Janae Wimbley
Mrs. Agee
English 102
13 February 2023
People Can Be Easily Fooled
In 1692 the Salem witch trials took place in eastern Massachusetts where multiple innocent women and men were arrested and hung on accounts of pursuing witchcraft. Miller based The Crucible off the events of the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy Investigations of the 1950s. He wanted to write a play considering the cultural and political events that were happening in the U.S. around the time of the government seeking to conceal communism. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses dynamic and static characters to display how people value their reputation, obtain justice, experience judgement, and are intolerant to one’s views or beliefs. Reputation was a constantly reoccurring theme in The Crucible throughout all the characters. John tries to tell the truth without telling the truth to protect his
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For example, Danforth and Hawthrone are the officials of the court, they treat witchcraft as if it is real until they get some hard evidence to prove it is fake. Danforth will not release the innocent people, because this would make the court look bad and people would have no respect for the court anymore. John Proctor, however, judges himself for his affair with Abigail. John beats himself up throughout the story about the hurt he has caused Elizabeth. John has much remorse and feels a lot of guilt for committing adultery. Elizabeth had to live with the suspicion that her husband was cheating because she could not give him what he wanted. Elizabeth tells Proctor he still judges himself, which is why he seeks forgiveness from her. Elizabeth states, “.... There be no higher judge under Heaven than Proctor is....” ( IV. pg 127). After she tells him this Proctor sees some good in himself and overcomes the judgement, he has for himself. Along with, the judgment in this play intolerance happens quite a bit