A crucible is a severe test as of patients or belief, a trial. The play The Crucible is a journey through the trials of many townspeople caused by the superstitious belief of witchcraft. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller progresses and evolves the outlooks and views of the townspeople of Salem and shows how events, people, and catastrophes cause the characters to change their views on whether the people prosecuted were guilty or innocent of witchcraft. Reverend John Hale changes his view, more and more drastically as the play advances, as a result of the events that he underwent and the experiences he had. Soon he had total belief in the innocence of all those convicted and hung in Salem.
John Proctor was definitely not a man without mistakes, but I believe that he did more good than bad in the end. Some of his actions were bad, but you have to look at the situation he was in. John Proctor was a victim of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. In the book, The Crucible, a young group of girls are accusing people around the town as being bonded with the devil.
Characteristic of Hale In the book “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, there is a very creepy and interesting old man. The story is about a village that are all puritans and some teen age girls start blaming each other of witch craft to avoid a death sentence or to get out of trouble. The man happens to not be part of the village but a vaster just passing by, who in my mind over stayed his visit. Hale is an old preacher who has been searching for proof of witches and finds a village that is said to be filled with them. “Nearing forty, tight skinned, and eager eyed,” So just imagine a man that is really old with bulging eyes looking for witches.
The Crucible and the Mass Hysteria Portrayed The Crucible composed by Arthur Miller, has many themes that have been explained. The most known theme being hysteria, as well as the role it played in devastating the town of Salem. Hysteria can be defined as behavior displaying excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic and this is evident in The Crucible as the actions of Abigail Williams and her friends are accusing the town’s people of Salem as devil worshippers. This theme has been portrayed through the use of dialogue and stage direction. In the whole event of the witch trials, a few people were able to thrive upon the hysteria and use it to their advantage.
Since the narrator knows everything about Jacob, we can suppose that Jacob may be the narrator. If we think about the fact that Lila was forgotten at the end of the story, she may have been a made up character in Jacob’s mind. Jacob’s bookstore is dark and lonely. Rarely anyone goes there, and it is full of stories written by other authors. This symbolizes that Jacob’s life is very lost, and he doesn’t really have a life.
And fearing God was the greatest rule. In very basic words, the play has a reoccurrence of having to choose either saving yourself and condemning others, or condemning yourself to save others. This relates very well back to Proctors advice. Many characters are accused of witchcraft and are killed unless they confess and point out others who were also partnered in witchcraft. The correlation of doing ‘good’ and ‘harm’ done, are very strong in many main characters throughout the play.
When the trials began, many accused others of witchcraft and this lead to them accusing even more. The new news of the entire witchcraft epidemic in Salem left many disturbed and trying to eliminate the bad of the town. The novel allows the reader to reflect on the life of the Salem people and understand the happenings. One example is the reflection of the lives of teenage girls in the puritan society, sent by God to marry and have a family, lacking the happiness of teen hood. Thus, explaining a
The fact that the Bible, a book which a whole religion is based around, opens with God shows the power that He already has. This shows God to be omnipotent. When God was creating the different parts of the world, He says 'let there be...' and there is. This shows God as creator because all He has to do is to want something to be there, and it happens. He doesn’t even necessarily have to do anything.
Rachel Morpeth Honors American Lit- 2 Ms. Story December 1, 2009 Reverend Benevolent Reverend Hale is perhaps the most complex and dynamic character in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. At the start of the play Hale is summoned from East Hanover to Salem when fear and rumors of witchcraft have just begun to spread. He is an expert in the demonic arts and is adamant in his belief that he will bring nothing but sanity and righteousness to Salem. However, as the story evolves, Hale finds himself caught up in the mass hysteria that he helped to create. Hale’s purpose, contributions, and conflicts in the play are all much more profound than what may appear on the surface and significantly impose on his one hundred eighty degree character spin.
Author Millers, The Crucible, is a play about the fear, of witchcraft in the sixteenth century, and what fear does to people in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. During the colonial time period, witchcraft was punishable by death. In Salem the idea of witchcraft not only feared the people, but also the community as a whole. The community of Salem was split into two demographics by poor farmers, and wealthy merchants, becomes a scared fearful town during the accusations, not knowing if your neighbor was or was not a witch. The church of Salem plays an important role in the outcome of the town; the church has immense power and control of the town.