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Comparing Allegory In Arthur Miller's The Crucible And Real Life

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Allegory in Miller’s The Crucible and Real-Life Examples Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has been renownedly known for it’s expression of human nature when confronted with fear and the unknown. This allows for the play to develop a lot of allegories and symbolic figures that can further highlight the message the author wants to get through. These hidden meanings, when explored, can enhance the play and it’s meaning to represent something much larger than the initial perceived message. The Crucible constantly explores a theme of fear, specifically a fear of the unknown. It is human nature to be afraid of the things we do not understand, and The Crucible reinforces this fear throughout the play. By creating hysteria and chaos, people's perception of reality blurs. The girls in the play manipulate people through fear, they lie about something that people are constantly afraid of. Although their …show more content…

In order to better understand the correlation between The Crucible and to Joseph McCarthy’s claims, we must better understand the accusations of McCarthy. Joseph McCarthy took on an aggressive campaign towards communism, he made several accusations that government workers were secretly communist. Although he never proved these accusations he provoked hysteria and paranoia which led to negative impact on politics and diplomacy. Soon after, McCarthyism became a term to describe accusing without evidence. “In a narrow sense McCarthyism is the name given to the attitudes and practices of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-57) and his followers engrossed in investigating and purging purported security risks, especially those supposedly with ties present or former, actual or imagined, to Communist groups and governments during the late 1940s and early

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What is the intended purpose of the Mona Lisa, or Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night? Sure, these might appear as just a smiling woman and some stars. But is there an underlying meaning to what is seen at first glimpse? Allegory has the ability to convey complex ideas through seemingly straight-forward illustrations and text, thus being widely utilized by artists and authors as a device to communicate these hidden meanings. Arthur Miller, an American playwright, uses allegory in his screenplay The Crucible to demonstrate the similarities between the events of the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare, both in which individuals were wrongfully suspected and punished.

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1. What is Arthur Miller trying to communicate about the human condition in The Crucible? Address each of his themes with respect to the following topics. ● Infidelity & Jealousy This could lead to many being ridiculed and, to an extreme level, get them killed ● Self-respect and Reputation. People who lose everything, will still want their name, without their name, they have almost nothing to lose.

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McCarthyism was the fear of communism which spread across America in the 1950s. The hysteria of the American citizens was due to the threat that communism would spread across the globe. The government has accused many people of communism,

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When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

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‘The Crucible’ an allegory that Arther Miller created connecting The Salem Witch Trials and The Red Scare. When Arther Miller wrote the play ‘The Crucible’, he was coming from a position of victim. Aurther Miller uses The Salem witch trials as a symbolic story of what happened during his time period. An allegory is a story that can be intercepted on both literal and symbolic levels, which was exactly what Miller did. He took a real story and real life events making an allegory.

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Arthur Miller was a Victim during the “ Red Scared “ a time when many people were in fear of McCarthyism and Communism spreading in the United States. Allegory is when a poem, story, or a picture has a hidden meaning, the meaning can be a moral or political one. At the time many of Miller's co workers were being accused of communism in the United States. Miller did what he does best and wrote a play named “ The Crucible “. This play was an allegory for McCarthyism comparing it to the Salem witch trials.

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The Crucible metaphor also shines bright when Judge Danforth says to Proctor,‘We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment’. The court scenes always portrayed a feeling of fear, tension and conflicts between the hands that wield power. Proctor later speaks out one of his most rageful dialogues ‘A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! …. And we will burn, we will burn together!’Here Miller makes one of the most important connection between the play’s title The Crucible and the society that he wishes to portray.

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.

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Miller’s use of symbolism and imagery, reveals the true love Circe had towards Glaucous and how Circe trusts too easily. When Glaucous awoke from undergoing the changes that turned him into a god, she hid the truth from him that it was her who gave him immortality. According to Miller, “I loved his face in those moments, glowing with power and joy” (Miller 50-51). Miller’s use of imagery, helps to convey the idea how much Circe loved Glaucous and how she trusted too easily. Even before Glaucous was turned into a god Circe truly loved him.

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Have you ever been accused of something you did not do? Unfortunately, this circumstance happened during the second Red Scare of the 1940s-1950s. Joseph McCarthy is the leader of this movement and the founder of McCarthyism. McCarthyism, the act of accusing high government officials of being a part of the Communist Party. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller dramatizes the Salem witch trials through allegory with fearful and miserable tones to illustrate to his audience that hysteria can change one’s actions towards others around them, further explaining the political allegory he creates to show McCarthyism.

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128 Words | 1 Pages

In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," the motif of hysteria serves as a powerful lens through which to explore the destructive consequences of unchecked fear and the manipulation of justice, ultimately highlighting the importance of individual integrity in the face of societal pressure. While some may argue that the events of "The Crucible" are merely historical fiction and not reflective of contemporary society, it is essential to recognize that the themes of fear, hysteria, and the abuse of power are timeless and continue to resonate in modern contexts. Additionally, critics may contend that the characters in the play are one-dimensional and lack depth, reducing the impact of the narrative. However, a closer examination reveals that each character

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719 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.

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492 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, we learn several important concepts but the one that I can make the most connections with the story is the phrase, "Hell hath no fury like that of a women scorned", which the three major characters Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Proctor, and Ann Putnam can resemble this remark about being angry and seeking for vengeance more than the devil or hell could bring on this earth due to being hurt by a loved one or jealousy from an unfair event. The first example of a women showing these acts is Abigail Williams. Once in love with John Proctor and even had an affair with him, she has been seeking revenge since John Proctor does not share the same feelings for her and only used her

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304 Words | 2 Pages

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand once stated, “Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.” Allegory has been a method of writing used by authors for decades. It is viewed as a way an author can express his or her feelings or opinions on various topics without explicitly giving away the deeper meaning in black and white. An author can write his or her thoughts, while disguising the specific issue through literary elements. Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible (1950), used just this technique to unmask the 20th century witch hunt taking place at that period of time.

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