Haley Houston October 3, 2013 Honors English 11, Per. 3A Analysis Essay The Evil of Jealousy and Lust Much of the evil in today’s world is driven by jealousy and lust. Affairs occur often, students betray each other in order to get something they desire, and many young girls like Elizabeth Smart have been kidnapped and raped because of that unreasonable lust. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller describes a young group of girls as they wrongly accuse many of witchcraft in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. One of the girls, Abigail Williams, is the cause of all wrong accusations and innocent deaths in Salem, thus making her the antagonist of the play.
She fled for refuge, as it were, to the public exposure, and dreaded the moment when its protection should be withdrawn from her.” (46) His involvement in the novel is purely out of spite for Hester. Even his appearance begins to change throughout the novel he begins to embody the evil that has consumed him. There are many supernatural elements in the novel, mostly pertaining to the scarlet letter. One of the most important one is the letter that burns on Dimmesdale’s chest. It burns through the entire novel as his guilt grows over the seven years of hiding his secret.
Youths are destroying everything, and putting other peoples lives at risk, as well as their own. This is an example of mob mentality, which is physical violence. When a person joins the mob, they are no longer an individual, but part of a huge, driving force. The issue of the negative influence of peers is significant in this event, in that it is the fuel of the riot. When you join the mob, you are now powerless, in that you cannot control what it does, you have to do what it does, and behave accordingly.
One important theme of the play “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller, is revenge, as is shown in the jealousy and hatred that turn people in the Puritanical township of Salem against each other, resulting in the deaths of many innocent lives. For such an idea to be made effective to the audience, the playwright chiefly relies on the characterizations of Abigail Williams, the Putnams as well as Reverend Paris, who manipulate the prevalent superstition as well as people’s ignorance to successfully carry out her malicious revenge. Abigail Williams, a strong-minded young woman, is committed to her personal vendetta as she has a strong physical desire for John Procter. She is a vindictive and ruthless character, and will not hesitate to put anyone to death if they stand in her way of revenge. This vindictive hatred from Abigail soon prompts a witch hunt involving many innocent people: “Twelve have already hanged for the same crime.” While many panics, John Procter knows this from the start ; “this is a whore’s vengeance”.
Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it” (20). This quote really shows Abigail’s personality. She threatens her own friends just so her life is safe. Throughout the
That the play “The Crucible” is about the challenge of belonging is evident by its plot. Millers craft is that he draws his audience into the turmoil of belonging and not belonging through escalating conflict amongst the play’s characters. This is achieved through obvious changes in tension, dialogue and character dynamics as expressed in the audio excerpts. The first of these begins in act II with the inturuption of a domestic argument between John and Elizabeth Proctor in their home, by the intrusion of Mr Hale. What follows is an example of a constant theme throughout “The Crucible” – The contrast of private and public environments.
- Speaks to Macbeth and tries to manipulate him into acting a certain way- Goes back to being the strong one and even says she will kill herself| “come thick night and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell.”“Bear welcome in your eye……be the serpent under’t”“Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the deadAre but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood.”| Speech| She wants Macbeth to kill. She is ambitious and determined.-She has a whatever attitude and wants to kill Duncan | “Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirts into thine ear.”“A little water clears us of this deed:How easy is it then!.”| Thoughts| | | Interactions| Lady Macbeth is more determined and devoted to this murder than Macbeth is| “And live a coward in thine own esteem”| Macbeth |Observations|Text Support| Looks| | | Actions| -Macbeth goes back to being the weak one| “I'll go no more:I am afraid to think what I have done;Look on't again I dare not.”| Speech|-He is still struggling with the fact he has to murder Duncan saying the blood can not be washed from their hands| “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No.”| Thoughts| -Thinks that the crime he is about to commit to become king will come back unto him-a dagger appears and he thinks it’s a figment of his imagination| “To plague the inventor: this even-handed justiceCommends the ingredients of our poison'd chaliceTo our own lips.”“false creation/proceeding from the heat oppressed brain”-the| Interactions| -the way he speaks to lady Macbeth shows
Antigone Analysis The characters of Antigone are in constant conflict with both each other and the situations that present themselves around them. These conflicts keep the attention of the audience and are key factors in driving the plot forward. Interactions between characters, each with their own goals and desires that drastically conflict with other characters’, drive this Greek tragedy unfold. This web even creates tension throughout the play as the audience realizes that eventually one side must lose. Antigone, the “main” character of the play, desperately wants her slain brother Polyneices to have a proper burial alongside Eteocles—both were involved in a war that spawned from a power struggle over a vacant throne and subsequently
She shaped the mindset that it was necessary to murder someone who trusts you for more power and accordingly she changed Macbeth’s way of thinking. Lady Macbeth’s breakdown is at its peak in the middle of the night, when she was walking the halls and she says “Here’s the smell of blood still: all/the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little/ hand. Oh, oh, oh!” (5.1.50-52). Also another major example in Macbeth of how corruption leads to devastation is when Lady Macbeth is so overwhelmed by her guilty conscious she commits suicide and Macbeth is left to deal with this dilemma on his own, “Wherefore was that cry?/ The queen my lord is dead” (5.5.15-16). In this case Lady Macbeths need for power is extremely destructive.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. Euripedes’ Medea embodies this quote from William Cosgrove’s play. Medea is a play that symbolizes feminism and the overturned of fate from a woman grieving in sorrow over the loss of her husband to another wife, to a man grieving in sorrow over the loss of his bride and children to Medea. The one thing about Euripedes’ play is there was a lot of word play to describe the situations and actions of one person, almost never giving a suspense of what is to come next. We knew ahead of time that Medea was bound to murder her children, which I thought should build a nice suspense to the play had it not been mentioned.