A crucible can either be defined as a vessel of heat resisting material used for high temperature chemical reactions, or a test or trial of the most severe and decisive kind. In the Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem Witch Trials. Witchery is thought of as evil by the puritans living there. Witchery was believed to be linked with the devil, and bad luck. In the film version of the crucible, when someone was accused of witchery, by a group of girls who claimed to be able to see the devil with them, they were brought to court.
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.
In Arthur Miller's’ The Crucible, jealousy and mistrust are the most dominant emotions Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor shares for one another. Their jealousy and mistrust are rooted in their desire for John Proctor's love, which inevitably leads to the compromise of their Puritan morals of their society. At the beginning of the play, Betty Parris confirms Abigail Williams true motivation to kill Elizabeth Proctor. “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor” (Miller 19).
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.
The Crucible reflects the compelling power that fear holds on people and the erratic behaviours that it drives people to perform, and forces them to believe that they must forfeit their humanity by turning against their fellow people to ensure themselves of a false sense of security. After John Proctor, who is a man that holds a high status in society and is well-respected begins having an affair with the familys teenage servant Abigail Williams, they both begin to illustrate rampant hysteria. Despite the misogynistic system of the village, Abigail is a dominant accuser of witchcraft in Salem who begins to go around accusing many people of witchcraft which results in many innocent deaths. Abigail holds a manipulative and power-hungry nature which causes her to perform reckless actions to destory the lives of others, which begins with her affair with John Proctor that enables her to hold power over him. However, there is a main inconsistency throughout the play which is the fact that John names himself, and acts as a honest man but he begins an ongoing affair with Abigail.
In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, follows the lives of the people in 1692, Salem, Massachusetts. The people in this town are extremely religious. In fact, they are called the Puritans. The Puritan society self destructs due to the hysteria of “witches”, which is falsely started by a group of girls and corruptness deep within the society. Abigail
The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. It takes place during the Salem witch trials. Salem is an isolated town in the Boston area that is set up perfectly for witchcraft accusations. Abigail is being accused of witchcraft and she is a manipulative girl. Abigail has been accused of committing witchcraft in the woods and she plans to bring other people down with her.
Salem in The Crucible from Arthur Miller is the home to chaos and murder due to witchery that is still unclear as to whether it happened or not. These events caused major changes in the characters from start to finish, at the same time a change in society. Furthermore, calling what happened in Salem a tragedy is an understatement when Salem is clearly in a state of anarchy. Similarly, authority is discontinued and Salem enters a “she said he said” state of mind which only further confuses Salem while also hiding the true slaughterer of innocent Puritan people right in front of their faces. Furthermore, this rising anarchy inhibits the people of logical thinking and hides major perpetrators right in front of them.
One of the main elements that eventually build up to the main plot in the play is power. Many of the characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible have a strong desire for power. The Salem witch trials empowered several characters in the play who were previously marginalized in Salem society. It gave them the chance to misuse it leading to horrible suffering and even deaths of some innocent people in the town. Some of these characters are Abigail Williams, Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris.
To be alive in the era of civilized men means individuality is sacrificed for the good of the whole; although if individuality is forsaken to be part of this whole, the individual must avoid letting the group control his thoughts lest this affect his rationality. Arthur Miller found the Salem Witch Trials an exemplary example which demonstrated the dangerous repercussions of mass sensationalism in The Crucible. In Puritan society all decisions are to be based on god’s will, this high level of spirituality is difficult to maintain and more so difficult to properly judge. If we are to properly judge as announced to be our intention then must define sensationalism, why it is a negative force, and the branching problems it invokes.
Kiera Colello Mrs. Mayette April 5, 2023 Advanced American Studies The Dangers to Society of Group Conformity The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller is an important novel that portrays the negative effects on society as a result of group conformity. The Crucible is a play about how the New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, convicts many people when a group of girls gets caught dancing in the woods. During this time period, punishments could reach very strict restraints for things like practicing witchcraft.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a story of a scandal that ultimately results in the hanging of several innocent townspeople. The tale, which takes place in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts around 1692, opens with Reverend Parris, the town minister, noticing a group of young girls attending a questionable gathering in the woods. The Puritan religion is a very strict faith in terms of the way a person may conduct themselves, which means that actions modern people find rebellious would be considered quite nefarious to a Puritan. As the story gains momentum, many corrupt people like Abigail Williams steer the situation in a direction that leads to distrust between neighbors, revenge, chaos, and even death for some. Incorporating these factors, Miller emphasizes the hysteria that develops when people fail to seek the truth with the character of Abigail Williams, a self-absorbed
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
Imagine being an African American living down South during the 1930’s, when racial discrimination was a huge thing. Why were these African Americans so hated and discriminated? It was the way these people grew up in their setting, or even the way the setting raised them, to automatically view these colored people different and not equal towards them. The place in which people are raised in give them these characteristics and social beliefs, so they are not used to anything outside of their social norm. In the novel, “The Crucibles”, by Arthur Miller, the characters living there had a very vague and straight forward way of living life, and if anyone was seen to be doing something different or unusual, they would automatically be accused of witchcraft.
Social class can define a person depending on who you are. Chances are, you will probably get judged by your social class like for an example, High social class people will get treated a little nicer than those in the lower social class. In the Crucible, people got judged on what their beliefs were or how they lived. John Proctor was a man who was first in the higher class with a lot of friends. Later on in the play/story, people have started accusing other people of WitchCraft and John Proctor got involved and was eventually hung at the end of the play.
