Because Arthur Miller wants to depict the dangers of the development and progression of hysteria, “The Crucible” illustrates this through the antagonist Reverend Paris, a closed-minded Puritan society, and the persecuted group of young women on trial. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible shows the hysteria that took place in Salem in 1692. Although the play is fiction, Miller based the plot of his play on historical events and his characters show how paranoia and fear can escalate. A number of characters used this fear to benefit and they showed
The Prime Instigator of Conflict is Fear Fear and violence is rampant within the Salem society in “The Crucible”. This insular society is obsessed with sin and damnation, where neighbors are found pitted against each other and judgment is the norm. This is an extremely conflicted environment that engenders fear. The structure of this community fights itself because it is in massive conflict, so hysteria and anarchy is the rule of the day. The rigid and apprehensive nature of the society encourages conflict as it denies the individuals the opportunity for legitimately voicing and enunciating ones true self.
A History of Persecution For millennium humans have been afraid of the unknown and what they do not understand. This fear has led to violence and the perpetration of unspeakable actions in the name of eradicating that fear. During the 1940’s and 50’s the United States was suffering under the fear of communist sabotage and were turning to McCarthyism to root out the traitors. Playwright Arthur Miller saw the unfairness and mad persecutions that were sweeping the nation and satired it all in his play The Crucible which is a retelling of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in Massachusetts in 1692. Miller used the play to represent injustices that were going on at the time such as accusations that had no substantial evidence, an unfair assumption that the accused was guilty until proven innocent, and the tendency of Senator McCarthy to retaliate against any criticism against him an accusation of being a communist sympathizer.
Survey of Am. Lit and Comp 18 October 2010 Crucible Essay In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the suspicion of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts consumes the people of the town with questions and accusations. The theme of this drama is that fear has the power to govern one’s actions. This theme ties in well with the Stephen Vincent Benet quote. “Persecution follows superstition and intolerance…once we light that fire we cannot foresee where it will end or what it will consume”.
Fear is defined as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain. In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, which depicts a time of panic, false accusation, and wrongful executions , all caused by one thing fear is present in everyone’s life at some time or another in the story. The feeling of fear overall plays a very important role in everyone’s life in the play. In a puritan society, in which reputation plays such an important role, the fear of guilt by affiliation becomes decidedly harmful. Knowing this townsfolk of Salem must fear that the sins of their friends will stain their names.
In Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible,’ the most obvious victim of alienation is John Proctor as he is the protagonist. Throughout the play, Proctor develops opinionated views challenging the law making and abiding citizens of Salem, concerning the community members accused of witchcraft. Proctor is alienated as he is seen as a threat to the court and church because of his difference in opinion and his disbelief in the jury. This is particularly shown in Parris’ line, “They’ve come to overthrow the court, sir!” This is significant because it portrays Proctor as the minority as ‘they’ is contrasted to ‘the court.’ Reverend Hale is also alienated as a result of his decision to change sides and end his association and support for the court. In effect, Hale’s decision has a large impact on society and the audience because he was seen as a well respected character and formerly belonged which reinforces the notion that often an individual is willing to sacrifice their belonging to a group for their morals and integrity paralleling Proctor’s sacrifice of his life.
The authors, Caroline B. Cooney, Harper Lee and William Shakespeare write of violence in their novels and play. In Enter Three Witches, the author writes that people who dislike others and are angry eventually meet a violent end. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee writes that people who are racist are also dishonest and will also eventually meet a violent end. Shakespeare also argues that people who do not except others will meet tragedy. Cooney uses MacBeth to prove her thesis; whereas, Lee uses the character Bob Ewell to prove her thesis, and Shakespeare uses Tybalt to prove his argument.
The plot revolves around accusations of witchcraft and hysteria caused by Abigail that plagues Salem and splits the town into those who use the trials for their own gain and those who desire the good of the society. Boy in the Striped Pajamas is set during World War II in Berlin during the period of time in which Germany intended on eliminating the entire Jewish
Miller has portrayed the community of Salem as a town tainted by enigmatic irony as a result of the role reversal of good and evil, due to greed and autocratic power, aggravated by sexual repression, themes that are still prevalent in society today. Arthur millers dramatisation of the seventeenth-century witch-trials administrates the compelling theme of order and disorder, provoked by sexual repression. The Crucibles Setting, culture and congruence to historical events enhance the audiences understanding of the order and beliefs of the puritan’s in the small, relatively new community of Salem. Basing its
Occurring in late sixteen hundreds, the Salem witch trials was a manhunt derived from greed and vengeance. During the 1940s and the 1950, a wave of paranoia and anti-communist sentiments consumed the nation. Headed my Senator Joseph McCarthy, the House of Un-American Committee arrested and questioned citizens about their past or resent connections to the communist party. In play The Crucible, the Salem witch trials serve as the foundation for Arthur Miller’s allegorical tale about the era of McCarthyism. At a first glance, many assume a direct connection does not exist between the play and the dark event in history, but analyzed closely, the Crucible parallels the events of the Red Scare.