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The salem witch trials effects
Analysis of the crucible by arthur miller
The Salem Witch Trials analysis
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The salem witch trials effects
Analysis of the crucible by arthur miller
The Salem Witch Trials analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the play The Crucible, playwright Arthur Miller protests the Red Scare of the early 1900s, a period of public hysteria in which Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many innocent Americans of Communism. Appalled by this tragic period of modern history, Miller suggests a parallel in The Crucible, in which he attempts to convey “‘the essential nature of one of the most awful chapters in human history’--the trials for witchcraft in Salem in 1692” (Background: About Arthur Miller” 3). In both periods of history, Miller warns that mass hysteria often results from people who claim, that principle motivates their actions, while they may actually have other secret incentives such as greed or revenge. In The Crucible greed motivates some characters and revenge motivates others, creating the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.
“Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it” (Rochefoucauld). Love can be argued to be the one of the main causes of jealousy. In The Crucible, the main conflict of the story was based on envy of Elizabeth`s relationship with John Proctor. Abigail Williams’s adjective in the story was to exclude Elizabeth so she could be with John. The Salem witch hunt was the solution for Abigail plan to execute Elizabeth.
In Arthur Miller’s historical fiction play The Crucible (1953), he created loyal and unloyal figures that either stay true to their beliefs or falter in order to save themselves. Multiple selfish characters such as Thomas Putnam, his wife, and Abigail Williams manipulate others for their own gain- with no regard to any loyalty toward those people they have known for years. In The Crucible, the town of Salem goes into a panic when people are accused of witchcraft, and long-term friends start turning on each other. Loyalty does not matter, because people are either trying to save themselves or get something from it by using other people. Many people disregard loyalty and allow self-interest to overcome their integrity.
“Greed makes men blind and foolish, and makes him an easy prey”- Unknown. Greed, is one word that comes to mind when I think of Thomas Putnam. He is a flank character who stays a bad guy throughout the play which adds to how he portrays the theme. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Thomas Putnam helps to show the theme of how far someone will go to make sure they get what they want. He does this in many different ways and he does it very well.
Human Nature has always been about survival and self-preservation. We see this repeated over and over in history, literature, and even in our own lives. “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller, is a web spun on deceit, lies, fear, and the strong will to preserve one’s self. Set in the late 1600’s, a witch hunt grips the small town of Salem throwing its residents into a state of constant hysteria. Many characters if not all, have been the spider and the fly, some more obvious to one side than others.
Based on the tragic events of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, The Crucible is a hard-hitting tale that reflects upon the subjectivity of goodness and virtue, sparking the reflection of the importance of moral behavior during times of hardship and crisis. In an unyielding and restricted Puritan community like Salem village, a bad reputation could result in social exclusion and scorning from the community. As a result, many members of the community would go to extremes to avoid tarnishing their reputations. The Crucible asserts that those who are concerned only with protecting their standings are dangerous to a society, as they are willing to blame and hurt other people in order to protect themselves.
As a French Proverb states, “greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth”. People are consumed with wanting more and more rather than knowing what they need in life. The human race constantly carries on this pattern of greed. A theme of greed is shown in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
During the Salem Witch Trials in 1690, were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts. The Crucible, was an interesting book written at this time by Arthur Miller. In The Crucible, there are a couple themes that can be supported in the book. Many may believe that the theme is that Intolerance demanded that religion is to be strictly obeyed because the judges were strict and enforced that religion. On the other hand, the most important theme in the book is that revenge points you into a direction that makes you do and claim things you shouldn't do that would make you regret it later on, you see this going on with Elizabeth and Abigail.
Throughout Arthur Miller's sensational story of The Crucible, loyalty and dishonesty play a prominent role in not only the characters, but their actions as well. There are multiple times throughout the story where the characters face problems with being dishonest. The story is told through a theme that presents how loyalty can be seen through dishonesty. This tragedy recognizes how the trials brought out the vengeance amongst the town and the population. The contradictory among the town brings everyone to a riot and people start to question on who can really be trusted.
Self-Preservation Can Lead to Self-Destruction In today’s society, a person’s reputation plays a huge part in how one is viewed and treated. The same was true for the citizens of Salem Village, a Puritan dwelling in Massachusetts. To the Puritans, self-reputation was everything. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, based on the Salem Village Witch Trials that took place in the early 1690s.
Our countless endeavors, whether wrong or right, tend to just how much someone values their self-worth. We humans are naturally built to muse upon how others think of us, and this is the basis for our self-conscious pursuit for our reputation and identity. No where is this more apparent in The Crucible. The play, The Crucible, is a homage to many themes, as it dives into the story of The Salem Witch Trial. Preserving one’s reputation is a theme exemplified heavily in the book, as almost every character struggles with their identity, which in turn, affects their decisions.
Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.
People, at their core, have always been self-gratifying and unprincipled. The 1953 play The Crucible by Arthur Miller excellently portrays this by depicting a situation where fear is able to control a population that is then compelled to sin and invoke hysteria. It is a play in which the witch trials are taking place in Salem, Massachusetts. All the girls in the village snuck out to the forest where, with the help of an African slave woman named Tituba, they made a potion which supposedly gave each of them the man they loved. One of these girls however, Abigail Williams, was in love with a married man, John Proctor, and consequently swore death upon his wife.
“Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed.” writer Mwai Kibaki understands how life should be runflow. Unfortunately, this is not how Salem, Massachusetts, was manageding during the first accusations of witchcraft back in the year 1692. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller shows how easily authority may be lost during witch trials when personal greed becomes a main factor once the townspeople realize what they could gain.