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King Arthur Miller's Use Of Internal Conflict In The Crucible

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The Crucible is a play by the American playwright Arthur Miller, it is a dramatized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in 1692. It uses the environmental, individual and societal conflict to represent complex ideas of religious fever fueling hysteria, but stemmed by integrity and individual greed. In The Crucible, neighbours suddenly turn on each other and accuse people they've known for years of practicing witchcraft and devil-worship. The town of Salem falls into mass hysteria, a condition in which community-wide fear overwhelms logic and individual thought leading to the conflict of the individual against the community. Fear feeds fear: in order to explain to itself why so many people are afraid, the community begins to believe …show more content…

It is this internal conflict, with the instrumental societal influence where Miller represents his complex idea of the battle against reputation, the way others perceive you, and integrity, the way you perceive yourself. Proctors internal conflict emanates when he is given the choice to lie and say he is a witch and save his life, or die being truthful. He grapples with the decision before initially asking for his life; from the onset he knows that this was wrong, but there is a part of him that gives up the battle to be a "good" Puritan, as he considers himself a fraud, and he looks like a martyr, even though he knows he is not. In the end Proctor resolves his confliction when he is pressed by Danforth to give up his reputation, Proctor responds, stating, "How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name." He ends up refusing to receive absolution from a society he no longer has a reputation in, but instead he keeps his personal pride and integrity. He placed his moral integrity above the value of his own life, and found his own "goodness", which Elizabeth refused to take from him. The Crucible conveyed this complex concept that those who favoured integrity by admitting mistakes and refusing to lie just to save their own lives helped defy hysteria that plagued the town. Those that were willing to die for what they believe in, were able to put a stop to the baseless fear that feed hysteria in a society that was based on greed. It is the internal conflict in proctors mind, that allowed Miller to convey this complex

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Arthur Miller, a playwright, wrote The Crucible, a dramatized and fictionalized play. The setting took place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. The play is about the witch trials, which started due to the jealousy and lust of Abigail Williams, the leader of the witchcraft trial, wanting to have John Proctor, the main protagonist, again. At the end of the play, Proctor is led to his hanging. Throughout the play, there are many events that had helped him made his decision.

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Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, analogizes Salem to a crucible with violent witchcraft accusations and chaotic events predominating everyone’s lives. For instance, the protagonist, John Proctor, is forced to make a choice at the end of Act Four—to falsely confess of communicating with the Devil and live to take care of his family, or to be convicted and have a pure reputation. Proctor’s ultimate decision to deny the false confession is virtuous because it restricts his inner guilt, saves his reputation, and shows a valiant stance against the insanity of Salem’s witch trials. John Proctor’s affair with Abigail Williams haunts him with internal guilt and tarnishes his reputation, but his decision to sacrifice his life solves these

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The Salem Witch Hunt and the Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller, which is based on the events of the Salem Witch Trials. In the play, a girl accuses innocent people of witch craft, and many people died because of the misunderstanding that it was all a lie. There are many historical events that are similar to the Salem Witch Trials, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. In this event, Japanese-Americans were put into internment camps, which were solitary camps made to separate these people from the rest of the U.S. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan caused the distrust of Japanese-Americans similar to those accused of witch craft in the Salem Witch

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The play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is about the Salem witch trials of 1692 witch resulted in the death of nineteen innocent people. The plot begins in a small Puritan community in Salem, Massachusetts when Abigail Williams and several other young girls were caught in the woods dancing around a fire by her uncle Reverend Parris. His appearance shocked some of the girls into silence. The strange behavior of the girls resulted in many of the townspeople to turn to witchcraft as the cause of their behavior.

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Imagine having to go through a severe test or trial that will change your life drastically. That doesn’t usually happen in our small town in Northwest Iowa. We live our daily life, go to school, go to work, go to church, eat, sleep, and repeat. That is anything but what happens to John Proctor in the book, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He has to go through a severe test of who he is and what he stands.

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¶“A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is . . . 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.

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I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 143). Proctor is giving significant credit and recognition to those who did not give into lying to protect their lives but rather died truthful. He is saying he is not worth even the dust on the feet of those that were hung simply because he even for a little gave into the confession. Miller’s element of tragedy that emphasizes a man laying his life down for his integrity is clearly evident in this scene.

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