Literary Elements In The Crucible

“The Crucible” contains many themes, but the most prominent theme in the play shows that fear and suspicion destroys a community. The character, events, and literary devices used in “The Crucible” help to prove this theme. This theme shows its ugly face many times throughout the story and the fear, along with the suspicion, make the characters in the story act strangely. When the characters act strange, the events in the play intense and interesting to the reader. The literary devices used assist the story’s way the reader feels throughout the story. When the reader feels suspicion and fear, they question the society inside the story. “The Crucible” demonstrates that the dreaded appearance of fear and suspicion in the world destroys any society.

The specific literary devices used help to add to the specific theme that fear and suspicion destroy society. One important literary device used to support this theme appears as suspense. Suspense, as a literary device, means a feeling that shows itself after a story undergoes a series of unfortunate events. One reads about many unfortunate events inside this play, so one feels great suspense when wondering what happens next. An important moment when the audience feels suspense appears at the beginning when one wonders if Betty fell victim to witchcraft. When Proctor decides whether or not he chooses to confess represents another suspenseful moment. The characters in this story also feel this suspense which makes them fearful and suspicious. A second literary device used to support this theme comes in the form of tragedy. Tragedy means a literary device that shows itself when a story undergoes a series of unfortunate events. Many people consider “The Crucible” a tragedy because the story contains many, many unfortunate events. The entire town breaks under these terrible events and destroys the society. The tragedy of the story leads to even more suspicion because when a loved one dies, the person who remains wants revenge. This person feels immediate suspicion of everyone, like in “The Crucible”. To attain revenge, Proctor suspects Abigail and the other girls of lying to the court to get his wife into trouble. Literary

The humble town of Salem crumbled under these terrible emotions and cost the lives of many people. “The Crucible” focuses on these two emotions that represent the destruction of the town and the people in it. When a person felt the least bit suspicious about anyone, the whole town erupted with the thought of witchcraft. The town interviewed few about this suspicion because of their fear. The characters felt fear and suspicion which made the town go out of control. Salem lost its sanity and fell to the ground in the process. Fear and suspicion act as the destruction of