accusations and the ensuing drama. The play itself is an allegory of McCarthyism and truly shows why understanding the power of the human mind is so essential if mankind wishes to coincide peacefully. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller expresses Freud’s structural model of the psyche through characterization.