The Witches By Roald Dahl Analysis

Power, the ability to maintain control, command, or authority over others can often be determined by one’s reputation and their ability to persuade others. This principle is displayed within The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, which follows the town of Salem, Massachusetts navigating through a “Witchcraft” outbreak supposedly lead by the Devil. Within such a theocratic society such as Salem, the Devil is often associated with death, fear, and uncertainty, with his name alone often believed to influence others into following through with certain actions. The Devil, as a key figure behind the immense “witchcraft” occurring in Salem, is crafted by Miller as the most influential “character” based off the fear

Imagine being an African American living down South during the 1930’s, when racial discrimination was a huge thing. Why were these African Americans so hated and discriminated? It was the way these people grew up in their setting, or even the way the setting raised them, to automatically view these colored people different and not equal towards them. The place in which people are raised in give them these characteristics and social beliefs, so they are not used to anything outside of their social norm. In the novel, “The Crucibles”, by Arthur Miller, the characters living there had a very vague and straight forward way of living life, and if anyone was seen to be doing something different or unusual, they would automatically be accused of witchcraft.

during the time when witches were real. The story of these people accusing each other of

Cruelty is a recurrent theme in literature that often acts as a critical factor in a novel’s development. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the occurrence of cruelty is seen to be gradually increasing as the story goes on from accusations of witchcraft that lead into chaos and death. Through Miller’s depiction of the merciless accusations and murders of innocent people, cruelty reveals a high extent of people’s animosity and vengeance that is greatly influenced by the attitude of the surrounding atmosphere.

Back in a time where everything is black or white, good or evil, one is either with the church or a witch this leading to the persecution of those against “good”. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the belief that the church is always right and evil is always lurking caused many to die due to fake accusations. The church, wanting to help, begin to kill of those who were considered impure. There is a danger in having a profound belief in something, one becomes close minded and with time carry on actions that contradict that very belief.

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.

Centuries ago many Christians and those who practiced other religions believed that the Devil gave certain people known as witches power to bring harm to other people in exchange for their loyalty to him. From 1300 to the end of 1600 raged in Europe. Practicing witches were mainly women

“Controlled hysteria is what’s required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It’s agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing” (Arthur Miller, AZ Quotes). In the play, the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Salem, Massachusetts was a place of constant hysteria in the 1600s because of what would come to be commonly known as the Salem Witch Trials. This was a full-blown witch hunt for people found to display signs of witchcraft. Abigail Williams was the main person to blame for this pursuit of witches in Salem because, first off, she was the one who caused hysteria about witchcraft just to cover up the fact that

Betty Parris’s great power throughout Act I can be seen by her ability to single handedly create chaos and hysteria within the town for her own personal gain. Her power can first be viewed after Susanna Walcott explains the possibility of a supernatural cause to Betty’s illness, leading Abigail to advise her Uncle about “the rumor of witchcraft [that] is all about: [She] thinks [he 'd] best go down and deny it [himself]. The parlor’s packed with people,sir” (10). This is the first hint that others in the town believe in the presence and of the beginnings of the hysteria that follows. Betty started this rumor in the town by pretending to act sick so that she would not get punished for dancing in the woods. She found a way to deflect the blame

There are many reasons that the people of Salem were convinced that there were witches among them. People have always believed in magic. Even today there are magicians and superstitious people. Some theories include mental illnesses, the church, and greed being at fault. The church is included simply because it was thought to not be holding the same control over the parishioners anymore. The greed being that people just wanted land and property owned by the ones they accused of being witches. It is also because of the girls that began behaving weirdly. They had had seizures, screamed extremely, and acted dazed.

In this scene, there are 3 witches. These witches begin to discuss their plans. The first witch asks when they will meet and the next one states that when the commotion and fighting is over and done with and another says that this will be before the sun sets. They then begin to discuss where they will meet and they state that they will meet where Macbeth is. They then leave.

Did you know that you had to believe in God and the Devil and if you only believed in the devil they considered you as a witch.

The Puritan belief and lifestyle plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. The story takes place in Puritan New England, and opens with a scene presenting to the audience that a young woman named Hester Prynne has committed adultery. Wearing her punishment proudly, a scarlet letter “A” on her breast, Hester continues to live in New England where she raises her daughter and creates an embroidering business for herself. All the while, in the heart of the town, Hester’s lover and the child’s father, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale silently suffers and is ultimately overcome with guilt from his secret sin until the point of death. Throughout the story, references to witchcraft and a witch’s link to Satan is expressed. Several

During the 1600s, young girls in a village located in Massachusetts began accusing women for performing witchcraft. The result of these accusations led to hysteria and the hanging of many people throughout the village. The playwright, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, and the novel, Witch Child, by Celia Rees, have both fictionalized the Salem Witch Trials. In The Crucible, the antagonist Abigail Williams is the source of conflict. She falsely accuses several village people of performing witchcraft, which resulted from her jealousy of her lover’s wife. While in Witch Child, Mary Newbury, the protagonist lives a life of deceitfulness, concealing her identity as a witch when she moves to Salem. The authors, Arthur Miller and Celia Rees in The Crucible and

The art of storytelling is at the heart of fairy tales. Since the beginning, fairy tales have captivated readers with its magical worlds and enchanted characters. Quintessential to fairy tales are destined happy endings and the clear division between good and evil. The nature of these stories creates distorted perceptions that do not align with reality, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. This is portrayed in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad, in which Lilith Weatherwax struggles to free herself from the fictitious world she has fabricated. With the use of storytelling, Witches Abroad uncovers the hidden dangers of false appearances to explore the underlying theme of reality versus illusion.