Fear and Shame in Arthur Millers' 'The Crucible'
FEAR AND SHAME
In this essay, I am going to carefully explore the themes issues of fear and shame in act one of 'The Crucible', and how they have an influence on the characters behaviour.
Act one is where we are introduced to the majority of the characters, and we are given a close insight into each of their different personalities. The first character in the play is Reverend Paris, and straight away we can see that he is very self conscious, that he values himself quite highly, and that he cares about his own reputation, which comes across as him being quite arrogant; Where at the current time, he has the most status in salem. Nevertheless, as the play goes on we find out perhaps he cares too much about his reputation; Paris is obviously so overwhelmed with status and power, therefore it comes across as him being fearful. We can see that he fears that his job is in jeopardy, as his daughter was 'affected' by the devil, so he worries about how the villagers will view him due to this. However, I feel that he is more ashamed of this.
During the introduction of Paris on the first page it states “He was a widower with no interest in children”. This represents how he cares more about his reputation than his daughters health, although he does pray for Betty at the start of the play. This also symbolises what a negative personalities he obtains, and how he cares and prioritises the wrong things. He is shameful of the involvement of his family in the case.
By giving Paris all of these personality traits, I believe that Miller is subtly trying to make us dislike his character, especially after how he acts toward Tituba while she confesses to witchcraft. “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death.” This quote represents many things, such as the fact that he is being forceful towards Tituba, and he is trying to portray that despite the 'witchcraft' going on in his household, he still obtains power; however it also connotes to
In this essay, I am going to carefully explore the themes issues of fear and shame in act one of 'The Crucible', and how they have an influence on the characters behaviour.
Act one is where we are introduced to the majority of the characters, and we are given a close insight into each of their different personalities. The first character in the play is Reverend Paris, and straight away we can see that he is very self conscious, that he values himself quite highly, and that he cares about his own reputation, which comes across as him being quite arrogant; Where at the current time, he has the most status in salem. Nevertheless, as the play goes on we find out perhaps he cares too much about his reputation; Paris is obviously so overwhelmed with status and power, therefore it comes across as him being fearful. We can see that he fears that his job is in jeopardy, as his daughter was 'affected' by the devil, so he worries about how the villagers will view him due to this. However, I feel that he is more ashamed of this.
During the introduction of Paris on the first page it states “He was a widower with no interest in children”. This represents how he cares more about his reputation than his daughters health, although he does pray for Betty at the start of the play. This also symbolises what a negative personalities he obtains, and how he cares and prioritises the wrong things. He is shameful of the involvement of his family in the case.
By giving Paris all of these personality traits, I believe that Miller is subtly trying to make us dislike his character, especially after how he acts toward Tituba while she confesses to witchcraft. “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death.” This quote represents many things, such as the fact that he is being forceful towards Tituba, and he is trying to portray that despite the 'witchcraft' going on in his household, he still obtains power; however it also connotes to