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Analysis of the crucible by Arthur Miller
Identify the characters and characterisation in the play crucible by arthur miller
Analysis of the crucible by Arthur Miller
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The Crucible Act 1-4 Reading Response Journal 1.a. Speaker: The speaker is Arthur Miller, who was the author of the book, as well as a popular essayist and playwright during the 20th Century. 1.b. Audience: Miller is addressing the reader of the book 1.c. Context: At the time the quote was written, Salem had been established for forty years and was involved in trade amongst other nations.
Judge Danforth’s unwavering egotism culminates in the unfortunate deaths of Salem townsfolk. Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible demonstrates how the actions of one person can affect many others. Judge Danforth cares more about his own reputation than what is right. Often times people try to think of what is right instead of saving their own face, Judge Danforth is an exception to this stereotype. The Salem Witch Trials were a horrible time where many people lost their lives due to an unjust court system.
Helen Keller, a disabled rights activist, American author, and lecturer once said “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” This quote relates to The Crucible by Arthur Miller by showing how a dynamic character changes throughout the story of the Salem witch trials. During this story, the character who goes through the most change is the character Reverend Hale. Through Reverend Hale’s change from a narcissistic holy man to a humbled, guilt-ridden man, Arthur Miller illustrates the realization of regret changing a man.
Also, since The Crucible was written to be parallel to McCarthyism, the same idea is shown. The same situation can be seen in The Crucible as Arthur Miller was influenced by the events that occurred during McCarthyism. In the Crucible, anyone whose name that had been mentioned underwent an investigation and was asked to prove that they were not partaking in witchcraft. Because this task was impossible, the court made rash decisions such as sending people to jail or sentencing them to be hanged. This scenario is seen in the crucible when Rebecca Nurse is accused.
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.
The Salem Witch Trials was a time period where tension and controversy arose from personal religious pursuits. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller used the character of Reverend Hale, a minister, and expert on the demonic arts, to display the raw injustice and hypocrisy manifested from his bibliocentric beliefs. Hale’s confident, formulaic view of Christian faith and witchcraft gradually changed. But as He came to Salem with much devotion to the church and with good intentions, he soon realizes the very evil he is committed to brought chaos and the overpower of authority. Despite Reverend Hale’s deep religious convictions, his naivety showed the fallibility of his judgment of others.
People to Blame in Crucible (Analysis of who is to blame in The Crucible by Arthur Miller) According to Christopher Bigsby, “it is Shakespearean. Parties and counter-parties. There must be a counterparty.”
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.
Throughout the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the character of Reverend Hale transforms considerably from Act I to Act IV. From his initial beliefs of practicing justice and preventing witchcraft to ultimately his loss of faith and his culpability and apprehension towards the events that will eventually occur in regards to the Salem hangings. Hale's transformation changes the play by sprouting distrust in the Judicial system within Salem and surrounding areas. Hales transition from a slightly smug, starry eyed, deeply devoted christian, to an untrusting, unfaithful, pessimistic man affected the play by giving us the readers a sense of empathy for Hale who had been mislead to persecute innocents instead of convicting real evil doers for the benefit of unjust, untrustworthy people such Reverend Parris and Ezekial Cheever for their own personal incentives.
In those times we don’t always think about the right thing because it takes a lot of courage and honesty that many don’t have. Arthur Miller in The Crucible uses courage, weakness and truth to allow the reader to better understand and relate to the characters in the book and the way of their society, during that time. Some examples to show are when John Proctor was tried for his lifeand his name, when Elizabeth Proctor was tested of her truth in the court, and when Giles Coery was pressed to death.
In the Crucible, the crazed people’s blaming and manipulating others is present in many instances. These accusations lead to mass hysteria and escalate throughout. One example in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is when Giles Corey is telling Hale what his wife was convicted of. He states, "Walcott charge her. Y'see, he buy a pig off my wife.. and the pig die soon after."
"The Most Dangerous Game" is an appropriate title for the text because the story is about a man named Sanger Rainsford, a big-game hunter, who becomes the prey of another hunter, General Zaroff. General Zaroff is a wealthy man who has become bored with hunting animals and has turned to hunt humans for sport. He sees it as the ultimate challenge and the most dangerous game. One of the reasons "The Most Dangerous Game" is an appropriate title is because the game involves hunting humans; The central theme of the story is the idea of humans being hunted for sport, which is a dangerous and disturbing concept.
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.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was influenced by many of the philosophers that came before her, specifically John Locke. Frankenstein was published in 1818 in the middle of the Romantics' hold in England. The novel was originally made to be a ghost story to entertain Mary Shelley and her companions during the 1816 summer. John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding had a lot of influence over the young writer and her book, but there were also some ideas that they disagreed about. So while Mary Shelley uses John Locke as an influence, she also draws ideas from some other theories.
One part where Judge Danforth decides the people punishment, Judge Danforth says “Hang them high over the town!”(144). This quotes says that Judge Danforth had these prisoner hanged, but before these he decided to have Giles Corey “Press”(135), “They press him, John”(135). “Press” in the play refers to having someone crushed to death, and with this Judge Danforth has the most power in the play The Crucible, because he was able to decide the punishment of the one found guilty, this shows how powerful he is, because he decided this punishment specifically for Giles Corey and once he decided the punishment and gave the other,his orders were final, no one argued or tried