“And I look - and there was Goody Good... Aye sir, and Goody Osburn” (p. 49). At first, the social outcasts were accused, then respected characters such as Elizabeth Procter and Rebecca Nurse are accused as a result of the town's mass hysteria. And so this mass hysteria is created, only by young girls, but it has spiraled into a black hole consuming everyone in the town of Salem, regardless of their social
Hale arrives admired by the people, who all want him to claim it was witchcraft that has occurred. Although unsure, he understands he is being led toward the conclusion of witchcraft by the town’s false pretences and mass hysteria. He begins to see a weakness in the position of the townspeople of Salem and tries to not let common accusations be the support for his diagnosis. The conversations that Hale has demonstrate the evolution of his mindset. In Act II, Hale is traveling around the town, going house-to-house, searching for accused women to warn them that their names have been mentioned in the court.
“A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between” (Miller 87). This particular quote from Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, first and foremost portrays the intolerant nature of Puritan society in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 at the peak of the Salem Witch Trials. The witch hunts stemmed from a mass religious hysteria that resulted in a tragedy of nineteen executions while hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Fear in such an intolerant Puritan society is what primarily fueled this mass hysteria that took over Massachusetts. Miller uses this tactic and focuses on emotions rather than logic to exhibit the psychological representation of a tense period in history.
Miller makes her a young woman of eighteen or nineteen and invents an adulterous relationship between her and John Proctor in order to motivate her of John and his wife Elizabeth. The actual manner of the trials was outrageous, but no more outrageous than the conduct of ordinary criminal trials in England at that time. In any case, it is a little werid or ridiculous to ask the question of fair trial: how can there be a “fair trial” for a crime which not only has not been committed, but is impossible? The Salem “witches” suffered something that may be worse than persecution: they were hanged because some were accused with hysteria. And they choose to die, everyone could have saved themselves by “confession,” they would not say that they were witches when they were
The Crucible by Arthur Miller, written in response to the 1950’s anti-communist actions, is a play that recollects these famous trials. The play, set during the time of the famous witch trials, depicts the lives of the citizens. Throughout the course of the play many of the ideals of Puritanism are broken. These ideals that are violated are lying and adultery, coveting of neighbor’s goods, and envy. The citizens of Salem fail to live up to the Puritan ideals.
The Crucible Topic One The Crucible is an intriguing play based on the ‘Salem Witch Trial’ which occur in 1692. The play was written by Arthur Miller in 1953. The word crucible meaning a severe test. One of the character is Elizabeth Proctor she’s John Proctor’s wife. She turns cold torward her husband when she discovered about his affair with Abigail.
In Arthur Miller’s most well known play, the Crucible, Miller relates the tragic hysteria of the 17th Century Salem Witch Trials to the hype of communism in the 1950’s. Miller demonstrates that when authorities become corrupted by fear of suspicion and fear of mistrust, members of society purge their emotions on others and use them as scapegoats. As the play progresses Miller illustrates that there is something to be gained from standing up for one’s beliefs, no matter what the costs may be. To ‘stand up’ is defined as one or more people siding with and defending a point of view or belief. This is shown through the fates of the falsely accused John Proctor, Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse.
The people of Salem lived in fear of the devil. Paranoia and fear emerged vigorously when talk of witchcraft spread. With such talk of the devil came accusations. People began accusing their neighbors in order to save themselves. “This predilection for minding other people’s business was time-honored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many of the suspicions which were to feed the coming madness (Miller 4).” * * Hughes 3 * In The Crucible, there are many factors that contribute to the fall of Salem, Massachusetts.
While winter wore on, the girls began to show signs of odd sicknesses. When the village doctor called and could find nothing physically wrong with the girls, he concluded that the evil hand was on them. Mr. Parris begged the affected girls to name the witches, and so Elizabeth blurted out the name of Tituba and other names such as Sarah Good, a despised pipe-smoking beggar, and Sarah Osborne, who had scandalized the village by living openly with a man before marriage. In seven months time, seven men and thirteen women were executed for practicing witch craft, many on the basis of the testimony of ghosts and specters. Those who would not confess were killed and Tituba was spared and sold by the Parrises.
The Crucible Essay The Crucible, the famous play written by the playwright, Arthur Miller, written during the Red Scarce in 1952, shows the mass hysteria for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Reverend Parris catches his daughter, Becky, and his niece, Abigail, dancing in the woods. Abigail admits that they were dancing, but tells him and Hale that the Devil already has other people’s souls, which leads to harsh accusations and fallacious executions. Both, Arthur Miller’s life and The Crucible have two connections: One, in that both, had paranoia about a certain subject. In the United States, there were worries of Communism infiltrating the government; however, in the Salem community, there were worries of witchcraft being practiced in the town.