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.
Arthur Miller’s work, The Crucible, was written during the “Red Scare” time period, and many themes and ideas regarding both events are presented through a drama based on the Salem witch trials. In this drama, a lack of justice is shown when some jealous, vengeful characters in Salem are willing to use manipulation and deceit, and sacrifice the reputations and integrity of all involved, in order to empower themselves.
The Crucible is a piece of literature that can be attributed to a few other situations in history, not simply just the Salem Witch Trials. People throughout history have turned on each other in fear, and have use irrational thinking to justify what they have done. Though the story portrays the Witch Trials, it is able to connect with other events in history due to how the themes can connect with the reader and resonate with how people can feel under certain stress at these moments. Arthur Miller writes in the way that the story can live on in other situations to make points on how we treat each other during these times, the rhetorical appeals he uses becoming important as to why this story is still important to our history in more than one event. As spoken before, The Crucible is set in a certain time period, but advances its meaning into other aspects of history; written in the 50’s, it can be traced back to a connection with McCarthyism, the story an allegory for this period.
When the Salem Witch Trials are remembered at face value, the sinister events that took place within the puritan community seem so surreal, so deranged, that it becomes easy to ignore the very real and dangerous implications they make of human nature and capability. It is easy to think that such heinous things could never occur in modern society. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, takes that assumption and uses it to expose the absurd injustice of modern events by creating a play that employed the infamous Salem Witch Trials as an allegory of his own experiences with the Red Scare and McCarthyism during the Cold War. McCarthy, the main anti-communist leader during the Red Scare, was known as a man who unapologetically made accusations against people to undercut their credibility and bolster his own influence.
Have you ever encountered a liar who’s lies got the best of them and, hurt them in the end? Well in the play “The crucible” by Arthur Miller almost everyone is involved in a lie or being deceived by one another, whether their being questioned about their religion or if they are dabbling in dark witchcraft or not. The point of this theme is to show that everyone and anyone could be lying to you and, you may just not know to trust them as much as you have or trust them at all in that matter. This theme of lying and deceit is found all over the novel.
In the play “The Crucible”, Arthur Miller uses his writing as a way to inform readers of the dangers of conforming. He writes about the years of the Salem witch trials, while adding realistic fiction drama in
Destinee Chapman Ms. Owen Honors English III 4/17/2024 The Cost of Integrity in The Crucible In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller tells the story of a civilization being driven into mass hysteria due to suspicion of the devil consuming the people of a town called Salem. The story follows several other characters such as Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor, and their involvement with the town’s shocking suspicions of witchcraft among the townspeople. While this ultimately ends in tragedy, Arthur Miller illustrates that integrity requires truth and truthfulness breeds humility.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, citizens of Salem Oregon are tried in court for the accusation of performing witchcraft or consulting with the devil. The trials are a result of truth, a theme that in The Crucible, leads to mass hysteria. Arthur Miller, an American playwright wrote this play during the cold war in an attempt to mirror the McCarthy Hearings in 1954. In The Crucible, consequences of speaking the truth outweigh the positive outcomes in this play which drive the townspeople into a phase of mass hysteria. The trouble begins when a couple of girls compact with the devil, then accuse others of their doings and ultimately leave people no choice but to blacken their name or hang for telling the truth.
When people think of the play, “The Crucible”, they usually picture the witch trials and women being hanged, but Arthur Miller depicts the witch trials in a completely new light. He shows through a story that the witch trials were much more than just people calling others witches. There was deceit, pain, greed, and more. Through the play, we follow the character, Abigail, observe her actions and their consequences. We witness the lives of people she impacts, what happens to them, and how many times she lies to get her way.
We forget that that was their normal. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller takes historical facts and adds a dramatic twist on them. ” it is no coincidence that the Salem witch trials are best known today through the work of a playwright,
The play “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem Witch Trials. These witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts in the colonial time period of 1692. During the time of these trials, people in Salem, were accused of signing their name in the Devils book, and many of them were innocent yet found guilty and sentenced to death. At this time, many reputations were being destroyed by the rumors of witchcraft that went around. Three characters in this play, John Proctor, Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams, were striving to keep their name and reputations during these accusatory times.
In a setting of Salem, Massachusetts 1692, religion is the direct reflection of one's social standing. Reputation is extremely important for the town, as it is your only way to get a fair hearing and respect from the people. The protectiveness of reputation is necessary in The Crucible to justify yourself when presented with fallacious arguments. In this play the importance of reputation is revealed though the uses of ethos, logos and pathos. The protectiveness of reputation is uncovered through various characters such as Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, and John Proctor.
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.
The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller, set during the Salem witch trials that occurred from 1692-1693. In the play, the community is consumed by hysteria, chaos, and accusations due to the rumors of witchcraft being spread. Throughout the play, the reader explores how the people and the society are destroyed with the protagonist, John Proctor, linked to the chaos trying to juggle his guilt, love, and integrity. As the hysteria spreads and innocent people’s lives are at risk, Miller uses evidence in multiple ways to successfully establish the play's themes. One of his themes proves how the spread of false rumors and selfishness causes society to slowly diminish due to the hysteria lurking.
By looking at The Crucible by Arthur Miller one can see that the characterization of John Proctor reveals the theme of reputation and integrity, which is important because refusing to tell lies to protect his reputation and stop delirium from spreading throughout Salem. John Proctor states that the woman of Salem who have been locked up for witchcraft:”Excellency, does it not strike upon you that so many of these women have lived so long with such upright reputation”(3.1.305-309). Proctor represents reputation because he would rather die than have his reputation downed to a victimizer. Protecting his reputation motivates John Proctor to deny that witchcraft exists in the village. All he hears is crying out of screams and wailing which is a cause of the Devil 's work: “What 's she doing?
