Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.
Thesis Statement: In Arthur Miller’s Tragedy, The Crucible, it shows past events of the Salem Witch trials, as an allegorical unfairness of the McCarthy Trials, in which the word of a person can be misdemeanors or disregarded, based from mostly of their social importance in its hierarchy to mainly benefit the accuser within tragedy however, within the play it has segments to go against that old traditional social order, with a new type of order to overturn the view of society, and can be shown through split of groups. Paragraph #1: Topic Sentence: One’s words could mean of any value is depended importance of person in an social division inside the, The Crucible, matters greatly inside of the Puritan town whether the townspeople should even believe in the words of someone younger, and is a female,
In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, many unprecedented events occur in the period of The Salem Witch Trials, one of the most unprecedented being the countless accusations of villagers being accused of witchcraft. However, the fact of the matter is that not many individuals really thought about what drove society to do the unthinkable, or the influence that could have caused many other individuals to take decisive actions to no prevail. In a couple of ways, society unknowingly used the means of peer pressure and life threats to ultimately cause an individual to take decisive action. One way society unintentionally influenced the action of many individuals was through the excessive use of peer pressure. For instance,
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.
The Crucible The issues of power, that Arthur Miller's The Crucible, depicts are concerned with, who has the power, the movements of power that occur and how power can devour individuals and attempt to mishandle it, for either retribution, enviously, material addition or sexual longing. When people get absolute power, they are unwilling to give it up, and will do anything to keep it. Salem is a separated town in Massachusetts where force is one of the primary main impetuous that add to the elements of the group and how individuals communicate with one another. Power and force is overwhelming in two primary ranges that Church and the Males. The general public of Salem is an extremely Patriarchal Society where the men have control over the
“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow” (Anais Nin). Religion is a powerful factor that influences the behavior of many individuals. This is especially seen within the Puritan town of Salem, MA, in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. The play takes place during the lunatic time of the Salem witch trials in 1692.
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, many people influence how events within the play unfold. The play occurs in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, near the 1690’s. Salem was an entirely Puritan town, meaning that everyone is pious to the extreme and believe in following to the letter all scripture from the Bible. They also believe that Satan is a very real threat to the people’s everyday lives, and that all sinners will be damned. Since no one is perfect, and everyone sins at some point, people are constantly dealing with both their internal guilt and the external issues of being shunned by society.
Human is a species that live in group, and conformity is one of the distinct characteristic of human nature. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller investigates various natures in community throughout Act 1 and 2. The play took place at Salem, a town that primarily based on puritanism, the major plot of this play is about witchcraft and witch hunt. Miller conveys a essential message of people always search for conformity from society as a form to prove their identity, further, any rebellion would consider as outcast from majority. The author explores the theme by the use of conflict, this literary element best demonstrates changes of characterizations and complication between others and internal struggle.
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller argues that conformity and fear can cause human nature to make a mess of things very quickly. The characters of his play live in an unchecked Puritanical theocracy that is very strict and the courts cannot be challenged or questioned. This and the power of fear causes all the townsfolk to act in a vindictive way that they normally wouldn’t have. The Salem Witch Trials are far from the only example in history of human’s pack nature causing chaos. Many prominent conformity events in history have been during times of war and confusion.
The Downfall of Salem In this world there are many different types of people such as those who follow and those who lead. The Crucible by Arthur Miller has four different categories of people; the liars, the power-mongering, the rebellious and the ignorant. The play is used to display the conflicts of the Salem Witch Trials with these four factions constantly opposing each other. Only to discover who is in the confines of the Devil’s keep and who is under the will of God.
Pride leads to the downfall of Salem A crucible is a laboratory instrument used to heat off any excess water. In the same sense, when “heat” is applied to the Protestant society in Salem, Massachusetts, the readers are able to see the true characters of the townspeople. The readers see whether characters are motivated by greed, by pride, by integrity, or by other impulses. Most people are motivated by pride in one form or another.
Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.
Many people view religion as a way to maintain order in society; it’s a moral code for people to follow. It can cultivate community, provide people with structure, and overall create a sense of belonging. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, explores the opposing impacts of religion. Through his depiction of the Salem witch trials, he shows how religion can tear communities apart, and be used as an excuse for hate. Miller specifically shows the impact that the overwhelming presence of Puritanism has on women in the Salem community.
Because this play is set 1692/3 Puritan Salem, Massachusetts, the main theme of intolerance is widespread. In this setting, the church and state were one, making this sins of an individual public concern. Throughout the trials, intolerance for any deviation in thought and behavior is quickly made known. Any form of dissent is categorized as evil, the devil’s presence. The community’s ultimate expression of intolerance is the witch trials.
The representations of the complex relationship between people and politics forces individuals to forfeit their right to an individual conscious in order to conform to the ideologies of a political structure. However, an individual’s concern for justice may challenge the ideologies of an authoritarian power structure ultimately resulting in a sense of catharsis. Arthur Miller’s dramatic allegory ‘The Crucible’ explores his ideas surrounding the political and social ramifications of the controversial ‘Cold War’ period in American history when the widespread fear of communism arose. Miller saw these current events as reflective of events that had occurred earlier in the infamous seventeenth century Salem Witch hunt and exposes the corruption of a political sphere through a differing context. This significantly influences his representation of the dangers of political authority, and through a play emphasises the need for extremism within all governing systems.