In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he shows a mass hysteria that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Although, the play is fiction, Miller based the plot of his play on the historical event, the Salem Witch Trials.According to the the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century, The Crucible explores a mass hysteria that its residents must go through because of the witchcraft accusations made by young girls and many other people of the region.These accusations, we learn further in the novel, are not true and are purely for the purpose to put the blame of someone's mistakes or wrongdoings to someone else. The accusers is constitutionally finding scapegoats to back up their culpability. He presents a situation of opposition where some characters are …show more content…
Giles reveals himself as a hero when he sacrificed himself by refusing to plead guilty. He served as a ultimate public revolt against the witchcraft trials. Giles Corey’s immense strength of character is displayed in this scene when he neither confesses to, nor denies, the charges of witchcraft. In this scene, Giles is testified by court officials to bring in evidence to prove that the Putnams had falsely accused a man as a witch in order to get his land. However, when the judge asks Corey to submit the name of the man who had heard Putnam’s conversation, Giles refuses to give the name to protect others while he would have to hang. In this scene, Giles Corey shouts out, “ You know well why no! He’ll lay in jail if I give his name… I will not give you no name. I mentioned wife’s name once and I’ll burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute.” (44). Giles Corey is a true hero when he suffers a painful death for remaining silent. In addition, instead of giving the court the names, which is exactly what they wanted from him, thus freeing himself while causing the execution of another, Giles decides
To illustrate, Proctor shows how the desperation of achieving his goal provokes him to make personal confessions, including the inappropriate affair with one of the people in the witch trials, Abigail Williams. However, Judge Danforth rejects his shocking confession and leads Proctor to answer, “I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name—you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one!” (3.874-877).
In this essay there are a couple of things that need to be analyzed, the subjects that are being analyzed is how a few of the characters have changed or stayed the same throughout the play. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials which got nineteen people killed because of a lie made up by a bunch of children. The play takes place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during the years of 1692 and 1693. During this time there was a group of young women who were caught dancing in the woods and instead of getting in trouble they made up the lie that witches made them do it. That is just a background on what this essay will be about.
While Giles is presenting this issue to the court, he is asked to reveal the name of the man who brought up this issue . He does not give out his name because he promised and believed it was right to protect him. Giles never gave his name to the court. As a result, he was arrested for
Putnam shows how people can manipulate a trend of fear to their advantage. In the play he and his wife are the first to make the jump to witchcraft after their, and the reverend's daughter become sick. Thomas Putnam in the play used “witchcraft” as fuel to get his way. As Miller put in the above quote; “Thomas Putnam is a vindictive man.” In the play he is known to make shady decisions.
Is personal integrity more important than survival? The dictionary defines integrity as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. The Salem witch trials in history shows how men and women had to choose between their own morals and their faith. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the people show their value of personal integrity over life while maintaining their reputation and good name to pass down to generations to come. Giles Corey is a man of integrity who cares for his family and friends in the community.
Giles refused to tell them and it backfires and he is condemned himself. Hathorne wants to arrest him for contempt of court. Corey is arrested at the end of the act for contempt in court. These are the reason Giles was asked to tell names in court because he spoke his mind to get his wife out of getting hanged.
Back in the late sixteen hundreds the people during that time are very strict on religion. During the time a colony in the Americas called the puritans believed in witchcraft. People that are accused are guilty till proven innocent. In the Crucible it portrays injustice by how Danforth is not following court that is ruled by religion, Abigail intimidating the court, and the accused not having proper court rights. The following reasons will explain why the crucible is injustice.
Brook Mills Mrs. Brown English 10 11/03/15 Many individuals of Salem have to deal with everyday hysteria with many people accused of being a witch and being executed. Other than Abigail, three characters who are to blame for the hysteria in The Crucible are Judge Danforth, John Proctor, and Mary Warren. A character that contributed to the hysteria in The Crucible was Judge Danforth. He contributed to the hysteria because he sent men and women to be executed for no reason.
The Devil has returned putting children under his control is what many people believed in Salem village in 1962. In ¨ The Crucible¨ by Arthur Miller many people panicked from the witch hysteria which caused many to be accused of being witches, Judge Danforth decided what happens to the accused witches and is the most corrupted in Salem because his power of being a judge made him go overboard with his decisions on people. When he starts to realize he continues to avoid people from getting mad at him for putting innocent people in jail and killing them. To begin with Danforth became a megalomaniac a person crazy with their own power. As the Judge he gets to pick the punishment of the person accused making him feel superior to others.
Giles Corey moved to Salem in 1659 and was considered dangerous. “Corey was considered by many to be a violent man after he was charged with beating his farmhand, Jacob Goodale, to death with a stick in 1676. He stood trial, during which John Proctor testified that he heard Corey admit he had beaten Goodale, but in the end Corey was only fined for his actions.” After his wife died in 1684, he married Martha Panon in 1690. When the trials began, Corey and his wife attended the examinations, “As the examinations went on, Martha began to doubt their validity and even tried to persuade Giles from attending further examinations by hiding his riding saddle.
John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Giles Corey are all tried by the juries, and end up being hanged together. Even though their appeals of purity, both Proctor and Nurse are hanged. Giles Corey refuses to plead, for he believes that he will disinherit his belongings no matter what. As a conclusion of his inflexibility, he is sentenced to death. Abigail Williams accused Tituba and other people to liberate herself from danger.
Feminism is the philosophy, found in both literature and society, that the Western world is fundamentally patriarchal. Throughout the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, there are several examples of women being oppressed, as seen through the feminist critical lens. Miller uses male characters to reference to women objectively to help demonstrate this. This teaches that women are oppressed not just in literature, but in life. The female characters gain power in a male-dominated society through an elaborate plot of accusations and executions.
One of the biggest shocks people hear when it comes to the Crucible is that those characters were real, which makes the weight of their deaths that much heavier. A total of 20 people died in the Salem Witch Trials: 19 of them were hanged, and one was tortured to death by pressing; that person was Giles Corey. Not much is said about Giles Corey in the play, but it is said that actions speak louder than words, and that is true for him. When he refused to utter the names of others that might’ve been involved with witchcraft, he set himself up to be tortured to death and yet never said anything other than “more weight” (Miller, 207). Although he is a minor character, Giles Corey plays the role of an anti-hero, who not only displays probably the
“More weight,” Giles Corey says before his few last breaths in The Crucible. Giles Corey is strong-willed by his choice of saying neither “nay or aye” when being questioned about witchcraft. He has many characteristics that I can relate to throughout the play. Giles Corey and I both share the characteristics of being strong-willed, stubborn, and loyal.
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a story based off of a lot of main characters and scenes. The story itself is based off the salem witch trials hence the story is in the town of salem. The three categories of this story was mass hysteria where people believe things and all join in. Group think is how people together make decisions based on ideas in the group.