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Critical analysis of ' the crucible
Critical analysis of ' the crucible
The crucible analysis
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During the beginning of the play he fails to realize how much he hurt Elizabeth when he committed adultery. John was criticized and treated with a very much deserved cold reception from his wife. But John lacks empathy as he asks her to look sometimes for the goodness in [him], and judge [him] not” (Miller 55). He’s asking her to look past his affair as if this would be an easy task for his committed wife. But however John is able to redeem himself, and change himself for the better.
As I’m sure you are already aware, Elizabeth has been accused of bearing a pact with Lucifer, and she has been taken to the jail upon your word. I know just as well as you do, she is innocent of the evils you have claimed. She is joined by many others you have falsely accused. The calamity you have begun will soon see a sizable number of people hanged in the name of your “divine purification”. I cannot vouch for the purity of this village, but I know that the evils at play here are motivated by your own vendetta against my wife, and not by the wicked hand of some Antichrist.
The Evolution of Elizabeth Proctor Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is a compelling look at the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Elizabeth Proctor began as doubtful of her husband, John Proctor, but ends up having faith in him in the end. She still believed her husband was still in love with Abigail but Proctor soon proved his love for Elizabeth throughout the play. Elizabeth evolves from a woman who doubts her husband, but then evolves into a woman who risks her life to save her husband. Elizabeth continues to question her husband's faith causing an argument between the two.
“She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it now” In this quote, John tells the governor the truth about the affair and that Abigail’s actions are because she is jealous.
She is faced with helping her husband make the biggest and most final choice in his life so far. Since they have been apart for a while, separated by prison, it would be incredibly easy for her to say that he should live and give up his good name just so she can still have her husband and her kids have their father. It would be incredibly difficult for her to see John for a few minutes after a long time apart and say he can sacrifice himself for the greater good. However, she sees the situation as that: him sacrificing himself for the greater good. She is also strong enough to admit part of the blame is her own, that she has a hand in the guilt he feels about their relationship.
People will do anything to stay alive. The things people will do to survive exist at their clearest during the 1950s with McCarthyism on the rise. McCarthyism, otherwise known as the Red Scare, began when senator Joseph McCarthy accused anyone who was a left-wing “loyalist” risk of being a communist. The threat of losing everything in life; if the case escalated that included taking a llast breath. Arthur Miller sums this up beautifully in a quote describing his experience during McCarthyism, “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties: the old friend of a blacklisted person crossing the street to avoid being seen talking to him; the overnight conversions of former
Mass hysteria was present in both The Crucible and McCarthyism. Mass hysteria is when people went crazy because people were accused of being communists and or witches. Mass hysteria was however started by specific people in both scenarios. In Mccarthyism Joseph Mccarthy a United States Senator and in The Crucible Abigail Williams who was accused of having an affair with John Proctor her employer were the specific ones who accused people of being communists and witches. Even though the Salem witch trials happened in the late 1690s and McCarthyism in the 1950s they paralleled each other.
“Inside each of us there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And on cannot exist without the other”. (Eric Burdon) In Miller’s play The Crucible Abigail and Elizabeth both had to choose between good and evil.
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.
This quote reveals, Elizabeth’s genuine understanding and faithfulness in her husband. She believes that John carries the burden of his own guilt, which is a lucid indication that he has a sense of morality. John feels this guilt, as he recognizes and takes responsibility for the sin he commits, against his wife. Additionally, due to John’s guilty conscience, he also realizes the value and tenderness that his wife brings him. He accepts his misdoings, and never utters a blame against his wife, for his actions.
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.
Period4 The Crucible Essay Communism and Witchcraft have the same effect on humans, that effect is fear, when you hear fear you think of your worst nightmare or someone hiding in your closet, during the McCarthyism era and the salem witchcraft people had fear about whether their life is on the line or not. It all depended on one person in their community whether or not they choose to save their life. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because the girls feared Abigail just like everyone feared J.McCarthy, Elizabeth being accused is similar to McCarthy accusing the US Army, they are innocent just like Elizabeth.
In what ways are women abused and discriminated against inside literature and throughout history? In many patriarchal societies, men have held authority over women due to gender. This power imbalance between men and women sometimes led to unjust treatment of women; men exert their authority over many women in the play, The Crucible. In The Crucible¸ male characters intimidate women to achieve specific outcomes and mark their superiority. Elizabeth Proctor, the protagonist’s wife, shows the standard for Salem women as she is submissive and does not defy her husband or the traditional role as a housekeeper.
Sometimes there will be people who just seem to fit together flawlessly comparable to two dogs, but in the play it is like a cat being terrorised by a dog chasing it. In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller there are two contradictory characters. Elizabeth and Abigail are important characters who have opposite traits. Elizabeth is an extremely sweet and truthful women, and Abigail regularly tries to lie and be jealous. Throughout The Crucible Elizabeth and Abigail express truly opposite traits only to follow the theme of protecting their integrity.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a novel that describes events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts 1962, these events were called the Salem witch trials. Two important people in the story were John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth Proctor, they were farmers that lived on the outskirts of the town, and they lived with their three sons and their servant Mary Warren. John and Elizabeth are important to the story because they are both accused of witchcraft but they are the only ones who know that the girls that are accusing people are just doing it for attention. John is a caring stubborn man who loves his wife even though she does not fully see it while Elizabeth loves her husband but doesn’t trust his word as much as she used to because of things that happened in the past.