“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” - Franklin D Roosevelt. Fear plays a major role for the tragic ending of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, because fear is upon the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts, it leads to unanticipated accusations, power, and hatred. This feeling, has occurred in everyone’s life at some point, which is more overpowering than some might think.
Once hysteria arose about the girls dancing in the woods, due to all the fear it leads to unanticipated accusations, being a slave, Tituba was accused by Abigail to avoid any punishment. As Tituba was accused of witchery, Hale takes her hand and tells her “confess yourself to witchcraft, and that God will protect you” (24). Tituba overwhelmed with fear was frightened
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One major example for hatred in the play was when Rebecca Nurse was accused witchery for “murder of Goody Putnam’s babies” (34). This shows it was out of hatred because the person who claimed Rebecca of murder was Mrs. Putnam who had all her babies die except one while Rebecca had all of her children alive. However hatred might have played some of the role for the tragic ending of The Crucible, fear played the majority role. It all started with Reverend Parris, frightened that Abigail and the girls dancing will become common knowledge to Salem, he tells Abigail “I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me.” (10). Parris then tells Abigail he saw Tituba “waving her arms over the fire” and heard “screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth.” (9). Parris shows fear so he tries to blame everything on Tituba instead of the girls so he wouldn’t lose the town’s respect. Thats where everything started with the fear of Parris losing his respect in the town. Towards the end of the play, Proctor’s execution causes a lot of tension, causing Parris to realize what his decision has caused. Parris full of fear yelling towards Goody Proctor “Go to him, Goody Proctor! There’s yet time!” (63). Trying to convince her to talk to her husband to confess to witchcraft so he could live instead of dieing on Parris
He is called “a brainless man” (Miller 117) by Danforth because he does not see the implications of Abigail’s departure. Parris is only worried about losing his life’s savings and being blamed for her running away; instead, he should be worried about Abigail and her wellbeing. Also Parris does not tell about Abigail running away until the third day that she had been gone; this shows that he did not want to ruin his reputation by spoiling the court case. These things lead to the catastrophic events of the Salem witch trials in The Crucible because Parris overlooked the small details that could have stopped the events immediately. While his actions did not lead directly to anyone’s death, he still could have caught Abigail and forced the truth from her.
Research Essay Fear can occur when a person has a feeling of threat or danger and sometimes harm or anxiety for oneself or another. Fear can often influence a person to take extreme measures and act irrationally. For instance there are a number of parallels between the treatment of of the accused during the Salem Witch Trials and the treatment of Muslims after 9/11 ; In both cases, people were being belittled and downgrading, and society was in a state of grief and shock and it all resulted in discrimination of the accused. Almost each person in Salem wanted vengeance for various reasons due to that people who were accused of witchcraft were constantly belittled and did not have a fair chances during the trials In Salem.
The Crucible was written as an allegory for McCarthyism in the United States during the 1950’s. People accuse those who are different out of fear and misunderstanding and are not challenged out of fear for being next. Fear is one of humans most powerful emotions. Fear is the reason for hatred, making people do the unthinkable.
Fear is necessary for life. When people are afraid, they will point fingers at those who wronged them. Adding in revenge, humans will destroy almost anything and anyone just to get back at others. In the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in the town of Salem, the townsfolk experienced this firsthand. In the story, a group of young girls were found dancing in the woods and were later forced into confessing to witchcraft.
Throughout the story he does stay humble and turns modest after being robbed by Abigail. Parris confesses with John Proctor and tries to tell the others to do the same so that they can spare their life but is really only concerned for his own life. Reverend Parris gets impatient and demanding when he tries to figure out if Abigail was dancing in the woods with the others. “Out of
¶“A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is . . . She thinks to dance with me on my wife 's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat.
Near the end of play, both Hale and Parris are sick of executing, and they try to do whatever they can to make Proctor confess, even if it’s a half-hearted one, so they would not have to see any more of the tragedy and feel guilty for
In Act IV, line 219, Danforth said to Parris: “Mr. Parris, you are a brainless man!” Danforth say this to Parris is because Parris is crying and get mad of Abigail who stole his money. “They’ve come to overthrow the court, sir! This man is—”(Act III, line 218-219). This part Parris is getting angry about Proctor’s answer to Danforth.
Abigail was caught by Parris while she was dancing in the woods but she lies about it so she avoids any trouble. Parris thought that he had saw someone naked running through the woods but he wasn’t sure about it so he questioned abigail about it. She responds to him by saying, “ No one was naked!
He understood that the spectacle would raise suspicion of witchcraft among the people of Salem, and he would be implicated. He eventually took advantage of the situation to protect his position and punish a faction in the community that he suspected actively opposed him. Parris seemed glad when the girls started mentioning people they saw with the devil because it distanced his family from the situation. The focus was redirected at those who were mentioned by the girls. Parris can be blamed for setting a tone for his daughter and the people that will make them hysterical; As well as trying to point the finger at other people, to make sure no one blames him for what is going on.
Parris is dynamic like John, but for the majority of the story he sacrifices his integrity like his niece Abigail. Not is it until the end of the story Reverend Parris realizes what he has done was wrong. " Go to him! He rushes out the door, as though to hold back his fate. Proctor!
However, at what cost? In supporting the Patriot Act, American citizens succumbed to a moment of absolute hysteria, and disregarded any rationale and concern for the future in order to assure temporary security. In doing so, Americans sacrificed their unalienable freedom for protection, granting the government direct access to their privacy. Similarly, in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, written in the mid-twentieth century, the people of Salem, Massachusetts capitulate their unalienable rights to reasoning and liberty at the price of safety. In his play, Arthur Miller juxtaposes humanity’s desire to feel safe with its needs for logic and all other rights through the character Parris, the willingness of the girls to lie, and the downfall of Salem society’s justice.
The Crucible: How Fear Changes People During his first Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt once announced, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Fear manipulates a persons rationality resulting in them behaving in ways they normally would not, especially in the story The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The characters in The Crucible allow fear to manipulate their beliefs and actions. They all know what is right, but fear alters their mindset causing them to act differently.
The Crucible is a story by Arthur Miller this story was released during the Mccarthyism era and is written to relate what is going on during Mccarthyism time and compared to what had happened during the time of the Salem witch trials. The setting or the crucible will impact the characters, the plot and the tone of the story. The setting of The Crucible affected the characters because during this period of time Salem Massachusetts was a Puritan colony. The Puritans were very strict people, for example on page 1154 of Arthur Miller's The Crucible Paris the town's Minister threatens to beat his slave Tituba “ You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death Tituba” that statement says that the fact that Parris is going to whip Tituba to death if she doesn't do what he says and confess that he is willing to kill anyone who does not follow the rules. Another
One of the main elements that eventually build up to the main plot in the play is power. Many of the characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible have a strong desire for power. The Salem witch trials empowered several characters in the play who were previously marginalized in Salem society. It gave them the chance to misuse it leading to horrible suffering and even deaths of some innocent people in the town. Some of these characters are Abigail Williams, Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris.