How Does Arthur Miller Use Abuse Of Power In The Crucible
In any society there are those that are in charge and those who are oppressed. And unfortunately it does not take an extreme event to tip this unstable balance. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible take a literary look on the major historical event of the Salem Witch Trials and comments on the redistribution of power that arose during the trials. The Crucible is a fictional take on the Salem Witch trials, focusing on a puritan community. The trials took place in 1692 when a small group of girls fell ill, becoming privy to hallucinations and seizures without any medical reason. In the overly religious community of Puritans, such random occurrences were often attributed to acts of the devil or his minions. This uncaused illness spread among countless young girls and furthered fears of witchcraft in the community. Eventually, the afflicted girls in order to escape blame accused the other residents of Salem of consorting with the devil. This …show more content…
Those who lack authority also lack innocence. Miller displays a chilling portrayal in which a simple word has the power to ruin a person’s reputation, take their land, send them to jail, and sentence them to death. For the young girls, the witch trials serve a bigger purpose than just saving them from punishment; it offers these young women a forum for venting their resentment toward their close knit, oppressive society. Those who were once powerless held the fate of others in their hands, and were able to settle the score whether it be out of maliciousness, fear, or even grief. They could do all this while still maintaining a proper reputation and standing in their society. Women who fully take advantage of this were able to walk the streets with their heads held high, and say whatever to whomever they please. Abigail and her companions were able to reverse the social order of the village and situate themselves above the men, becoming women who were beyond the control of the
The Testimon Young Women In Salem Possessed
1418 Words | 6 PagesThe witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.
Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible
513 Words | 3 PagesThe Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, reenacts the events of The Witchcraft Trials of Salem in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, an event that many people were labeled witches to which were prosecuted. Within the community, it was alarming that anyone can be convicted with just an accusation. This was similar to McCarthyism, an event during the 1950s initiated by Joseph McCarthy where many people were accused with severe consequence. Throughout The Crucible, it illustrates examples of McCarthyism because people were biased on how they assume one's guilt.
Examples Of Abigail Williams In The Crucible
387 Words | 2 PagesThe Crucible is a play that takes place in a town called Salem in the late 1600’s during the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of the people that were accused of witchcraft in Salem because of a group of girls that were dishonest about doing something they weren’t supposed to. Among this group of girls was Abigail Williams who manipulated the other girls into going along with the lie which shows how manipulative, dishonest and selfish she is. Abigail can be described as manipulative because of the many things she does to get her way.
Examples Of Tituba In The Crucible
576 Words | 3 PagesTituba the witch The crucible by Arthur Miller is about the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Many people in Salem truly believed that witchcraft was real and lived by that. Majority of the citizens also often thought that they could see the devils spirit in people and they knew when someone was guilty of witchcraft.
Integrity In The Crucible By Arthur Miller
552 Words | 3 PagesThe Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play based on the events that occurred during The Salem Witch trials. It follows the townspeople as they accuse more and more women and men as witches. Throughout the Crucible many themes exploit themselves, and many of these themes influence the story itself. Integrity influences the reader's thoughts on different characters, corruption of justice helps the climax grow, and the mass hysteria helps to create the initial problem of the play.
What Is The Historical Significance Of The Salem Witch Trials
834 Words | 4 PagesThe main reason that the Salem witch trials were relatively well-known was largely due to the horror of what could happen in a society; the hanging of many innocent people. The broader picture of the Salem Witch Trials tells us more than the actual event, the Salem Witch trials contextualize two main ideas; the changing role of women and the Great Awakening. The role of women was very rapidly changing in the colonies, and the Witch Trials were society’s best efforts to stop the women. The women was supposed to be caretaker of the home and the children, when women challenged this idea by owning property and not marrying, they became easy targets for others. Especially due to the movement of Indians,the actions of some eccentric women, and a general fear of outsiders, this lead to the witchcraft accusations.
Power In Arthur Miller's The Crucible
930 Words | 4 PagesA witch is a person close to God and being close to God is being in a place of high power. So, when rumors of women practicing witchcraft begin to circulate, the town’s biggest fear begins to arise and they quickly tried to put a stop to it, henceforth, the witch trials commenced. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, women are able to take power from their society through various means other than gaining leadership. The ways in which women are able to achieve power include Abigail Williams’ use of dishonesty and manipulation that prompts the witch trials as well as Rebecca Nurse’s refusal of a confession that defies the conventional paradigms of the society.
Examples Of Historical Accuracy Of The Crucible
808 Words | 4 PagesThe Crucible: Historical Accuracy The Crucible is a 1996 film (originally written as a play) based on the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. The story is based on actual events and takes place in Salem in the year 1692, opening with a group of young girls who are caught dancing around a fire in the woods. To keep out of trouble, the girls then accuse other townspeople of forcing them to dance. This begins the witch hysteria and leads to wild accusations, trials, and executions of many innocent people.
The Crucible By Arthur Miller
696 Words | 3 PagesBook Review of The Crucible Imagine an entire town turned against you for reasons you could not conceive. For a plethora of people who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in the realistic fiction tragedy The Crucible by Arthur Miller, this was an excruciating reality. Miller based all the characters off real people involved with the Salem Witch Trials, so searching through historical documents of the trials to use as inspiration was basically a requirement. The characters in the play needed to talk like they were from the same era as the trials.
Elizabeth Ergot Poisoning In The Crucible By Arthur Miller
472 Words | 2 PagesThe Crucible was about the Salem Witch Trials. The duration of these “trials” were a time of general revenge based on jealousy, lust, and possibly the effects of ergot poisoning. More than two hundred men and women were accused of witchcraft. Twenty of which were executed, along with one man being brutally pressed to death for not admitting to witchcraft. These “trials” could very well have been started because of jealousy.
The Crucible Salem Witch Trials
883 Words | 4 PagesDuring the seventeenth century, there was a series of court hearings and prosecutions of people who happened to be accused of practicing witchcraft in Massachusetts. These events would later be called the Salem witch trials. In the book titled The Crucible by author Arthur Miller, it is written in the form of a play that has a central idea that explores the Salem witch trials in seventeenth - century Salem, Massachusetts. The main theme that is seen throughout the play is cruelty which can be seen in the way each individual is treated by their peers. The first significant event of cruelty that is seen is within society itself.
How Does Arthur Miller Present Power In The Crucible
721 Words | 3 PagesPower in our society nowadays is very misgiven and abused. When people have power they tend to use it for their own benefit and to manipulate people into believing them. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692 in order to show his audience how easy it was to be accused and hung for witchcraft. In the Crucible a group of young girls were caught dancing in the woods and in order to not receive a punishment they lied saying they got witched. The girls blamed many people of the town of being witches and caused conflict all over the village.
How Does Arthur Miller Use Authority In The Crucible
525 Words | 3 PagesPeople tend to justify their actions, regardless of the outcome. With knowledge of their actions, people misemploy their authority. A remarkable playwright of the American theater, Arthur Miller continues to capture his audience with The Crucible. In the play, Miller portrays several characters, who abuses their authority. However, of the very few, Miller creates a character who makes an important contrast to these corrupt people.
Literary Analysis Essay On The Crucible
630 Words | 3 PagesShawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.
The Power Of Power In Arthur Miller's The Crucible
704 Words | 3 PagesPower is defined as “The ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as as a faculty or quality.” Throughout history, women have significantly lacked not only power but the ability to be recognized as equal to their male counterparts. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, women are somewhat able to successfully gain power from society due to the fact that they use manipulation, deceit and their sexual desire (especially the character of Abigail) to acquire positions of power in their largely patriarchal society. Women are able to attain this power through using their intellect to express manipulation, and lying in order to receive attention that translates into power.
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