The Crucible
The Use of Imagery in the Crucible The Crucible is a compelling play about how jealousy takes over. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible demonstrates through the use of imagery how far people will go to get what they want. Imagery is also used to show how jealousy can change people, and in The Crucible to add, Miller emphasizes the fact that once people get jealous it can destroy them. Miller lastly portrays how jealousy alters people’s personalities and lives. During the play Arthur Miller uses a lot of imagery. When he uses the following quotes some may feel that they are actually there. Miller shows imagery when John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor are discussing what is going on in Salem, Massachusetts. “’Oh it is a black mischief’” (Miller 1163). According to this statement Miller addresses the girl’s accusings as mischief. When John Proctor says this it feels like he truly means it, because he says it with such aggression. The is one form of imagery that is use to demonstrate emotional evil. When Arthur Miller asserts the use of imagery he portrays vivid use of wording. Miller implies a certainly when John is speaking to Elizabeth in the court house. “’I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth’” (Miller 1179).This dramatizes that john will act on the court. Arthur Miller presents the use of imagery very spitefully. The character of John Proctor dramatizes so many emotions during the play. Arthur Miller uses John Proctor to stress what Mary Warren did is wrong “’…Now hell and heaven grapple on our backs, all our old pretense is ripped away- make your peace...’” (Miller 1181). John Proctor is explaining to Mary Warren what the consequences are for what she is doing. When Miller lived during the 50s there was some speculation of him being apart of communism. In The Crucible Arthur Miller portrays the 50s when he is in Salem, Massachusetts imagining the old Salem town in 1692 “’As I stood in the stillness of the Salem
Citations: 1. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Literature; The American experience, Ed. Grant Wiggins et al. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2010 page 1163, 1179, 1181. 2. Wiggins, Grant. Et al. Literature: The American Experience, Ed. Grant Wiggins. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey; Pearson, 2010