Revealing The Impurities In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Revealing the Impurities “Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test,” said by Rick Warren, expresses how the true nature of people are revealed through tests of character, such as community crisis or chaos like the witch trials in The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible expressed how the Red Scare was in the 1950s through comparing it to the witch trials. The characters that most accurately represented the effect of this chaos were Rebecca Nurse, Giles Corey and Mary Warren. Rebecca Nurse was an admired, well-respected older woman within the town of Salem. Giles Corey was a weak-minded, malleable, robust man that constantly switched between opinions. Mary Warren was a meek, feeble servant of

In the heat of the moment, he even accused his own wife. Corey accused her of reading books besides the Bible, which Puritans saw as suspicious, "then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly— mark this—I could pray again!" (Miller 11). His wife was then arrested on accounts of witchcraft. Subsequent to this, he used a man’s testimony to prove that Mr. Putnam’s motives for his accusations were to gain land, showing that his wife’s accusations were also unjust. The unjust court asked the man’s name; however, Corey refused, knowing the man would be arrested too "I will not give you no name. I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll burn in hell long enough for that" (Miller 37). When they accused him as well, putting heavy stones on him until he would say ay or nay, he simply said "More weight" (Miller 56). In this instance, Giles Corey transforms from a man of little substance, pride or strength to a man of great pride, morality and bravery. His change exemplifies how the Red Scare caused weak people to accuse at first, but later feel great guilt for their

Mary easily complied to Abigail’s plans to kill her master’s wife, granting Abigail a place as his wife. Mary set a “voodoo” doll within the house and accused Elizabeth of witchcraft, authorizing her arrest, “Tis hard proof.—I find here a poppet Goody Proctor keeps” (Miller 28). Mary Warren transforms into a selfish, accusing, cowardly woman. Her change shows how the feeble-minded people would react to the trials. They would do anything to save themselves from accusations, even accuse their own