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Distorted Presence Of Female Roles In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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The Distorted Presence of Female Roles in the Crucible The viewpoint on gender roles in today’s progressive society is in drastic contrast to the views portrayed in The Crucible. The Crucible, a tragic play written by Arthur Miller, dramatizes the Salem witch trials which was set in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. The play follows the downfall of multiple characters as a result of one female’s conduct, known to be Abigail. Although the literary work does not accurately account for the events that truly take place during the Salem witch trials, it provides historical context and a destructive outlook on Puritanism. The novel’s most prominent point of the cruelty of Puritanism can be found in the fact that women are portrayed as weak creatures, who are expected to submit to men, and whose only access to power is through deceptive methods. None of the females in The Crucible possessed extreme power, but the truthful, transparent, and unadulterated women seem to be even less powerful than the rest of the female roles. Elizabeth Proctor and Rebecca Nurse are two of the less powerful women in The Crucible. “Both of their lives are driven by the desire to protect and serve their families and communities” (Alter 1). Elizabeth Proctor convicts in participating in witchcraft even when it is prevalent to most …show more content…

Abigail tempts John to have an adulterous relationship with her when stating, “I have a sense for heat, John, and yours has drawn me to my window, and I have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness. Do you tell me that you've never looked up at my window?” (Crucible.I.21). Occurring I this moment, Abigail manipulates John in attempt to destroy his relationship with Elizabeth. Through these actions Abigail demonstrates how her manipulation controls people into doing and saying what she

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Crucible Thesis Statement Even in today's’ society women are collectively expected to stay quiet and be predominantly obedient to men. But in the play, the crucible by Arthur Miller, he changes that concept completely, and flips those roles when he has all these girls cry witch and they start to accuse the people they wish dead and on the most part they succeed. Since witchcraft is an “invisible crime” there is no proof that they are lying, so whoever is accused is as good as dead. The women in the crucible generally break gender roles because in the play for once, they were the ones calling the shots, they were the ones being loud (and expressing themselves rather creatively and deceptively), and they were the ones disobeying the men.

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