Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as an outlet for what experiences he was going through during the Red Scare. It is no surprise that Arthur Miller would put things in The Crucible that he and others were going through during The Red Scare. Arthur Miller made these characters the way they are because of his experiences during The Red Scare. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller wrote himself as John Proctor and he purposely made him the way he is and what he goes through. John Proctor and Arthur Miller are parallels of each other in the way of being accused by their own government, not signing the names of communists/witches, and people’s reputations were ruined.
John Proctor, a more lovable what you might call protagonist of the book who sticks his feet in the ground and dies for his name. The Proctor you know however may just be different from the real John Proctor. The 3 differences of proctor in life and proctor in the play are his descriptive appearance, his personality, and his how much the witchery affected him and his family. From small little differences to big personality changes John Proctor has it all so buckle in as I use evidence to show you the real John Proctor.
In John Proctor’s argument with Reverend Hale regarding his devotion to religion, Miller uses ethos and pathos to propel the plot forward. His ethos are aimed towards revealing Parris’s lack of devotion to the church by using decorum to show how he fails to be concomitant with Hale’s archetype of a trustworthy leader. The replacement of the handmade pewter candles with the artificial golden candles symbolized how the trials encouraged religious pretense in Salem rather than sincere devotion to religion. The trials promoted the superficial/materialistic aspect of faith in Salem because people were deemed to be pious by their attendance at Church on Sabbath day rather than by their innate devoutness to religion. Similarly, Miller vilified his
Though the Crucible is fiction, the allegorical character of John Proctor reflects the author, Arthur MIller in the following ways. The Crucible is a comparison to the real life “witch trials “ which we're going on in the real world. Arthur Miller used The Crucible as a way to protest the Red Scare to compare how very similar Salem’s witch trials were to this accusation of communism. The red scare was the inoperable fear of communism within the United States. The Salem trials and communism were times so fearful, when accused you were guilty no matter the verdict.
Death, can tear anyone apart, but when it's for a cause it can open a family, friends, or even a nation's eyes. When a national icon dies for a cause it can a can make the whole nation take a step back and look at what's really going on. An excellent examples are John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, or in this case John Proctor from The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. In this play people are being hanged for an accusation of witchcraft, which is necessary to restore the social justice in Salem. This play can be compared to history, with information about the play itself, and lastly how the tragic hero's death makes a difference in this play.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller uses the different characters which were semi factual to create the scenario and mood for the play. In fact, Miller creates the mood for the book with his title. A crucible is a container in which one puts objects such as metals and are put to extremely high temperatures. This gives the idea to the reader that this play will be one of high tension and drama. By creating this scenario, Miller gives the readers of the era a story to relate to during such times of tension and drama, and compares the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism directly through the
John Proctor is basically the tragic hero of “The Crucible”, the reason for this is statement is because the tries to save his wife from being hanged. He cares about his children, he also has tried not to cheat on his wife Elizabeth, while she was ill. At the end of the story Proctor is hanged due of his confession of being a warlock. In the rising action of the story John Proctor is trying to avoid Abigail, he states that “But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.”
Author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, used it to symbolize the American government's authoritarianism that made the nation fearful of the alleged "communists" infiltrating America. The novel takes place during the time of the Salem Witch trials. Salem's official court advanced false accusations of witchcraft that led to many people being wrongfully accused and executed. In the story, those who believed in witchcraft were seen as the ingroup, whereas those who did not were seen as the outgroup and were working with the "devil. "Demonstrating how Fascists force societies into going along with their beliefs.
Miller had been accused of being a communist sympathizer during the Cold War. Miller said in a New Yorker article, “”The Crucible” was an act of desperation.” He then explained that his desperation likely stemmed from his Depression-era trauma. He later said was motivated to write The Crucible because he felt that liberals were afraid to speak out against civil rights violations, because they felt like they would be accused of being a Communist. This is very similar to what was going on during the Salem Witch trials and in the play, with Townsfolk afraid to speak out against the accusations made onto others that hadn’t done anything wrong out of fear that they would then get accused of witchcraft as
Reasons Behind The Crucible Arthur Miller’s main purpose in writing The Crucible was to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials and to warn against government propaganda. At the time that The Crucible was published, America had a huge fear of communism. Anyone accused of having ties with the communist party was shunned. It much resembled the Salem Witch Trials in how the government, or leader of the time, used fear against the people to gain power. For example, Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Reverend Parris in how they both lead the people into the belief that there were intruders in their mists that had plans to sabotage the community.
John Proctor honorable or not? John Proctor is one of the main characters in the crucible. John Proctor to me is a honorable man. He is honorable because he is loyal to his friends and family.
John Proctor is a good man despite anything others may say about him. He displays three very noble qualities throughout the witch trials which are bravery, honesty, and an overall goal to save lives even to the point where he sacrificed his. While many argue John is a bad man because he committed adultery they are entirely mistaken. Just because he had one bad sin gives no right to anybody to call him a bad person when clearly the good side of him is shown more than the bad. John Proctor is a good man who displays the characteristics of a hero and could be seen as one for giving his life for his friends.
When people think of the play, “The Crucible”, they usually picture the witch trials and women being hanged, but Arthur Miller depicts the witch trials in a completely new light. He shows through a story that the witch trials were much more than just people calling others witches. There was deceit, pain, greed, and more. Through the play, we follow the character, Abigail, observe her actions and their consequences. We witness the lives of people she impacts, what happens to them, and how many times she lies to get her way.
The Crucible, published in 1953 by Arthur Miller is a very popular book written about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. While most people use the book to study the Witch Trials, with closer examination it is easy to conclude that it is a direct allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era of 1950s America. An allegory is an extended metaphor in which the characters or objects in the story represent an outside meaning. The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era drastically by its plot, characters, and the flow and outcome of the court trials. To begin with, The Crucible is an allegory because the plot of the book closely resembles the events that occurred during the Red Scare.
In seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts, the Puritans enforced strong moral beliefs of purity and the prohibition of sin. In a magazine article published in The New Yorker just prior to the release of the movie version of The Crucible, Arthur Miller comments, “In any play, however trivial, there has to be a still point of a moral reference against which to gauge the action. In our lives, in the late nineteen-forties and early nineteen-fifties no such point existed anymore…. for anyone needs to feel right to declare someone else wrong. Gradually, all the old political and moral reality had melted like a Dali watch.
