Arthur Miller: Reading Response Journal: The Crucible

Miller’s purpose for setting this scene in a jail cell is to set the mood of Act Four. Miller describes the cell as. “The place is in darkness but for the moonlight seeping through the bars. It appears empty.” (121), to convey the sense of gloominess that rolls into the town. He achieves this by utilizing word choice. By using words such as “darkness” and “seeping,” Miller takes advantage of these words’ negative connotations to produce a dreary and depressing mood. In addition, Miller also sets the scene at a jail to show the kind of conditions many of the accused people were imprisoned in. It reveals a reason behind why the people of Salem accused others or refused to speak any names in court. In order to protect themselves or others from

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment. By examining the characters of the play, I believe that the three major characters who should be blamed the most for the witch trials are Abigail Williams,

Arthur Miller is a commonly-known playwright, most famous for his 1953 play, The Crucible. The basis for The Crucible came from the witch trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts during the puritan era. Miller even uses some of the same characters in his dramatized play that were a part of the original witch trials in Salem. However, Miller made a few alterations to the historical members of the Salem society in order to suit his dramatic purpose in The Crucible, particularly Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Samuel Parris.

Proctor says, “In the proper place - where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past, she used to serve me in my house sir” This act of confession shows how much he loves Elizabeth and what he’s willing to do to protect her. Abigail had told proctor that she had never seen any spirits, but she had told him when they were alone.Proctor had to confess in order to prove that abigail would want to hurt Elizabeth and she had been lying about the witches and the devil. During that time parris tries to keep his reputation pure so he tells Abi to lie. Parris says “what shall I say to them? that my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heather in the forest“ (871) Parris wants to cover up what they had done so he doesn’t look

It shows that everyone accused was either a witch or innocent, and that evidence did not have to be brought up to prove any source of credibility. Without a good reputation would provoke unjust accusations being placed upon you, and no one to defend you. The protectiveness of self-image reflects on Arthur Miller's message on unfair government practices. The reason the people of Salem were so protective of their reputation was because the government in Salem did not have any uniform limitations. This made the government in Salem very biased towards more respectable and powerful figures in the town. Bias in government is shown in The Crucible and in news media today.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote the play because he was inspired by McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the hunt for communists that was taken too far. In The Crucible he presented a universal message. He was comparing how communists did exist and witches did not, but yet they were both taken as serious. He was explaining how if anyone stood up to the witch trials in Salem, 1600s they would face immediate arrest, the hardest interrogation and possibly even the rope. People who were even thought to be communists would be trialed with un-American activities. Miller wouldn’t have written The Crucible if he wasn’t trialed on un-American activities. Witchcraft is the beliefs and practicing of magic spells to create unnatural happenings. A crucible is a metal container that is used to melt metals and separate valuable metals from the less valuable ones, it can also be a severe test of life. The title of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible is symbolic to both these terms. In act one of The Crucible, Abigail Williams was the most responsible person for the hysterical witchcraft in Salem.

Most communities in the world today believe that excluding harmful thoughts, ideas, actions, and sometimes people are ultimately the best course of action for uniting their group. An example is the exclusion of same-sex marriage in most states, but especially in the Catholic Church. By excluding same-sex marriage, the Catholic Church community unites with a feeling of purity towards their religious community. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller presents the audience with a paradox that was exemplified through the Salem witchcraft trials. The paradox “Unity through Exclusion” means that a community will become closer together through the exclusion or exile of harmful people. However, the exile of the people hurt the conformity of the community

“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,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.

Arthur Miller’s portrayal of a town in the midst of a downfall “The Crucible”, tells the story of how mob mentality and hysteria can significantly influence not only individuals but the whole town. This mob mentality leads to unthoughtful acts and false accusations. Two characters who demonstrate how mob mentality can lead to the demise of Salem are Abigail and Mary Warren. As Abigail begins to be accused she is pressured to deter from the truth. While Mary Warren gets pressured by Proctor to reveal the truth about Abigail, but the overwhelming pressure from the mob makes her turn from the truth. Thus demonstrating how mob mentality can impact an individual and ultimately drive the action of the play. This shows us how one person who starts

Representations of people, events and personalities in both Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible 1953 and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias, reveal the composers personal agenda and effectively demonstrate this in relation to people and politics. Millers The Crucible is a classic parable of mass hysteria drawing a chilling parallel between the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the Congressional hearings of the McCarthy era which griped America in the 1950’s. Shelley’s masterful sonnet is a first person persona describing a meeting with someone who has travelled to a place where ancient civilizations once existed. Both composers even though they have varying contextual eras, both display similar ideals including those with power are deluded

Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris, is the first to admit to dancing with the devil. Based on the background knowledge of the time, slaves were not considered part of the class system, so she was not valued as a community member. Tituba is conscious that she is in danger, “she is also very frightened because her slave sense has warned her that, as always, trouble in this house eventually lands on her back” (Miller, pg. 6). Tituba attempts to tell the truth about Abigail when she says, “You beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm” (Miller, pg. 44) but realizes that her word against Abigail will not stand. So, she decides to manipulate the situation by saying that the Devil has come to her and she has resisted his commands to kill Mr. Parris.

Salem was a small religious puritan colony near Boston, Massachusetts. The play parallels the 20th century paranoia about communism which prevailed across the American society and even reached Canada. The Crucible is a story about a small village run by fear, religious fanaticism and rising panic where people are condemned and sentenced to death with no evidence. In Salem, good and evil have their obvious rules, opposition is not merely illegal, It is associated with satanic power (Bly

The threat of Communism and the Red Scare put fear of group mentality into many people during the late 1940-50s.  The authors of 1984 and The Crucible used their respective works to comment on the social injustice going on in their own lives, which connects to injustice the exists throughout time anywhere in the world. Miller wrote his play, set in 1692, about Puritans and the Salem witch trials because he believed that, similar to his trial for HUAC in the 1950s, the trials in Salem were caused by false accusations and mass hysteria led by powerful individuals. In 1984, Orwell creates a world in the near future that shows group mentality and its threat to conform society with the government. In  The Crucible, Arthur Miller illustrates a world

“There is no advertisement as powerful as a positive reputation traveling fast” ( Brian Koslow). Although this quote is talking about the advertisement of one’s reputation, the main point of the quote shows that a positive reputation is a powerful source of one’s character. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, upholding one’s reputation is a dominant theme. In the play, there are many situations where characters’ reputations are put to the test. From the outcomes of these tests, the viewpoint that other characters hold of their peers affects the plot, conflict, and outcome of Arthur Miller’s drama. Arthur Miller’s representation of Salem’s society shows that reputation is essential in perceiving others inside and outside of the