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Comparing The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's were a hunt where many people were accused and executed for being charged guilty of witchcraft. Arthur Miller, the writer of The Crucible, created the play as an allegory to portray the events going on during the Red Scare. The Red Scare was when the fear of Communism spread rapidly throughout the U.S. because of accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He believed that many American citizens were part of a secret Communist Party. Most modern day witch-hunts are the same in the sense of how people are accused. Although nobody is killed in the hunt for cheating athletes, it still strongly resembles the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, due to the fact that victims are prosecuted based on the want for revenge, rumors rather than facts, and jealousy. …show more content…

In an article, Lance Armstrong explained it as "...just plain ol' selective prosecution that reeks of vendetta" (Herman 1). Armstrong simply believes that he was being blamed by someone who desired revenge after he treated them harshly in the past. The rumors of Armstrong cheating shot quickly throughout the community, and soon enough he was being questioned if he ever had any involvement in using banned substances. Lance Armstrong's situation is similar to what John Proctor claimed in the play. After being enraged by what was going on in Salem, Proctor insisted that "..Vengeance is walking Salem" (Miller 1246). Proctor thinks Salem is being ruled by vengeance because everyone is accusing one another for revenge, and no matter how innocent that person is, they are still prosecuted. The words of the citizens are controlling what goes on in Salem during the time of the trials, and Proctor is the only one not so caught up in the events. He reacts to what is happening by calling out the court on what's going

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Michelle Rodriguez 10/30/17 Mr. O. Garza 3rd Blk (A-day) Fuller The Crucible It’s 1692; the people of Salem, Massachusetts are under a government of theocracy and talk of a reverends daughter, Betty, has emerged. Rumors that Betty has been bewitched start to travel from ear to ear and her father isn’t very fond of it.

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What a Horrible World     In today 's day and age we have more technological, medicinal, societal, and worldly advancements than we did in either 1692 or 1947, but we are still just as easily corrupted by jealousy, power, and paranoia. The years 1692 and 1947 are perfect examples of prospering societies that became undermined through very similar processes. In 1629 the Salem Witch Trials and in 1947 the McCarthy Communist Trials- were both held unjustly, involving condemnation based on unfair trial practices. People desperately admitted to being a witch (1692) or to being a communist (1947) only because they didn’t want to die. Even if you were found innocent your life was virtually over because your career and livelihood had been destroyed

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676 Words | 3 Pages

In the Salem community Proctor was looked at as a very honorable man. Yet, John Proctor was not a perfect guy by any means. He cheated on Elizabeth with Abigail, and sometimes he would get violent towards Elizabeth. He felt guilty about it all though and just could not forgive himself.

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As the whispers grew louder in the town of Salem, the accusations grew as well. John Proctor was a man who stood up for what he believed in. Throughout the play we see fingers being pointed at each other trying to see who can be blamed for witchcraft.

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In history there have been many major events that have shaped the times we live in. Two of the major events of our time are the "witchunts" of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a drama and fictional story of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-1693. Miller wrote the play as a parable for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists.

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906 Words | 4 Pages

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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756 Words | 4 Pages

In 1692 hundreds of people were sitting in jail for being witches, but none of them were really witches. An author named Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible based of the true events of the Salem witch trials. In the play some girls get in trouble for dancing in the woods. They claim the witches were making them do these bad things. The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches.

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1257 Words | 6 Pages

The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.

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Proctor has finally had enough of all of the commotion resulting in his outbreak in the courtroom. He let the anger get the best of him and his emotions finally took over. He rants to Danforth that the girls are frauds and have accused innocent men and women of witchcraft and have taken their lives over accusations and revenge. Proctor realizes this and says that we will all burn in Hell together for the mistakes that have been made in the courtroom. The courtroom in Salem was a sign of corruption and not everyone realized it at first.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

Proctor has had a new perspective of the trails now the he realizes all of the mistakes he has made. In the beginning of the play, Proctors perspective towards the hangings was the avoid and not be involved in it in any way. Now, Proctor realizes that by confessing, there will be blame set on other innocent people so by ripping the confession paper, it will not make the court look better. Proctor also realizes that confessing would affect many other people in Salem and would not put a legacy in his

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Whether or Not “Witch-Hunts” Were Justifiable “Witch-hunts” take place when a specific group of people, accused of having opinions that are thought to be vile, are searched for and punished. This has happened on multiple accounts all throughout history for a variety of reasons, and is left up to the reader in The Crucible to decide whether or not they were justifiable. Arthur Miller, the writer of the play The Crucible, created this masterpiece in 1953 to portray the events of the Salem Witch Trials which took place in Massachusetts. In the play, there is a group of girls that get caught by the town’s minister for dancing in the forest, where they are eventually blamed for witchcraft. Throughout The Crucible, Miller makes a statement about how witch-hunts took place in Puritan society by showing the beliefs the people of this time had towards witches.

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1580 Words | 7 Pages

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about what happened during the Salem Witch Trials. It gives insight about what people had to deal with in this situation and how they handled it. The trials were basically a big test which helped figuring out whether or not people were guilty of witchcraft. This is an example of what a crucible is. In our world today we still have crucibles and even though they are different than back then, they all relate to each other because of what influence they have on people.

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260 Words | 2 Pages

The Crucible Writing Many people are killed during the witch hunts of Salem, Massachusetts. The play The Crucible describes the events that took place in Salem in 1692. During this time many people believe in witchcraft. Proctor, Hale, and Cheever, along with many others are involved with the court hearings.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

John Proctor illustrates that he is an ethical man because he highlights the fact that young girls, children, are controlling Salem purely with their words. Proctor 's ethical attributes are conveyed when he realizes that the group of accusers may be pretending to be afflicted, “I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (73) which causes other to question his credibility. He also speaks this to emphasize the problem that everyone assumes that the accusers, children, are innocent.

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, fourteen of them women, and all but one by hanging. The play was written in 1952 after the Red Scare in America that caused much hysteria, like the Salem witch trials. In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Each of the characters of Proctor, Hale, and Elizabeth changed from the beginning of the play to the end of the story. Proctor becomes more honest; Hale becomes more skeptical, and Elizabeth becomes more forgiving.

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