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Essays about the phenomenon of the salem witch trials
Crucible by arthur miller themes
Dramatic theories applied in The Crucible by Arthur Miller
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After a sporting event, have you ever heard “We lost because of this person” or “It’s his fault we lost?” Well, this is an example of scapegoating. Scapegoating is the act of putting the blame of an event on to a specific person, or a group of people. Scapegoating plays a big role in some pieces of literature, especially The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is about the Puritan village of Salem Massachusetts back in 1692, during the witch hunts.
“The Crucible” characters remind me very much of the lyrics we listen to today in our time period. In this story it displays a lot of the same characteristics in the song I have chosen, “Girlfriend” from Avril Lavigne. Throughout the song Avril displays a lot of hate for the other women who at this point is committed to the man she wants. Which displays a lot of the character that I have chosen, Abigale. Throughout the song she states, “I don’t like your girlfriend, I think you need a new one.”
People tend to believe what they want to believe. Whether the information is presented by celebrities or politicians or through paid advertisements on social media, it can be misinterpreted as true, even when it has been proven false. Misinformation causes people to make reckless decisions based on what they have heard or seen. False information has led to unfortunate events, such as the Salem Witch Trials and prejudice-based violence. False information connects events in both Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and current society, shaping the opinions of the public and allowing authorities to stay in power despite false evidence against them.
In the Crucible there are a load of conflicts and emotions but, there are three that really stand out. The three are the act of weakness, the act of courage and the act of the truth. These traits are shown all through the story and have a great part in what happens. The act of weakness may have been the most significant role in the story.
The True Crimes In a town full of religious-imposed justice, is the crimes happening in the towns actually considered true crimes? Should the people that committed the crimes be held responsible? In Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” the town “Salem” many are being accused of witchery, which is a crime in their society. The problem is that they aren't witches, but normal people to be hanged.
Furthermore, Miller constructed the witch trials in The Crucible in a way so that they mimics the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. In order for the HUAC to subpoena someone for being a communist, all that was required was suspicion of what was considered subversive political activities. No proof was required, a simple accusation was all it took for someone’s life to be potentially ruined by the fallout of the hearing. In Salem, a simple accusation was also all that was required for someone to stand trial for being a witch. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!
Despite their deeply religious values, the members of the Puritan Society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are equally as sinful as the rest of the world. The Puritans, known for turning to God when given any matter at hand, lay blame on the Devil, regardless of their contradictory values. By blaming on him for their wrongdoings, the Devil earns power through the Puritans restoring to involve him whenever any one thing goes wrong. Power is defined by one’s reputation, status, wealth, gender, and age; although the natural deciding factor of one’s power in the Puritan society is land, the Devil himself holds ultimate power. Despite the fact that he does not appear as a human figure, he controls the thoughts and actions of the Puritan society, serving as the ultimate threat.
In the story, "The Crucible" there are many fatal events from specific categories and that is gossip, lying, and hate an example is the "Rodricus Crawford" Case, he was accused for suffocating a three-year-old child and almost sentenced to death row because people were gossiping about saying it was him who did it. That was because the people accusing him didn’t like him and lied about it, and told other people false information. Abigail has accused many innocent people like Elizabeth for attempting to kill her and summoning demons which is not true. Some of the characters in the story consistently lie throughout the story.
“’She makes me drink blood”’ says Abigail (Miller 160). The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. The play takes place during the Salem Witch Trials, where many people were accused of witchcraft. The accused were either jailed or hanged. In the play many characters are blind to the truth and are changing the path of life.
The Crucible: Self Preservation is Motivation By definition self preservation is the “..set of behaviors by means of which individuals attempt to preserve their own existence and the psychical processes that establish these behaviors..”. For The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, self preservation has been shown to have affected multiple characters, including John Proctor, Samuel Parris, and Abigail. In The Crucible, self preservation is also the greatest motivation . John Proctor is one of the characters being affected by this trend of self preservation being motivation for the characters of The Crucible.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller has many lessons to learn from. One of The major lesson I thought that is important is honesty. The accusations throughout the story were built on lies from those trying to protect their own name, and putting the town into confusion. Nobody in Salem, Massachusetts felt like they could trust anymore, after all of the false allegations made. If Three characters in the story would have been honest from the beginning, the town would not have been in such confusion.
In life you have to live with the consequences of the decisions that you make. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor has to live with the consequences of his affair with Abigail Williams when he confesses it to the court publicly and he has to live with the consequences of what Elizabeth(his wife) does or says about the affair. Abigail Williams would have had to live with the consequences of her actions the night she and the other girls danced in the woods if she had confessed to doing witchcraft that night. The consequences of the people who did not confess to witchcraft, even though they were innocent, was that they were to be hanged. The play The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692; it is about the Salem witch
The Crucible Literary Analysis The theme in a story is the concealed message that the author is trying to portray. The theme can be compared to a baby crying. Sometimes it is obvious as to why the baby is crying, but often times it is a mere thinking situation. The baby cannot tell you why it is crying or what he/she wants.
The play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller demonstrates the implications of a society in complete chaos over an irrational fear of witchcraft in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Fear plays an immense role in the way people make their decisions, such as when the characters of Danforth and Mary Warren resort to hypocrisy when no other options remain. Danforth and Mary Warren both embody hypocrisy, as seen when Mary says she cannot lie anymore and then lies when she becomes scared for her life, and Danforth when saying lying will send a person to Hell, but then forcing people to choose between lying and death. Mary Warren exemplifies hypocrisy extraordinarily well in the scene when she and Proctor travel to the courthouse so she can confess that the girls have pretended everything and they never actually saw spirits.
Power and influence in society have a huge impact on the way things happen and affects perception. A prime example is the power that presidents and prime ministers have. Given this power they can effectively influence and persuade others. Power and influence is often associated with gender, conflict and roles and relationships. The importance of the power and influence can be thoroughly examined using texts that demonstrate ideas presented as truths.
