Crucible Essay The Crucible. A true story of a time of witchery and a poor court system today I 'm going to talk about the similarities and differences. But first a recap over the Crucible so first off the story opens on a fast note and shows our first character Reverend Parris him in an upstairs bedroom praying the narrator describes him as a suspicious man in his forties,One who often imagines that the world is against him. Later down the line we learn that they live in the town of Salem. The Crucible describes Salem as a strict Puritan way of life.
A group of girls were dancing in the woods with a black slave named Tituba. When the girls got caught dancing in the woods, they started blaming other people in the village of being involved with witchcraft. Soon enough, the whole village believed the devil exists and lives within the fear of each person. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible explores through the individuals vengeance, reputation, fear, and seeking for power with the drama of suspense and impact.
The pursuit of power outweighs moral motives causing the manipulation of fear and its detrimental consequences. In The Crucible, Miller represents the dangers political power poses to individuals that are manipulated with fear for political gain through the parallel of the 17th century Salem Witch Trials to the 20th century McCarthy trials. In both contexts individuals experience social injustice as a result of political wrongdoing. Salem “developed a theocracy… to keep the community together” whose fundamental purpose was to guarantee that individuals in society adhere to a moral code of conduct. However, this theocracy enabled religious individuals to further their motive of power by dictating the lives of others. Miller’s characterisation
Miller believed that there was an “element of the marvelous in it” that he had to make into a play (Miller 96). Since there was so much going on in America with mass panic, it made Miller think of other points in history when Americans were put into a great panic over something so inane. He had studied witchcraft slightly in college, so once he went back to it and read a book by Charles W. Upham he “knew (he) had to write about the period” (Miller 96). Once Miller had researched enough about the people surrounding the events, he began writing. The witch trials are a perfect comparison to the HUAC trials of Miller’s time.
In The Crucibles, the Puritans believe that bad luck can come to an entire community if just one member of the congregation sins. This explains, their personal turmoil over their neighbor’s affairs. With that being said, I believe that “one bad apple can spoil the barrel”. I believe that the actions of your neighbors and classmates can and cannot dictate or foreshadow your own choices and future. I do not entirely believe that they dictate your choices and future entirely, but I do think that they have some type of influence, whether you believe that or not.
The Crucible had so many lessons and purposes throughout the play, but only three main things stood out: Weakness, Courage, and Truth. Which all had huge impacts in the play.
Despite their deeply religious values, the members of the Puritan Society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are equally as sinful as the rest of the world. The Puritans, known for turning to God when given any matter at hand, lay blame on the Devil, regardless of their contradictory values. By blaming on him for their wrongdoings, the Devil earns power through the Puritans restoring to involve him whenever any one thing goes wrong. Power is defined by one’s reputation, status, wealth, gender, and age; although the natural deciding factor of one’s power in the Puritan society is land, the Devil himself holds ultimate power. Despite the fact that he does not appear as a human figure, he controls the thoughts and actions of the Puritan society, serving as the ultimate threat. The Devil influences the villagers of Salem, Massachusetts by using their ongoing fear of him to manipulate their thoughts and actions in a manner to set himself in the highest position by the end of the Act 1.
When push comes to shove, everyone makes a tough decision, but in the end the decision was either out of fear to protect themselves, or a strategy to gain a designated amount of authority. In today 's society, many of the decisions people make lead to riots in the streets and people getting hurt. Similarly, the Ferguson riot in Missouri years ago, where many civilians were injured because of decisions made by everyone involved. Whether it turned violent because they wanted to prove something or because they feared the police when they showed up. In the story, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, the characters also illustrate the fact that it is human nature to defend oneself, to strive to survive despite the harm such actions can cause to
Power and influence in society have a huge impact on the way things happen and affects perception. A prime example is the power that presidents and prime ministers have. Given this power they can effectively influence and persuade others. Power and influence is often associated with gender, conflict and roles and relationships. The importance of the power and influence can be thoroughly examined using texts that demonstrate ideas presented as truths. Some of these texts include, The Crucible, Macbeth, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and many more. The text being examined is The Crucible by Arthur Miller, set in Salem during the 1692 witch trials. The theme of the importance of name will become apparent by studying John Proctor and Abigail
In addition, this organization was established around 1938 and this origination was established because of the red scare and the overwhelming fear of communism spreading to the west. The primary Purpose of H.U.A.C.( House Un-American Activities Committee) was to investigate communistic influences and put an end to it. A common question most people would hear, if they were interrogated by of H.U.A.C was, " Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communistic Party? " This origination would go around excusing a lot of people being Communists or communist sympathizers, many of these people were even communist or communist sympathizers. The H.U.A.C was known for running carriers one of these carriers was Arthur Miler. From Miller’s two plays ( Death of a salesman and The Crucible ) this led to the H.U.A.C calling in Miller in 1956.
Miller conveys his point that allowing selfishness and fear to consume society can be devastating and harmful to life through his use of the witch trials and the mass hysteria that occurs during
After a sporting event, have you ever heard “We lost because of this person” or “It’s his fault we lost?” Well, this is an example of scapegoating. Scapegoating is the act of putting the blame of an event on to a specific person, or a group of people. Scapegoating plays a big role in some pieces of literature, especially The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is about the Puritan village of Salem Massachusetts back in 1692, during the witch hunts. The witch hunts were an act of mass hysteria within the community. I believe that scapegoating is so common in both literature and the real world is because it is such an easy thing to do if you have enough authority/power and the desire for
Is personal integrity more important than survival? The dictionary defines integrity as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. The Salem witch trials in history shows how men and women had to choose between their own morals and their faith. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the people show their value of personal integrity over life while maintaining their reputation and good name to pass down to generations to come.
1. Quotation: “And in the Bible it says Thou shalt not kill but there were the Crusades and two world wars and the Gulf War and there were Christians killing people in all of them.” (pg. 29) Response: I like the characters thought in this quote because it shows a different view of how people break rules but don’t realize that there actually breaking them.
Integrity is an essential piece of heroism, this can especially be seen in the novel "The Crucible" as the two ideals of integrity and heroism collide. Many different conclusions could be made from reading this novel when it comes to both integrity and heroism. While there are characters like John Proctor whom exhibits heroism through integrity, selflessness, and bravery, there are other characters whom sacrifice their own integrity in order to preserve their own imagine. These characters are portrayed as dynamic villains like Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams and others like Salem's own Sheriff whom is less dynamic and a greater linear character. Each individual's integrity would change constantly throughout the story due to a constant stacking of lies, all of which is rooted to one's struggle to keep a good image by forfeiting her own integrity.