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Power And Authority In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is a play that depicts the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693. The play explores a variety of themes, including power and authority, deception, and honesty. In this reaction paper, I will focus on the theme of power and authority and argue that it is a central and recurring theme in the play. One example of the theme of power and authority in the play is the character of Judge Danforth. Danforth, who is the highest authority figure in Salem, uses his power to control the proceedings of the witch trials. He abuses his influence to force confessions from the accused Defendant. He is convinced of the guilt of the accused and unwilling to consider any evidence that suggests their innocence. This
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Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

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In our society, many people rely on the power of law and justice in order to protect themselves. Some powerful men abuse and misuse their power which brings many unfairnesses and tragedies. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Judge Danforth is a deputy governor of the state, and he is also the judge for the witchcraft trail. Judge Danforth represents the authority and supremacy in the entire play. Throughout the play, Danforth’s tyrannous and stubborn personality caused many wrong decisions that he made in the court.

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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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Argumentative Essay: Power in The Crucible There are many concepts in human society that can only exist if there is a belief in them. One of the strongest of those concepts is the concept of power which can be so strong that it gets out of hand. As John Dalberg-Acton once said, “Power tends to be corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” The feeling of being powerful causes one to go off the rails and believe they are truly invinvible. Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is a fictionalization of the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s that also acts as an allusion to the Red Scare that happened in America during the early 1900s.

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Power in Salem flourished in 1962 at the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. Power is the ability or right to control people, things, or outcomes. The way to have power is to capture it. In the Arthur Miller play, The Crucible, one person abused their power; while the other person was elevated in their social structure in order to save or end innocent people’s lives with her power within her knowledge. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Tituba express their power through the means of threats and actions, good or bad.

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Despite their deeply religious values, the members of the Puritan Society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are equally as sinful as the rest of the world. The Puritans, known for turning to God when given any matter at hand, lay blame on the Devil, regardless of their contradictory values. By blaming on him for their wrongdoings, the Devil earns power through the Puritans restoring to involve him whenever any one thing goes wrong. Power is defined by one’s reputation, status, wealth, gender, and age; although the natural deciding factor of one’s power in the Puritan society is land, the Devil himself holds ultimate power. Despite the fact that he does not appear as a human figure, he controls the thoughts and actions of the Puritan society, serving as the ultimate threat.

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Arthur Miller’s tragedy The Crucible, published in 1953, takes place in Salem Massachusetts around 1692 during the Salem witch trials. The Puritan society's government and laws are controlled by the church. The play follows a group of teenage girls led by Abigail Williams who cause mania by accusing citizens of the town of witchcraft. John Proctor, a farmer who had an affair with Abigail, tries to stand up against the girls and the tyrannical government but falls victim to Abigail’s rampage and is hung as a witch. Throughout The Crucible, hysteria and the abuse of authority are the two most important subjects explored because they are primarily used to manipulate fear while simultaneously promoting excessive avarice that ultimately leads to

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Everyone longs for success. They desire the acceptance and approval for following their moral compass, being rewarded, and being acknowledged. However, one cannot maintain success without a purposeful and achievable position of power. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the power of society is bound upon a pronounced hierarchy. Men naturally are deemed as having higher status than women in society.

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Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible," is an amazing work that examines the pressure and moral conflict experienced by the characters in the Salem witch trials. The title itself alludes to the container used for heating substances, symbolizing the emotional and psychological turmoil experienced by the characters. The play exposes the dangers of groupthink and blindly following authority. The people of Salem were in a state of panic, as accusations of witchcraft spread rapidly throughout the community.

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Respect and reputation was important to the people of Salem because it was a way that people know that they could do business with and be social with. When the movie begins Reverend Parris is scared that with Abigail’s bad behaviors or actions and the hints of witchcraft surrounding his daughters coma the Reverend is afraid for that all of Abigail’s actions will ruin his reputation. Towards the middle of the movie John Proctor has the chance to stop the girl’s from creating more accusations and ruining their good name but he does not come forward because he does not want his affair with Abigail to come out again. At the end of the movie John Proctor has a chance to save himself from being hanged by signing a false confession. John signs it

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Authority is the most important theme because throughout the play the judge is the chosen one as they believed because the way they think is that god chooses the right one, Judge Danforth is the protector of Salem he is the one that sentences and executes men,women, and kids. The way they do it in salem is corroborative because the judge is relied on what the victims says and they don’t always tell the truth so it’s bad on the behalf of the suspect even if they haven’t did anything. As far as authority goes in Salem it all really depends on the main man the judge to condemn one’s life good or bad, the people of Salem is kinda like today’s people because people like to change the words of some things depending on the person they are talking

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When reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller the audience is pulled into a world of lies, witchcraft, and overwhelming authority. The book takes place in Salem massachusetts in 1692 where a group of girls are claiming witchcraft on whomever they may please, and following accusations by these ever so trusted girls characters must either confess to the acts of witchcraft or likely hang for lying about it. But there is also one main theme that is prominent in the crucible which is that authority is used as a way to convey oneself as dominant. The hierarchy of authority in the story is used as the audience reads through the book, they see more that authority is a way to convey themselves as dominant to characters who may be thought as lesser to them.

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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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In the past three decades, there has been a remarkable emergence of developing nations as significant players in the global economy, such as India and China. The cumulative exports of all developing nations have been increased over this period. Also, there has been a significant growth of investments that took place in developing countries in the form of industrial firms and portfolio investors. Over the same period, the foreign direct investments in relation to GDP increased by three-fold for the developing countries.

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Power and influence in society have a huge impact on the way things happen and affects perception. A prime example is the power that presidents and prime ministers have. Given this power they can effectively influence and persuade others. Power and influence is often associated with gender, conflict and roles and relationships. The importance of the power and influence can be thoroughly examined using texts that demonstrate ideas presented as truths.

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