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How Does Arthur Miller Use Abuse Of Power In The Crucible

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In any society there are those that are in charge and those who are oppressed. And unfortunately it does not take an extreme event to tip this unstable balance. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible take a literary look on the major historical event of the Salem Witch Trials and comments on the redistribution of power that arose during the trials. The Crucible is a fictional take on the Salem Witch trials, focusing on a puritan community. The trials took place in 1692 when a small group of girls fell ill, becoming privy to hallucinations and seizures without any medical reason. In the overly religious community of Puritans, such random occurrences were often attributed to acts of the devil or his minions. This uncaused illness spread among countless young girls and furthered fears of witchcraft in the community. Eventually, the afflicted girls in order to escape blame accused the other residents of Salem of consorting with the devil. This …show more content…

Those who lack authority also lack innocence. Miller displays a chilling portrayal in which a simple word has the power to ruin a person’s reputation, take their land, send them to jail, and sentence them to death. For the young girls, the witch trials serve a bigger purpose than just saving them from punishment; it offers these young women a forum for venting their resentment toward their close knit, oppressive society. Those who were once powerless held the fate of others in their hands, and were able to settle the score whether it be out of maliciousness, fear, or even grief. They could do all this while still maintaining a proper reputation and standing in their society. Women who fully take advantage of this were able to walk the streets with their heads held high, and say whatever to whomever they please. Abigail and her companions were able to reverse the social order of the village and situate themselves above the men, becoming women who were beyond the control of the

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

The witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.

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The Crucible was about the Salem Witch Trials. The duration of these “trials” were a time of general revenge based on jealousy, lust, and possibly the effects of ergot poisoning. More than two hundred men and women were accused of witchcraft. Twenty of which were executed, along with one man being brutally pressed to death for not admitting to witchcraft. These “trials” could very well have been started because of jealousy.

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611 Words | 3 Pages

The Witch Trials are a way to punish those whom do not abide by the religious orthodoxy in Salem, and ultimately “eliminate” the Devil’s influence in the community. Throughout the play, it is easy to realize the Trials are exploited,

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808 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible: Historical Accuracy The Crucible is a 1996 film (originally written as a play) based on the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. The story is based on actual events and takes place in Salem in the year 1692, opening with a group of young girls who are caught dancing around a fire in the woods. To keep out of trouble, the girls then accuse other townspeople of forcing them to dance. This begins the witch hysteria and leads to wild accusations, trials, and executions of many innocent people.

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513 Words | 3 Pages

The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, reenacts the events of The Witchcraft Trials of Salem in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, an event that many people were labeled witches to which were prosecuted. Within the community, it was alarming that anyone can be convicted with just an accusation. This was similar to McCarthyism, an event during the 1950s initiated by Joseph McCarthy where many people were accused with severe consequence. Throughout The Crucible, it illustrates examples of McCarthyism because people were biased on how they assume one's guilt.

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576 Words | 3 Pages

Tituba the witch The crucible by Arthur Miller is about the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Many people in Salem truly believed that witchcraft was real and lived by that. Majority of the citizens also often thought that they could see the devils spirit in people and they knew when someone was guilty of witchcraft.

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525 Words | 3 Pages

People tend to justify their actions, regardless of the outcome. With knowledge of their actions, people misemploy their authority. A remarkable playwright of the American theater, Arthur Miller continues to capture his audience with The Crucible. In the play, Miller portrays several characters, who abuses their authority. However, of the very few, Miller creates a character who makes an important contrast to these corrupt people.

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The Crucible is a play that takes place in a town called Salem in the late 1600’s during the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of the people that were accused of witchcraft in Salem because of a group of girls that were dishonest about doing something they weren’t supposed to. Among this group of girls was Abigail Williams who manipulated the other girls into going along with the lie which shows how manipulative, dishonest and selfish she is. Abigail can be described as manipulative because of the many things she does to get her way.

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Based on a time when witchcraft was a serious concern, The Crucible by Arthur Miller explains how false accusations can have a severe effect not only on the individual but also on the society around them. These false accusations can be seen in modern-day society through a canceled culture. In either scenario, these accusations can have devastating consequences for all parties involved. In The Crucible, false accusations made by various parties result in an endless spiral of witchhunts and executions. This spiral is started by Abigail accusing Tituba of witchcraft, where Tituba then falsely accuses several women (Miller, 41).

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When people think of the play, “The Crucible”, they usually picture the witch trials and women being hanged, but Arthur Miller depicts the witch trials in a completely new light. He shows through a story that the witch trials were much more than just people calling others witches. There was deceit, pain, greed, and more. Through the play, we follow the character, Abigail, observe her actions and their consequences. We witness the lives of people she impacts, what happens to them, and how many times she lies to get her way.

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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.

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Power in our society nowadays is very misgiven and abused. When people have power they tend to use it for their own benefit and to manipulate people into believing them. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692 in order to show his audience how easy it was to be accused and hung for witchcraft. In the Crucible a group of young girls were caught dancing in the woods and in order to not receive a punishment they lied saying they got witched. The girls blamed many people of the town of being witches and caused conflict all over the village.

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883 Words | 4 Pages

During the seventeenth century, there was a series of court hearings and prosecutions of people who happened to be accused of practicing witchcraft in Massachusetts. These events would later be called the Salem witch trials. In the book titled The Crucible by author Arthur Miller, it is written in the form of a play that has a central idea that explores the Salem witch trials in seventeenth - century Salem, Massachusetts. The main theme that is seen throughout the play is cruelty which can be seen in the way each individual is treated by their peers. The first significant event of cruelty that is seen is within society itself.

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762 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible is a story by Arthur Miller this story was released during the Mccarthyism era and is written to relate what is going on during Mccarthyism time and compared to what had happened during the time of the Salem witch trials. The setting or the crucible will impact the characters, the plot and the tone of the story. The setting of The Crucible affected the characters because during this period of time Salem Massachusetts was a Puritan colony. The Puritans were very strict people, for example on page 1154 of Arthur Miller's The Crucible Paris the town's Minister threatens to beat his slave Tituba “ You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death Tituba” that statement says that the fact that Parris is going to whip Tituba to death if she doesn't do what he says and confess that he is willing to kill anyone who does not follow the rules. Another

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704 Words | 3 Pages

Power is defined as “The ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as as a faculty or quality.” Throughout history, women have significantly lacked not only power but the ability to be recognized as equal to their male counterparts. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, women are somewhat able to successfully gain power from society due to the fact that they use manipulation, deceit and their sexual desire (especially the character of Abigail) to acquire positions of power in their largely patriarchal society. Women are able to attain this power through using their intellect to express manipulation, and lying in order to receive attention that translates into power.

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