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Witches Influenced By Characters In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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How do we distinguish our enemies from our allies? An enemy is someone who betrays another individuals trust. People throughout history have always betrayed one another, especially when one persons misfortune is anothers gain. This is as true today as it was in the seventeenth century Colonial America. In Arthur Millers play, “The Crucible” about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, we see how this played out with tragic results.

During the late 1600’s, the city of Salem prohibited many actions in town as a group of young girls claimed to be influenced by the devil. The antagonist of this play, Abigail Williams was one of the first accusers in the Salem Witch Trials; and the protagonist John Proctor, where he was also known as the man that had an affair with …show more content…

The quote “I saw Goody Hawkins with the devil!”(Miller 1,48) by Abigail WIlliams, shows how her imputations that caused to start all the drama in court. The hysteria of Abigail Williams brought people in the court because every girl in Salem was being accused of participating in witchcraft. “I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand,”(Miller 1,48) was stated by Abigail Williams before she started accusing other girls and pointing fingers at other girls on the trials in order to get away from being accused of witchcraft. Both in McCarthyism and The Crucible, there was fear between the people. During McCarthyism, many individuals in America feared communism and all the consequences coming along with it. Similar to this situation, In the book The Crucible, there was fear of witchcraft that was going around and young girls in Salem were being accused of it. These two concepts were very similar to each other because both were driven by hysteria and lead to the prosecution of innocent people by the ill

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Franklin D. Roosevelt once stated “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” this is extremely apparent in the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller that depicts the events that took place during the salem witch trials. These events in American history had countless similarities that led to the persecution of many innocent individuals. Arthur Miller effectively demonstrates this concept in his play The Crucible by drawing parallels between the witch trials of the 1690’s and the “The Great Fear” of the 1950’s. The Salem Witch Trials and the “The Great Fear” were both the product of fear, hysteria, and false accusations.

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What's The Difference? Difference a point or way in which people or things are not the same. The difference between a story and history are sometimes confused, especially when it comes to a story like “The Crucible”. While there are similarities between the characters, events, and the settings in The Salem Witch trials, and “The Crucible” the differences are evident.

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Nasir Jones English 11 The Crucible During the year of 1962 in Massachusetts were the Salem witch trials which was series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The deception of the witch trials play and extravagant role in “The Crucible” By Arthur Miller. In this small but craze town there is a group of girls that are dancing in the woods supposedly working for the devil & in the town dancing portrays a sign of evil. This accusation caused an untrustworthy energy in the city among one another Abigail Williams who was one of the girls dancing in the forest.

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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.

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Throughout history, society has pushed down certain groups of people. One daunting example is the Salem Witch Trials, which was a series of hearings and trials wrongfully accusing people of witchcraft. Those accused of witchcraft were either thrown into jail, hanged, or forced to confess a sin that they did not commit. In The Crucible, author Arthur Miller warns of the detrimental persecution of groups by society in order to avoid history from repeating itself.

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In the play, The Crucible, Salem, Massachusetts, along with the United States during McCarthyism, is engulfed with paranoia. Although both situations include different causes, their effects are strikingly similar. For instance, throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is being shown repeatedly accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Her actions begin sending the small town into a panic as they throw people into jail and hang them in an effort to try and cleanse the town from any aspect of evil. Similarly, throughout 1950-1954, Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people within the United States Government of being a member of the Communist party.

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She’s a witch! He’s a Communist! Two very famous accusations that pivoted the lives of many Americans throughout history. The Crucible by Arthur Miller paints a picture of the 1690’s Puritan settlement in Salem, Massachusetts who conducted witch trials to rid the town of people who had been taken over by the Devil and accused anyone who had ever wronged them, and without any evidence they were hanged for equating with the Devil. Arthur Miller, who was a famous author living during the 1950’s, wrote this play to allegorize the Communist Red Scare when the government and paranoid citizens hunted for Communists in America and without much evidence thousands of Americans were deported.

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The Puritan background of the play shows a lot about how Puritans lived. The rigid lifestyle of the Puritan society calls for extreme consequences and punishments for those who were accused of witchcraft, or any crime in general. Puritans are based on a theocracy, where Priests and church figures have the ultimate power. The fear of punishment puts many of the townspeople of Salem in the shadows of guilt for their actions. Abigail Williams is one of many characters that was a victim of the Puritan’s harsh code.

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When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

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To begin, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy Era and the Salem witch trials were in fact very similar through the use of diction. Throughout Millers article, it can be seen many times the way that he compares the McCarthy Era to The Crucible. At one point of his article, Miller uses the adjective of “cautionary” to explain the people chose of words during the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy Era. Millers choice of diction conveys the fear and the reluctance that people had in speaking of the events taking place due to the claims made against the accused witches and accused communist during the two different time periods. Miller explains how at those points in time “words had gotten fearsome” and people were

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As time has passed, throughout history, during different periods of time there are parallels. There are three eras that we are focussed on, where there are three types of people during each era. The three different eras that we’re focusing on, are The Salem Witch Trials (1600s), The McCarthy Era (1950s), and Today (2000s); the three types of people are the people who are the reasons why there’s accusations towards the accused, the accused, and finally the accusers.     In The Crucible, or during the Salem Witch Trials, the person that’s the reason why characters were accused is John Proctor. The accuser in the play, who decides to point fingers at everyone, is Abigail Williams.

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Andrew McIntosh 12/10/2015 Thesis Paper In this thrilling play directed by Arthur Miller, The Crucible portrays the incidents of the Salem Witch Trials during the late 1600’s. This action packed drama shows the struggle between John Proctor and Abigail Williams. Their relationship leads them down the wrong path.

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Period4 The Crucible Essay Communism and Witchcraft have the same effect on humans, that effect is fear, when you hear fear you think of your worst nightmare or someone hiding in your closet, during the McCarthyism era and the salem witchcraft people had fear about whether their life is on the line or not. It all depended on one person in their community whether or not they choose to save their life. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because the girls feared Abigail just like everyone feared J.McCarthy, Elizabeth being accused is similar to McCarthy accusing the US Army, they are innocent just like Elizabeth.

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Also it was the fact they were related to them and they thought that their mom or father was teaching them witchcraft. The crucible was a tragedy because no one was safe and everyone was scared that the girls were going to point at them next and they would hang. The trials were unfair because if the denied witchcraft they were hung for saying that they weren’t and if they admitted they were put in jail and would confess their sins to the

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Witchcraft: Child’s Play or Reality?     In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible’, witchcraft is the main conflict of the play.  Set in a  Puritan Massachusetts Colony in the year 1692, most anything that cannot be solved by the church or a doctor is unnatural.   The first thing that comes to mind is witchcraft, which the punishment for is hanging unless you confess.

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