The Crucible Essay John Lewis once said, “Live a life that is so honest, if someone said something bad about you, no one would believe it.” Building a certain reputation is a task most fail to acknowledge. Many elaborate through their actions the particular person they pursue to be known as, but many do the opposite. No matter if you’re unfamiliar to your attempts or fully aware, every one’s reputation is in their own hand’s to maneuver in the direction they strive to drive it in. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, reputation is amongst the most important priority, aside from religion. The characters are knee deep in lies, temptation, and guilt that make it difficult to maintain a clean slate. John Procter, the tragic hero, Abigail Williams, …show more content…
He is known to the townspeople as a religious man who remains faithful to his wife and works hard to pursue his farming. He feels that through his good deeds, he may erase his sins. By maintaining this mindset, the guilt eventually tears Procter apart. The author uses John Procter as a symbol of the realistic struggles of a Christian, which is evident in his forgiving actions. Although Procter is known as a faithful man in more ways than one, his affair with Abigail Williams later results in manipulation, lying, and distrust. He allows the guilt to pave a path of sin. Towards the end of the Crucible he realizes there is more to life than playing the role of a good man and take action to become a good man through honesty. The author also uses Procter as a symbol of the many downfalls of life because once Procter realized reputation wasn’t amongst the most important things in life, it was too …show more content…
Deriving from her childhood, Abigail Williams seeked the attention and affiliation she never received as young girl. From this she was the prime reason for the hysteria and problems arousing from her town. She manipulated, lusted, and used her evil desires to send 19 innocent people to their deathbed all for her own satisfaction. She never attempted to mend the broken relationships she caused because she knew there was no turning back from her actions. She was suffocating from the problems amended by her own actions, which is why she maintained her bad reputation. Because of previous lies she was caught in a trap she was unable to escape from. When you imagine an active reverend in the church, an intellectual, driven, and faithful man comes to mind. This is exactly what Reverend Hale strived to be. He was in the center of every miscommunication and problem the church was involved in. He was known as the solution to the problem and enforced this in the minds of the townspeople. Although he managed to fool the people, it’s clear to the reader he is more of a problem starter opposed to a problem solver. He as well as the other characters, was obsessed with his reputation and partaking in actions that would make him appear as a more dominant male
Dark and sinister forces were going around Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Over twenty innocent people were found guilty of witchcraft and were sentenced to death. These sinister acts at the time were thought to be happening by witches, but the truth of the matter is that it was actually being caused by a girl named Abigail Williams, who was seeking her vengeance on the townspeople. The girl named Abigail Williams was a teenager who had been seen dancing in the forest with her friend Betty Parris. This was considered a crime back in the 1600’s and the punishment was whippings.
In Arthur Miller's play, dignity and reflection of one's self plays an important role in what makes up a person's character. Through John Proctor's actions and words, Miller's element of tragedy that emphasizes laying down one's life for personal dignity is demonstrated in The Crucible as people will go any extent to accomplish their desires and fight for their beliefs, despite the consequences because they are trying to protect who they are. Tragedy lies within
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.
Society has always perpetuated a firm distinction between that perceived as “good” and that of “evil.” Human nature, however, does not function in terms of absolutes such as these. As a way to attempt reconciliation between these seemingly paradoxical statements, art and literature have developed into mediums which have made the study of morality accessible. Because of this direct connection, Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible can be seen as an exploration into the human psyche. Within the drama, Miller succeeds in juxtaposing the role of the “saint” with that of the “sinner,” thus returning to the basic, human debate between righteousness and corruption. While many, if not all, of the characters display some level of this conflict, the
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws: lust, vengeance, and jealously that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunts in Salem. Abigail Williams started the entire suspicion of there being active member of witchcraft throughout Salem, Massachusetts. She did this for her own benefits and used trickery to get what she wanted. Abigail was corrupt and only cared for her own desires. There are many reasons that these flaws are crucial to the outcome of the play.
Your name is something you have with you until you die. Therefor keeping it clean is extremely important in ones society. Throughout the Crucible you experience many signs of how ones name and reputation is very paramount in society, and example of this is explored during the scene of Procter having to sign the confession of dealing with the devil, however he signed it even though he was innocent, however he realised this would tarnish he name, later ripping up the confession and screaming “ my name, I cannot sign!” later exclaimed with “All I have is my name!”
In a small village called Salem, witchcraft and sorcery exist, however everyone is pointing fingers but not a single soul knows who is actually to blame for this nonsense. During this time period of hysteria, there are multiple scenes that are very questionable due to one person and one person only. Abigail is the one most responsible for the hysteria and witchcraft in Salem. She threatens the group of girls that accompanied her in the woods while they all danced. She has also lied about many things on multiple occasions in which causes an extreme amount of suspicion.
During the play Abigail's bad decisions leads to a lot of commotion. She tries to fix her mistakes but ends up getting into more of a mess than she started with. “I want to open myself…I want the light of god, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced with Devil; I saw him i wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw sarah Good with the devil, I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil!
Abigail defies all judgements against innocence as she is the driven evil force in The Crucible. Arthur Miller shows Abigail Williams to instinctively defend herself, as it is the humane reaction when accused of wrongdoing. It is common to tell a lie but, the intention of sabotage is a different story. Abigail had many tricks up her sleeve to manipulate the court. Her purpose to convince the town of her innocence was one of many.
Abigail Williams is not your typical teenage girl. She is a girl that will drink blood to kill someone, accuse people of witchcraft, and have a affair. By looking at The Crucible, one can see that Abigail Williams develops the theme of reputation, which is important because people who fear losing their reputation spread hysteria. Protecting her reputation motivates Abigail Williams to accuse others of being a witch.
If The Witch Don’t Fit, You Must Acquit In “The Crucible” 1953 written by Arthur Miller, wrote that hysteria in any place can ruin lives. The year is 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. In Salem at the time it was a modest town brimming with Puritans. In the town of Salem, little secrets, jealousy and massive hysteria spread around the town.
Abigail uses her own personal desires to get to what she wants even though many people died in the
Abigail Williams In the play "The Crucibles" by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams was not such a good Puritan woman. She was a very young and gorgeous women but had sinned a lot against her Puritan religion. Abigail definitely did not make the right decisions for herself. She is an magnificent liar and tends to get others in trouble to save herself from getting caught.
Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. Reputation can directly correlate with pride, which is a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one 's own achievements. Reputations are very important to the characters in The Crucible and if they want to preserve their reputation, through pride, they do whatever is necessary to keep it. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the characters John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Judge Danforth all show dramatic actions to preserve their reputations, each of these characters either hurt themselves or others by being prideful and dishonest for the sake of their good name. There are several ways that Abigail Williams shows her objective of preserving her reputation in the book.
She’s the woman who holds grudges, is selfish, and a great liar. Abigail seems to be especially gifted at spreading destruction and chaos wherever she goes. She is able to manipulate others, for example, all her friends and the whole town. In addition, she obtains control over all of them and sends nineteen uninvolved people to their deaths. All these things add up.