How is the issue of violence represented in the lives of individuals in your core text and in one other related text? Violence is presented in Blackrock and Harry Brown through the issues of, the negative influence of peers, the influence of drugs, and powerlessness. These can be seen in various scenes in both texts where youths are creating harmful situations for themselves and others around them. These issues can be examined in the scene where Ricko and Jared fight which causes the relationship between them to melt. In Harry Brown, night raids turn into a large scale riot which is a powerful example of the negative influence of peers.
We are tempted to think that the soul purpose of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible was to create an outlet that exposed the mass hysteria of the McCarthy era , however to say this you would be ignoring the central themes that have allowed this play to reach universal audiences. Among themes such as the abuse of power, conflict with authority and mass hysteria The Crucible deals with the importance of identity and the individual conscience. These two themes are closely linked because until you complete your journey in finding yourself you are unable to have an individual conscience. Miller uses one of the central characters in the story, John Proctor, to explore the journey of individual conscience. This theme combined with a unique structure and language allows him to creature a play that addresses the social and political concerns which are essential to every human existence.
Miller manifests this ideology through the application of literary and stage techniques. A key character in the play which demonstrates this ideology is Abigail Williams. Her unscrupulous nature promotes the use of propaganda to shift suspicion among people and to manipulate by the power of hysteria. From the beginning of the play Abigail enforces power of speech stirring hysteria to devoid any towards her. Continuously throughout the text she performs acts of deception which tragically condemn others to death just to cover her lies.
There is a real sense of danger and fear. The poem sets a stormy scene, with the word “wild” repeated at the start to show how wild and violent the storm is, and leaving us in no doubt as the mood of the poem. The sea is high and the gale has a steady “roar” with use of onomatopoeia emphasizing the sounds of the wind blowing brutally. There is a sense of personification with the “undertone muttering” with “incessant” showing that this noise continues all the time. This develops into ‘demoniac laughter’, which links the devil to the storm, making it seem evil and hostile.
The unwarranted accusations that Joseph McCarthy and the citizens of Salem made are what fueled the widespread hysteria in both situations. According to Miller “It seemed that the hysteria in Salem had a certain inner procedure, or several, which were duplicating once again and that perhaps by revealing the nature of that procedure some light could be thrown on what we were doing ourselves. "(Miller) He made this statement in comparison to the present day witch hunts; which were at the time of the McCarthy trials. The people of Salem accused others of witchcraft to protect their own lives. In both eras, they struck fear in citizens due to the "guilty until you confess" attitude which were in favor of the court.
William Shakespeare's eponymously titled play Macbeth is one of the most celebrated writings in history and is still being performed and studied today. The play reflects the established socio-cultural beliefs of power and the effects of an illegitimate rule during the Jacobean period. Written in the seventeenth century when belief in a divine-ordained hierarchy prevailed, it was thought that if monarchical power was accessed via illegitimate means, destruction of the mind and state would result. Through the character of Macbeth, Shakespeare positions his readers to believe that power can attract even the most noble of men. In the opening of the play, a loyal Macbeth is approached by three witches who entice him with their claim that “[he] shalt be king thereafter.” (1-3-50).
Rediker contends that on both sides of the piracy issue – religious/political figures and pirates – was a world of terror. This terror, used by either side to, ironically, avoid fighting, was used to intimidate either side into submission. The author describes terror as a tool that either side used to defend their views of how the social order should be established and maintained. According to Rediker, pirates were “made up of all nations, and [attacked] the commerce of the world without respect for nation or property” (17). Chapter 2 presents the seafaring world of the eighteenth century through the unique eyes of the sailors.
Americans feared the great power across the ocean, and the thought that spies might be present among them in their own towns and cities struck a common chord. Fear rather than reason fueled the Red Scare, which generated extreme reactions
One of the key tools to Caliban’s inferior stature is his ability to understand the language of the Europeans’, which Prospero had taught him. Prospero uses his magic negatively against Caliban, which forces fear and obedience from Caliban. This magic is similar to the British being much more advanced in weapon technology than the natives in Africa. Caliban curses his master Prospero and finds comfort in being a new slave of Trinculo and Stephano, two Europeans who were shipwrecked due to a tempest and found refuge on the island. The scenes that involve Caliban all have ties to slavery and England’s rule in Africa.
Compare the presentation of female characters in The Crucible, Othello and Enduring Love Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play set in Puritanical New England, 1692. Miller wrote the play as an allegorical statement against McCarthyism in the US. Abigail, one of the central female characters, was the previous mistress of John Proctor; the play’s protagonist, portrayed as a tragic, noble hero and therefore Abigail, who was his mistress who he no longer has feelings for, and causes him trouble, is bound to be seen in an inverted light to the one John Proctor is seen in. Certainly Arthur Miller goes to great length to use Abigail as the anti-hero to John Proctor’s noble, almost incorruptible (if it weren’t for his affair) figure. Miller takes the “woman scorned” approach to his character of Abigail.