Preview

the crucible

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
935 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
the crucible
Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” is a play that explores the unfortunate events that the small town of Salem, Massachusetts undergoes. The play contains numerous forms of belonging from numerous characters. The church demands its members to obey its commands signifying they belong, and those who rebel against the church, such as John Proctor, who refuses to attend Sabbath are alienated and suffer persecution as a consequence. The churches commands displays how belonging can be enforced by a higher power. The play also reveals that faith and belonging to God can result in contentment, a prime example being Rebecca Nurse. The Crucible also explores the concept of belonging through relationships, place and ideas and that belonging to a group can lead to empowerment for individuals.
“The Crucible” has a wide spread audience of young adolescents to adolescents this being because the individuals in these age groups can appreciate the message Miller is attempting to express as they would be more likely to be able to relate to the text as they have experienced the most judgmental years of their lives and are similar ages to those of the characters in the play, therefore they’re likely to be more successful in relating to the characters acquiring the intended message of the play.
The reasoning behind Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” was to entertain the audience while also informing them. Arthur Miller uses his stage techniques to express the purpose of the play with entertainment however his prime focus is to inform the audience about what happens when large powerful political figures in power have faced with something invisible they fear and can’t defeat. Which in this case is the members of church and the invisible fear their faced with is witchcraft.
The context in which this play was written in 1950’s was in the midst of the cold war between the Republic America and the Communist Soviet Union. America under the influence of senator joseph McCarthy’s was introduced

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    ‘The Crucible’ is a novel which was written by Arthur Miller in 1953. It takes place during the times of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. This was a time of much hypocrisy in the people of the town of Salem. Many people believed anything they heard or saw. Although The Crucible is fictitious, the story depicts the historical information of the Salem witch trials, and blends them with fictitious characters to create a very realistic plot and conflict in the story. Miller wrote this play as a response to the political environment in which he lived. The story relates to the McCarthy trials. During the 1950's Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many American leaders of being communists. This lead to many accusations that people were communists. Some people believed him because they had fear of communism. McCarthy was, in effect, conducting "witch hunts". The Red Scare was a witch hunt where the US government was searching for "dangerous communists." Accusations came from left and right, much the same as the characters did for "real witches" in The Crucible. This meant that people were forced to either confess to the crime of witchery or shove the blame towards a different person. As an effect of this bias, the accused were never discharged, but were given the opportunity to confess to the crime of witchcraft to lessen their sentence. With the red scare, the accused were given a chance to give up names of other suspected communists to lessen their sentence as well. In both situations, there were people who confessed even though they had no relation to the crime at all. The majority, however, valued their morals and refused to give into political pressure by lying. This is shown as abuse of power. The puritans were a group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th century. The entire plot of the novel is moulded by the repressive Puritan society. Like many puritan women, Elizabeth Proctor is dutiful and loves her husband dearly. Yet, Elizabeth is hurt by the fact…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The overall message of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is that when uncontrolled hysteria is combined with ignorance, the outcome is tragic. While Miller offers his audience some comic dialogue to soften the events it does not mask the horrifying reality of the witch hunt and its aftermath. Rather, the humorous insights serve to reveal the simplicity and innocence of people living rustic lives in a God-fearing community. Several characters, Paris and Hale, Mary Warren and John Proctor, provide the audience with some comic dialogue, and Giles Corey is the most amusing character of them all.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Crucible Miller demonstrates the evils within the human nature through the experience of the Salem Witch Trials. Many characters in this play endure their own personal crucibles. First, Elizabeth Proctor has the ignominy of keeping a terrible secret. Also, Giles Corey goes through a deadly trial trying to protect his neighbor. Finally, Mary Warren, a shy and timid girl, has the impossible task of going against Abigail and the court. Each of these characters’ crucibles are very excruciating, but only some pass while others fail.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a play portraying the life of the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts, during the 1600s. The Puritans were a community that had a far-fetched idea of perfection, and had an unjust church. They believed that everyone had to be pure in order to be perfect. Men had to dress and act the same, women had to dress and act the same, and almost all fun was forbidden and considered witchcraft. The Puritan’s society was strongly influenced by religion.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the Puritans take part of a government that is based solely on the Bible. The good faith of the townspeople is quickly changed as many of the town’s high-standing citizens are accused of witchcraft, tried, and even hanged. In The Crucible, fear and faith relate very closely with the decisions that are made throughout the course of the trials and hangings of the Salem Witch Trials.…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The crucible

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Quote 1: "Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby."…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” was first published in 1953 during the politically tumultuous time of McCarthyist America. By depicting how the Salem theocracy spiraled out of control in 1692, Miller draws a parallel between the mass hysteria present in the witch hunts of the period and the Red Scare during the Cold War. The play’s central character and tragic hero is John Proctor. Miller highlights how people speaking out against mass hysteria are like Proctor and are “…always marked for calumny therefore.”( p27). While Proctor’s immense pride is his major flaw, audiences align and view him as the ultimate voice of reason in the repressed Salem community. Initially, he is a man of dignity and integrity, however he is self-loathing and guilty because of his adulterous affair with his former servant, Abigail Williams. By the end of the play, despite losing his life and public integrity, Proctor is a changed man who has resolved his personal internal conflict.…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Crucible [kroo-suh-buhl] noun: A severe, searching test or trial. Author Miller titled the play “The Crucible” because it has to do with witchcraft trails in Salem. Witchcraft [wich-kraft, krahft] noun: The art or practices of a witch; sorcery; magic. McCarthyism [muh-kahr-thee-iz-uhm] noun: The practice of making accusations of disloyalty; the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigating techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism. In the play “The Crucible” by Author Miller the characters or John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Reverend Hale are motivated by these ideas of Witchcraft and McCarthyism and in turn effect the plot of the play.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    ‘The Crucible’ written by Arthur Miller is a play which contains a relationship between a male and female character that changes throughout the course of the play. This relationship would be the relationship of John and Elizabeth Procter. This relationship changes from being hostile and awkward at the start and changes to a loving and caring one by the end of the play. This illuminates the central idea in the play of forgiveness.…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Crucible

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the article "Witch-Hunting, Thwarted Desire, and Girl Power: Arthur Miller's The Crucible by Karen Bovard, Bovard talks how people fight to gain power in the hysteria of the witch trials. Abigail Williams leads the girls into accusing people and turns people against each other. Mary Warren tires to stand up and tell the truth but fails. Male ministers and judges fight for power. Proctor and Abigail have an affair that starts the turning of friends against friends by the towns’ people accusing others of being witches. Bovard says that it is interesting that no young men have interest in Abigail, except a married one. Proctor and Abigail’s relationship could be seen as harassment because Abigail worked for the Proctors in their home as a maid. Proctor’s wife Elizabeth knows about Abigail’s desire for Proctor before the affair even starts. She knows that Abigail want to replace her, in her home and bed. Another desire is of Ann Putnam who has lost 7 children during childbirth and she starts to accuse her neighbors of witchcraft. She accuses Rebecca Nurse, who has had many children and grandchildren and out of jealousy Ann accuses Rebecca. When girls are found dancing they are thought to be posed by the devil and then they fall ill and everyone thinks it was the devil and witchcraft. Bovard also makes the comparison about how slaves in Barbados and the town misfits are accused of witchcraft because they are easy to accuse and easy to bring down. And they accused people by what they were. More women with accused and race were also an issue.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Arthur Mille's The Crucible, only a handful of characters symbolize truth and lies. One character in The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, remains honest throughout the entire situation that surrounds her. However, as an honest and loving Christian wife who passionately loves her husband, Elizabeth hides the truth when a dire situation arises, evidently leading to the demise of her husband. She realizes that the truth is something that must be continuously followed and one should never stray from it. Elizabeth Proctor is a symbol of truth because she values it as her most vital moral.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a caliginous time in American history. The moral superiority that engulfs the town in a time of great despair and deep divide accurately sums up the atmosphere of that period of injustice that will forever stain the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This is the subject matter for the play entitled “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller in 1953. According to the Teacher Vision “The play was adapted for film once, by Jean-Paul Sartre as the 1958 film Les Sorcières de Salem and by Arthur Miller himself as the 1996 film The Crucible, the latter with a cast including Paul Scofield, Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller's adaptation earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay based on Previously Produced Material, his only nomination. The play was adapted by composer Robert Ward into an opera, The Crucible, which was first performed in 1961 and received the Pulitzer Prize”. (“The Crucible” Teacher Vision; Family Education Network, 2001-2012. web. Nov 23, 2012. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/historical-fiction/literature-guide/3498.html)…

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the story The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, it explains a play that involves historical events like witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This drama is an example of the unjust events that happened, due to the terrible lies that some young girls made up, who were supposedly witchcraft. This was a hard situation for the entire town because of the accusation of witchcraft toward innocent people. In The Crucible, Miller shows us several examples of themes, some interesting themes were man vs. society, man vs. man, and man vs. self-internal.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Topic 6: At the end of the play, Reverend hale insists that John Proctor”s desire to hang instead of admitting that he was consorting with the devil is an act of excessive pride or stubbornness. Proctor’s self-sacrifice is not more than a petulant act of excessive pride.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible tells of a liberal fictionalization in the eyes of Arthur Miller that shows the activities that occurred during the Salem Witch Hunts. This play was written during a time in which citizens of the Unites Staes feared a rise of power in the Soviet Union. The main themes were reputation, fear, and reprisal. These themes are shown throughout the dialogue and monologue. This play teaches of the fear and vengefulness of the Puritans…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays