In Act 4 of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Giles Corey refuses to plead guilty resulting in a heroic death, which reveals the excessive confidence and pride Giles shares in his own beliefs and values. This is shown through the literary devices irony and symbolism. Before John Proctor makes up his mind about confessing, he briefly talks with Elizabeth. Proctor asks Elizabeth if Giles Corey, a long time member of the Salem community, had confessed yet. She then explains, “He were not hanged. He would not answer yay or nay to his indictment; for if he denied charge they’d hang him surely, and auction out his property. So he stand mute, and died Christian under the law.” (Miller, pg. 125). Irony can be found in an event or statement that’s meaning is directly opposite to what someone might expect. …show more content…
Either path Giles chooses leads to the same, fateful demise. This situation is ironic because typically if someone is not guilty (innocent), they are supported by the court and able to continue living a desirable life. By choosing to not take either path, Giles does not allow the law to determine his own life’s outcome. Through this, he is characterized as a man possessing significant amounts of pride, courage, and self-confidence. As Giles demonstrates, these are all traits needed to stand against the bias court system, under the law’s misguided judgement. After Elizabeth explains what Giles died for, she dives deeper into the details of his death by stating, “Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. ‘More weight,’ he says. And died.” (Miller pg. 125). At the time of the execution, the town of Salem was frantic about finding the source of witchcraft. Weighed down, Giles Corey was violently tortured in an attempt to force a
I think one of the characters that changes the most throughout the book would be Giles Corey. At the beginning of the crucible everytime something goes wrong everyone thinks its Giles fault. Giles has been in court over 30 times, but overtime in the book Giles changes into a much better man. Giles said, “ I never said my wife were a witch, mister Hale; I only said she were reading books.”
In The Crucible John Proctor started the play as a hypocrite who was unwilling to admit that he was not perfect. Once Abigail accused Elizabeth of witchcraft, John was outraged because Abigail told John that her and her friends were dancing in the woods. Infuriated that Abigail would murder innocent people John tries to turn Danforth against Abigail. When Danforth does not see a legitimate reason to stop trusting Abigail John is forced to confess his affair with Abigail. But when Elizabeth is asked about John’s affair, Elizabeth acted like she did not know what Danforth was talking about.
In this scene the reader gets a taste of another Giles Corey encounter of humorous behavior. Miller uses Giles to commence comic relief many times in the play in order to sort of budge the reader and say “hey you can laugh a little”. Giles character is of which you would say is a prideful yet brave individual that says whatever he wants in order to bring the play from a meditative tone to a more giddy tone. Miller does an excellent job to making this character accomplish this rhetorical device by adding Giles humorous lines in the most serious parts of the play such as here when he is making his claim to try to get his wife out of jail because she is innocent. He says that this is not a hearing and they can't arrest him unless he is in the
Giles was soon accused by Ann Putman as a dreadful wizard and was arrested on April 18, 1692 (Orr 34; Curse). Some reasons he may have been accused were; he was a violent man and once beat his manservant to death, and he appeared to Ann Putman as a ghost and told her to sign the devil’s book (Lowery 43; Orr 34). He was not a very nice man and some people were pleased that he was accused. He was not very respected in the town, and therefore a good person to accuse. Giles was arrested when he was 74 years old (Magoon 64).
Is personal integrity more important than survival? The dictionary defines integrity as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. The Salem witch trials in history shows how men and women had to choose between their own morals and their faith. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the people show their value of personal integrity over life while maintaining their reputation and good name to pass down to generations to come. Giles Corey is a man of integrity who cares for his family and friends in the community.
Giles Corey was asked to name names in Act III. He was asked to say names for something he told the court about. Giles Corey suddenly shouts that he has evidenced that Thomas Putnam was trying to get his daughter to cry witchcraft so Thomas could get more of his own land. He tells the court that one of his good friends told him about Thomas. The judge asked Giles to tell him who told him.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor was accused of witchcraft. John Proctor was a man of great integrity and knew he did nothing wrong. He was given the choice to confess and lie or be hung. Being the honest and stubborn man that he was, he decided his name was more important than his life. John struggled both internally and with others while trying to fight for what he thought was right.
1. Irony as we talked about in class is considered to be intellectual or a sort of dry humor. It also has a double meaning, where you say one thing but the opposite meaning is implied. For example, in the reading “SantaLand Diaries” David and another elf realized that Santa is an anagram of Satan. So they would substitute the word for Santa by using Satan in front of customers.
Giles Corey was a very important part of the Salem Witch Trials as he was the only one who was pressed to death, showing the lengths people would go to to compromise the beliefs of others in order to gain influence in the community. Giles was one of the few men, even as a true member of his religion, who was accused of witchcraft (ORR; User). Giles Corey had been known for killing his first wife which had brought suspicion to him. People of Salem would go these lengths to just prove him guilty. He was an eighty year old man when he was accused, while bringing conflict as he was one of the few elderly men accused (User).
Thus, he forced the court to hold him in contempt. Yet, he did not force them into the punishment they chose. On September 19, Giles Corey died from being pressed to death with heavy stones for two excruciating days. This was the final straw of the Salem witchcraft trials.
Giles Corey is one of the most notable victims of the Salem Witch Trials. Corey was born in Northampton, England, in 1621. After marrying his first wife, Margaret, the two migrated to the Thirteen Colonies, settling in Massachusetts Bay. In 1659, Corey relocated to the Village of Salem and soon thereafter, became a successful and well-known farmer.
Giles Corey is a eighty year old farmer who is very outspoken. Giles Corey was arrested many times and was accused of setting fire to John Proctor’s house and beating a farmhand as Arthur Miller writes, “No man has ever been blamed for so much” (40). Giles is known to speak his mind which not only hurts him but also hurts others including his wife Martha Corey who is falsely accused of witchcraft. Giles Corey is first mentioned when Reverend Hale arrives to Salem, Giles mentions that his wife Martha Corey reads “strange” books at night. Giles explains to Reverend how Martha’s reading affects him, “Last night - mark this - I tried and tried- and could not say my prayers.
The Crucible “The Crucible” is a play, by Arthur Miller, about the Salem Witch Trials. After reading “The Crucible”, you will be asking yourself, is it necessary for a person to suffer? The answer to the question is shown through the characters, Giles Corey, John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams. John Proctor is a respected puritan man in the community. John had made the mistake of sleeping with, a teenage girl, Abigail Williams.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is accused of performing witchcraft and contracting with the Devil. He is faced with the decision to either confess to or deny the accusations. Ultimately, Proctor chooses to deny the accusations and dies a martyr. Proctor’s decision to sacrifice himself is justified because he protected the reputation of those who died and risked being arrested to save his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor’s death is justified because he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect the reputation of others.
Irony is a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts ( Glossary... Pg 1). The greatest example of irony happens when it turns out Armand is the one that comes from black heritage. He learns this when he “finds a letter from his mom to his father explaining how he is black” turning the main plot of this story around (Chopin... Pg 5)