The Crucible Essay

The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller in the 1950s. The Crucible is about witchcraft in Salem during 1692. Including the fact that witchcraft infiltrated the town. Many people throughout the town believed that witchcraft was a thing. The rumors started because of a group of young women wanting to kill someone’s wife to get with them. The young women continued to lie to the whole town. The people believed the young women except for a few of the townsfolk. The town continued to believe in the faith that killing the “witches” is worth it to clean the town. One of the more known quotes from the play that fits well into the message is “Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood” (Miller, Act IV), Reverend Hale said that to Goody Proctor.

Miller said “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties.”(Why I Wrote the Red Scare, 37). Miller shows and explains how the play relates to the 1950s, which is the time when he wrote the play. It mentions the panic that Salem had as well as references to the Red Scare. The Red Scare was about McCarthyism and the fear of being accused of being a communist. The two events were very similar, both having people scared to be out because of the random accusations being made as well as the deaths that were happening. Reverend Hale stated to Danforth “Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it.”(Miller, 966). Hale shows that he didn’t want anyone else to die unless they had done witchcraft. When Hale said that to Danforth, it showed that he had changed his way of thinking. As well as delivering Miller’s

Almost every time I talk to him, he tells me stories about his life and gives me life lessons. One of his many stories was about when he had Guillain-Barre. One morning he woke up and had tingling feelings in his extremities. He had difficulty walking and swallowing with some shortness of breath. By seven that night he was in the emergency room with a respirator. Doctors at Wentworth-Douglass had no clue what was wrong with him, and what he was sick with. The doctors consulted with Mass General, Maine Medical, and Dartmouth while he was still at Wentworth on a respirator. They gave him four spinal taps to find out a solid diagnosis. After testing him for many diseases they learned it was Guillain-Barre. After lengthy physical and respiratory therapy, he had to re-learn how to walk, talk, write, breathe, and many other things we take for granted daily. When he told me the story it made me realize how many things we take for granted today and every day. It showed me how quickly something can happen, how something little can impact many people's lives, and how grateful we should