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The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Abigail Williams and her friends, along with Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris are caught in the woods dancing around a fire. This event and rumors associated with it sparked a Salem-wide witch hunt, which resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent people. The theme of The Crucible can be summed up in a quote from the eighteenth century politician Edmund Burke, who says,¨When good men do nothing, evil triumphs.¨ Which is shown through The Red Scare, and the actions of the townspeople in Salem. After reading The Crucible the connection between the Red Scare and the events of the Salem witch trials becomes very prevalent. A real world example connected to this theme is the Red Scare, which is what …show more content…

One of the examples is found in act II when Cheever and Herrick are sent to the Proctor household to pick up Elizabeth because she had been accused of witchcraft in the court. Cheever says “ the court bid me to search your house, but I like not to search a house”(Miller 1281). Also Cheever said, “ I had my doubts, Proctor, I had my doubts” (Miller 1282). Both of these passages show that Cheever knew Elizabeth personally and knew that she would not do anything related to witchcraft, however he doesn’t say anything to stop it. Since he doesn’t say anything he is allowing the taking and killing of innocent women. Another example of how The Crucible connects to the theme is how the townspeople in Salem act during the trials. They knew that the accused women were not witches, when Proctor, Nurse guy, and Giles went to court with a document that has 91 signatures that is testament of Rebecca Nurse’s, Elizabeth Proctor’s, and Martha Corey’s good Christian reputations. Despite the solid proof that they’re not witches, the townspeople do nothing to stop the accusations even through they know that the accusations have no basis other than the word of girls that were caught sinning in the woods just weeks

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Cameron Oldfield Mrs. Brincks English III 15 November, 2015 The Crucible and Red Scare Imagine being thrown in jail, blamed for something that you didn't do .The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a story about how certain propaganda and false accusations can ruin lives, just like in the case of the Red Scare. Although 1692 the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare were over 200 years apart, The similarities are striking. both trials used intimidation, fear, hatred, and false accusations to ruin innocent lives. Both trials resulted in terrible outcomes, with both ending with innocent people being put to death and shunned from society.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's were a hunt where many people were accused and executed for being charged guilty of witchcraft. Arthur Miller, the writer of The Crucible, created the play as an allegory to portray the events going on during the Red Scare. The Red Scare was when the fear of Communism spread rapidly throughout the U.S. because of accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He believed that many American citizens were part of a secret Communist Party. Most modern day witch-hunts are the same in the sense of how people are accused.

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729 Words | 3 Pages

Ever wonder what was so interesting about the witch trails and how many lives were lost due to people getting falsely accused and getting hung. In the book, The Crucible, the author was Arthur Miller and his book was based on the Salem witchcraft  trials during the modern times. Some  of the many flaws that Abigail showed throughout the book was spitefulness, jealousy, and lust.     Abigail shows the flaw of spitefulness when it comes to the point of her trying to be a part of John’s life or to try to get what she wants in life. “Elizabeth: She wants me dead.

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Chloe Pendleton Mrs. Liz Hall Honors English III 13 February 2017 The Witch Hunters’ False Accusations The Crucible by Arthur Miller tells the story of the vindictive town of Salem and its unproportional amount of accusations of witchcraft. Vengeful “witch hunters” left no time to spare when making accusations on their neighborhood enemies. However, many were guilty of caving into their own weaknesses and only feared to be caught in their acts of hypocrisy. Weakness, hypocrisy, vindictiveness: only few of the many words that describe the guilty desires and revenge that lingered among the town of Salem.

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1208 Words | 5 Pages

In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible the events of the 1692 Salem witch trials are shown. Miller’s play follows the town of Salem as they endure the wildest trials of the colonial era. The protagonist is John Proctor a Puritan farmer who unknowingly starts these trials. The events that occur led to the death of dozens of townsfolk and eventually the death of John Proctor. Proctor is shown to be a noble man who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save his family reputation.

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Ronald Oakley, which explains the Red Scare, or McCarthyism, that happened in America. The Red Scare caused America to be in a mode of panic during the Cold war because Joseph R. McCarthy, a Senator, was trying to find the communists-in-government. In the text, it says “When backed into a corner and confronted with an obvious lie, he responded by attacking his adversary or dropping that line of investigation and going on to another.” This quote explains how the theme applies to Joseph R. McCarthy. When McCarthy was driven to a corner about his lies, he becomes afraid of what the consequences will happen, and directs the issue to another issue, or attacking something else.

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172 Words | 1 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials in 1692 is an interesting piece of our history. Even after 305 years, it is still a subject discussed in many schools and many people are intrigued by what had happened. The Trials were caused because many women were accused of witchcraft in Salem, the trials were used as a way to single out witches and hang them since witches were against God. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller puts a spin on the Trials and gives readers a sense of what happened. Throughout Act One, the whole town of Salem is aware of witchcraft and while many have their opinions on who spread the witch hysteria, there is only one at fault.

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“Long-held hatred of neighbors could now be openly expressed and vengeance taken, despite the Bible’s charitable injunctions” (Miller, pg 1129). This quote perfectly explains the Salem Witch Trials and what went through Abigail and the girls heads when they accused innocent people of bewitching them. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about the small village of Salem and the mass hysteria that was caused by young girls. Innocent people were hung and thrown in jail because they accused these people of bewitching them. The judges, Abigail, Tituba, and the girls are to blame for the Salem Witch Trials because the girls lied and the judges only relied on what these girls said for their evidence but Hale, a minister, was obligated to believe the girls

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The Salem Witch Trials was a truly grim period in American history. People were put on trial with little to no evidence for their arrest, so many had to make sacrifices in order to save themselves or loved ones. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, character John Proctor made the decision to expose his own infidelity to save his wife, and later sacrificed his own life by maintaining his values. From the beginning of the novel John Proctor’s view on the Salem Witch Trial is evident, he wishes to maintain the truth in Salem.

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The Trials was a desperate way of obtaining power as a lower ranked member of society. The servants or the girls of Salem found this as the perfect opportunity. They can blame anyone they want and they will be punished without solid evidence. One in Salem has that great of power by requiring the accused to name others in their confessions, a witch hunt like that in Salem can take on the form of a pyramid scheme or chain letter. This "naming names" allowed the accusations to spread and spread, while also permitting the public airing of grievances and sins.

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1264 Words | 6 Pages

“We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” Arthur Miller wrote this quote from his book The Crucible, which gives an insight on how the trials and how easy and fast the town changed. In Salem Massachusetts in 1692 the Salem Witch Trials took place. Citizens began to believe that people were practicing witchcraft in their town. Many citizens believed that they way witches will get you is by baking a cake.

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585 Words | 3 Pages

The play “ The Crucible”, by Arthur Miller ,is about the Salem witch trials in 1692. Throughout the play the characters used witch trials in order to get revenge. Many innocent people got killed because of this. The characters John Proctor ,Abigail, and Reverend Paris are the main characters and they all cared about their reputation. Reverend Paris was the minister of the town and was disliked by many people.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

The events that partake in the Salem Witch Trials turned the simple Puritan village into the dark, twisted society that was portrayed in The Crucible. These Puritans’ disciplined religious values were practiced to create a better, holier world. In irony, it was these beliefs that pushed the people in Salem to bring about the paranoia and destruction of the Trials. The characters that are the most responsible for the Salem Witch Trials are Reverend Parris, Reverend Hale, Abigail Wilson, and Judge Danforth.

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95 Words | 1 Pages

The Crucible is a play about the Salem witch trials, written as an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare in the 1950s America. It follows characters through lies, hypocrisy, and false allegations of witchcraft, and explains how human nature caused a witch hunt. The Abigail’s attempts to save her own reputation is contrasted with Elizabeth’s desire to save her husband’s reputation after their affair. In the end, both efforts to uphold reputations have detrimental results. Arthur Miller is criticizing the outrage an unnecessary obsession with one 's reputation can cause, including lies, deceit, and

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533 Words | 3 Pages

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, takes place in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 during the salem witch trials. The play begins in the home of Samuel Parris, whose daughter is lying on the bed appearing very sick. Abigail Williams, Betty’s friend, tries to convince Parris of their innocence but Parris saw them and his slave dancing in the woods. When Parris confronts Tituba about what he saw she immediately admits her fault but places the blame on other characters in the play commencing the theme of mass hysteria. My literary graphic is based on the character Thomas Danforth, the judge who oversees the witch trials.

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