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Character analysis essay the crucible
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Puritan society in early america was very strict. It was not desired to wear fancy clothing or own fancy household things. Being plain was looked upon as normal. The Crucible is a story beginning in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 during a time where witch hunts begin to erupt all over early America. John Proctor the main character is a well respected man throughout the community but his flaw is he had an affair with the Antagonist of the story, Abigail Williams.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. ”(Roosevelt). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a historical fiction about how hysteria and groupthink can have drastic consequences. It follows the Salem witch trials and the events that led to 19 people being convicted of witchcraft and subsequently killed. The most important subject in The Crucible is how fear can affect decisions.
In this world, it is not the gentle rain that people will listen to, but thunder and lightning. The storm is what catches people’s attention, and it is the storm that is used by individuals to make others look at them. In my opinion, hysteria is a man-made storm prevalent throughout all of human history. People will use this hysteria for two major reasons, to gain power in the world, or to create change in it.
The Crucible The term hysteria is defined as: exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion. In Author Miller’s, The Crucible, hysteria is exactly what happens. The Crucible takes place in Salam Massachusetts, in 1692. The plot is centered on the events of the Salam witch trials. The movie opens up with the young girls of Salam dancing around a fire.
Death Over Shame Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is about the Salem Witch Trials which took place in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s. The story revolves around how Abigail Williams led one lie avalanche into the executions of innocent people, including John Proctor, who was the one person Abigail truly cared for. The Puritans were very superstitious as they were devoted to their religion, and this leads to them being gullible with Abigail’s lies when they are all just to cover up her wrongdoings. All the conflict in the court started when a group of young girls, including Abigail, were found dancing in the woods. Abigail cannot afford to have her name tarnished so she starts accusing other people for witchcraft.
Small pieces of information pass thru people’s minds everyday. But, imagine if, a huge group of people flagrantly reacted to one of the tiny pieces of information almost identically. Mass hysteria is exactly that, a group of people reacting over something small in a huge way. Mass hysteria is mostly caused by media interaction and human nature. This is shown in The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
Mass hysteria or collective hysteria is a phenomenon when a group experiences real or imaginary illusion of threats through rumors and fear. One book that shows mass hysteria is The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This book is about the salem witch trials. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of hunts and hangings based on a witch scare throughout the town of Salem. Many people accused others and there was widespread panic all throughout Salem.
The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller. One of the major themes of “The Crucible” is hysteria because people are exaggerating things like they saw people dancing in fires and the girls pretending that they are being attacked by a demon or a an evil spirit. In act III Abigail is pretending that she sees a bird in the beam. Abigail said “ Why--? Why do you come yellow bird?”
In 1953, playwright Arthur Miller took inspiration from the unfolding Red Scare- an era of inflated panic over the perceived threat of communist infiltration- to write his play titled “The Crucible”. Having lived through the frenzy surrounding the communist accusations, Miller understood the importance of conveying the dangers such hysteria poses to the maintenance of a functioning society. While Miller based the play on historic events, he never claimed complete accuracy, instead including a preface addressing the revisions he made and why. Miller’s intent was never to provide a strictly accurate depiction of the Salem witch trials; he wanted to provide a parable for McCarthyism, using the dramatization of events to warn Americans of the destructive potential of hysteria. Therefore, it can be discovered that while Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” accurately portrays fear and hysteria in terms of a fear of persecution, his depictions prove predominantly inaccurate, exaggerating mob mentality and neglecting to emphasize the true magnitude of a fear of the Devil.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the power of the towns government and religion are the backbone of the story, the case of the witch trials. In the book, the main character, Abigail, blames numerous girls for witchcraft. "I'll lead them in a psalm,but let you say nothing of witchcraft yet" (Miller 17). She does this out of spite due to jealousy over goody Proctor. In their town, based on their religion, witchcraft is serious, devilish ritual and forbidden.
In “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller, there are many themes. One major theme would be that buying too much into your own beliefs can be dangerous and that it’s important to listen to your gut and if you don’t it can lead to mass hysteria. Reverend Parris said “There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit. Do you understand that” (Miller act 1). Parris is fearful of losing his position and his power that he lets his extreme beliefs and actions start mass hysteria in the Salem community causing the death of many innocent people.
In “The Crucible” (1953) Arthur Miller asserts that mass hysteria leads to high tensions and heated relationships between people that once were great friends. these tensions begin in the town of salem Massachusetts in 1692 where witch hysteria was beginning to run rampant. A rampancy that caused the unjust deaths of nineteen of the town's residents. Nineteen people who had nothing to do with the theorised witchcraft that was spawned by people’s fear of the unknown. A fear that manifested due to untrustworthy people.
Schemmel In the book Flowers for Algernon Charlie is really dumb, but he wants really badly or not. The doctors in the story help him become smart by running tests on him. The doctor's ethics were questioned when they tested Charlie for his good reason, or their own. Ethics are not about religion , not about following the law, and not about feelings.
In the Crucible, fear, hysteria, and revenge are the most important elements where fear spreads around the whole village. Hysteria involving witchcraft would end up with many innocent people killed. With many false accusations of a long held grudge with another villager would kill others they would have problems with. Revenge would later involve the slaughter of another bad blood of another villager. “God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat.
Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.
