Examples Of Allegory In The Crucible

It is commonly accepted that the acts of witch hunts and demonization of people for slightly out of place behavior or actions that took place well over two hundred years ago was appalling and socially detesteable. Yet at the same time, it is also more commonly known that history repeats itself in a vicious cycle. Acts of brutality and social ostracization similar to the witch hunts of the distant past have been seen as recent as the 20th century. In Arthur Miller’s acclaimed play, The Crucible, many instances of conflict, public revolt, and morbid consequences for insignificant occurrences, titles, and accusations. Miller’s work not only made social commentary on society’s behavior within the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts during 1692,

A Shattered Confidence Arthur Miller’s The Crucible tells the story of how the Salem witch trials created a huge uproar and showed the fear of evil in the Puritan town. Young girls who were fooling around with witchcraft were able to save their reputation by blaming other citizens for using their spirit to compel them to see hallucinations and become unconscious. Reverend John Hale was called to save one of the young girl’s from “the devil” and also to free Salem from witchcraft. Through Reverend John Hale’s change from a confident savior to a guilty bystander, Miller illustrates the dangers of ignorance. Reverend Hale is passionate about saving Salem from evil spirits, being that he is well-educated on the subject.

‘The Crucible’ is an allegory for the McCarthyism Red Scare era of the 1950s. An Allegory is a story that can be interpreted on both a literal and a symbolic level. Arthur Miller uses the Salem witch trials as a symbolic story of what happened to him. The allegory that was created between ‘The Crucible’ and The Red Scare is that people were being accused of something that was false.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once stated “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” this is extremely apparent in the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller that depicts the events that took place during the salem witch trials. These events in American history had countless similarities that led to the persecution of many innocent individuals. Arthur Miller effectively demonstrates this concept in his play The Crucible by drawing parallels between the witch trials of the 1690’s and the “The Great Fear” of the 1950’s. The Salem Witch Trials and the “The Great Fear” were both the product of fear, hysteria, and false accusations.

The Salem Witch Trials and the 1950’s Red Scare are easily relatable considering that the two events killed several innocent lives, when that individual did nothing wrong. The community around has always been a place where secrets and grudges are held against someone. During the Salem Witch Trials, according to Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” and the Red Scare, it focused on how much power a character could have, and that one character also can lead to convincing the community to be with them or against their personal thoughts. Furthermore, the power that is lead to one's head could destroy the thoughts of other about yourself as an individual.

Our history is swarming with discrimination. Humans have a tendency to see something that is different from themselves and fear it, or hate it. This hatred often leads to the destruction of these so-called “different” people. The Crucible by Arthur Miller tells a story of the Salem witch trials, where a town becomes hysterical when several young girls are falsely accused of witchcraft. This play was written as an allegory to McCarthyism, and the destruction of innocent lives that came because of it.

Reverend Hale’s Character Evolution “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance” (Alan Watts). Change, the only constant in this universe, the thing a community needs the most to thrive in modern day society, the thing people of Salem cannot accept. In Arthur Miller's the Crucible we see how when the court and the townsfolk get dead set on the idea of witchcraft being rampant in the Village, they are imminently unaccepting if Reverend Hale’s change of no longer believing the devil was in Salem. In the start of the play Hale is seen as a man of god, he is the “spiritual” doctor sent to evaluate Salem and banish Satan from the region.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, a play using the Salem Witch Trials as an allegory for the Red Scare, villagers are engulfed by chaos and hysteria as a group of teenage girls, led by Abigail Williams, leads everyone to believe that witchcraft and the Devil are working within Salem. John Proctor, a Salem farmer, had an affair with Abigail, which summits to the witch trials and is caught in the middle of the conflict, eventually being accused of witchcraft among many others. After Mary Warren, his servant girl betrays him and pretends that he works for the Devil, Danforth, the judge asks Proctor if he will either confess to being a witch of if he will keep his “black allegiance” to the Devil. Proctor wildly responds, “I say—I say—God is dead!”

When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

Entering any new community, especially when dealing with a crisis, is difficult for anyone to handle and adjust to which is true to no one more than Reverend John Hale. The reverend, from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, left the town of Salem a whole new person after the trials, but not any less of a genuine and caring man than he was when he first set foot there. Hale was summoned to help the town with it’s witchcraft problem by accusing citizens he saw fit, yet ironically the reverend was the only cautious and logical character when it came to justifying their actions throughout the play. He held no bias against any others characters and so he was one of the few with good intentions for the town not solely themselves. Thus, making Reverend Hale the least responsible for any of Salem’s troubles and the largest reason why many lives were saved.

Reverend Hale is the character that changes the most in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible because his feelings on witchcraft turns from full belief to unbelievable doubt, his thoughts on Proctor changes from thinking that he is evil to thinking that he is a good and honest man, and he switches from doing God’s work to doing the Devil’s. Reverend Hale makes a huge change on his claim of witchcraft. In the beginning of the play when Reverend is called to the town of Salem to see if the reason why Betty and Ruth are unconscious is due to witchcraft he brings with him many books. When Reverend Parris sees this he makes a comment that Hale responds to him explaining his expectations. This shows that Reverend Hale is focused on one thing, finding

Stopping Panic One of America’s greatest plays is “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is based off of the true events of the Salem Witch Trials, which caused mass hysteria all throughout Salem; However, it was a satire that explained the hysteria during Arthur Miller’s time known as the “Red Scare”. During this satire, he uses characters that had real-life counterparts to explain how mass hysteria, which is exaggerated and uncontrollable emotions of fear, to show how people of his day were doing the same things and how they needed to stop it before it got worse. In the play, two characters who could have stopped the hysteria that plagued Salem were Abigail Williams and Reverend Hale. One character that could have stopped the hysteria was Abigail Williams.

The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.

Period4 The Crucible Essay Communism and Witchcraft have the same effect on humans, that effect is fear, when you hear fear you think of your worst nightmare or someone hiding in your closet, during the McCarthyism era and the salem witchcraft people had fear about whether their life is on the line or not. It all depended on one person in their community whether or not they choose to save their life. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because the girls feared Abigail just like everyone feared J.McCarthy, Elizabeth being accused is similar to McCarthy accusing the US Army, they are innocent just like Elizabeth.

In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.