Madailein McLenna
Connors
English 11 4B
13 January 2016
Tit For Tat Written in 1952, Arthur Miller wrote a play known as The Crucible as an analogy to the strike the senator was putting on all the communists soon after World War II. Arthur used the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690’s to show that the same tragedies and sentences that befell people during the McCarthyism trails. Arthur used the Salem Witch Trials as a metaphor to draw national attention towards the doings and executioners of the McCarthyism propaganda. The innocent people during the McCarthyism trials relate to the situation a character known as John Proctor undergoes in the play. The Crucible is a tale about love, lies, and doing whatever it possibly takes to take down or protect
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Soon after realizing what a mistake that was, he denied his love towards Abigail. She then uses the affair to blackmail John to protect her own actions of witchery in the forrest. In Act II of The Crucible, John Proctor yells, “I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth” (Miller, II 1127). Abigail Williams, very bitter towards Elizabeth, charges her with witchcraft. Abigail Williams said that Elizabeth Proctor had sent out her spirit and made it stab a needle into her stomach. John believes that Abigail is trying to get revenge on his wife for ending things, but he swears he will do anything to prove his wife’s innocence. Secondly, John Proctor confesses his crime of lechery to protect his wife (Miller, II 1146). John makes sure the court knows about the affair, to show that Abigail is blackmailing him to protect her own witchcraft acts and get vengeance on him. John Proctor’s actions clearly show that he is willing to do anything to protect not only his wife, himself, but the others Abigail and her friends are accusing of witchcraft. John Proctor’s brave confession was not the only heroic action he took …show more content…
Not allowing to let Abigail Williams become between Elizabeth and himself, he confesses to the court about the previous affair to show the court the silly acts Abigail and her friends were putting on. Secondly, he showed reliance to the court and higher power by refusing to sign the confession. Lastly, John finally found the courage to let himself be executed, to show that he finally was willing to forgive himself. John Proctor is the true hero of The Crucible and left an everlasting legacy in the town of
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.
The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller based on real events, but Miller adds to the play for good reason. Miller adds love, hatred and revenge into a factor of why the trails happened. To show love can move someone to do anything, to show hatred can ruin a good mans name, and to show even if a person did nothing wrong, revenge could be reason to accuse and change their life. In real life, John Proctor is known as a successful farmer, but known as a mean man. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays Proctor as a “Good and righteous man” (Miller 221).
In Act 3, John Proctor admits to the court his affair with Abigail Williams to save his wife’s life. He explains Abigail’s plan to kill Elizabeth Proctor and dance with him on her grave. (Miller 873). When Proctor calls Abigail a whore, he gives the court an opportunity to end the trials. Additionally,
People have to go through a hard crucible situation when someone point finger at them such as jews. It is kind of like nature of human to think about themselves first and protect themselves, but it takes too much courage for a person to stay with what they believe or accept their fault. Arthur Miller’s story which was played in The Crucible had actually happened in a village when people had to go through a difficult life choice in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. For a guilt/adultery, John Proctor faced a terrible persecution, Rebecca Nurse, a honorable woman in the society, who faced a horrible penalty of death; even though Reverend Parris (minister of the Salem) could have saved all the people if he hadn’t cared about his rising reputation so much. Arthur Miller expresses people’s reactions to turmoil in The Crucible: the title effectively captures the struggles the character have to face.
There are many reasons that could have cause Abigail to seek revenge and act out in such a way that put everyone’s life at potential risk. Abigail’s past has a lot to it, as revealed when Proctor visits Salem and runs into Abigail who expresses her anger and jealousy towards Elizabeth. When Betty and Ruth (who are also young girls) are supposedly diagnosed with the ‘devil being inside of them’, and people come to the conclusion that witchcraft has taken a negative impact on them, John Proctor ends up visiting Salem to figure out what is going on. As John Proctor is leaving the town of Salem, he runs into Abigail who is still looking for trouble.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.
Abigail is willing to accuse any one in her path of witchcraft even if it means taking the lives of those close to her. Abigail Williams’ emotional desire guides her actions even if it conflicts with morality. Abigail williams is driven to do unthinkable things because of her love for John Proctor. Abigail works in the Proctor’s home and while doing so she finds herself attracted to John. Abigail’s obsession with Proctor leads them to have an affair, which they try to keep
Abigail Williams accused John Proctor of participating in witchcraft. Seven months earlier Proctor had an affair with Abigail who worked as his maid. When John’s wife Elizabeth Proctor found out, she fired Abigail immediately. This left Elizabeth feeling doubtful of John.
A lot of what John Proctor does in The Crucible is to save his wife Elizabeth. When John Proctor says, "I will bring you home. I will bring you soon."(Miller 77) he promises to save his wife from being hanged for witchcraft. This also shows John’s love for his wife, Elizabeth, and his choosing of this love over his lust for Abigail.
Proctor knows that Abigail has participated in witchcraft, but has no way to prove this. Abigail wants Elizabeth dead, and proceeds with this idea by wishing death upon her, so she can live happily ever after with John Proctor. Abigail the antagonist in The Crucible is the source of John Proctors many mistakes and failed relationship with God. When Reverend Hale asks Elizabeth and John to say the 10 commandments John confidently says, “Thou shalt not steal.
Moreover, Abigail accuses other villagers of witchcraft, despite their innocence, relieving speculations upon her conducts in the forest and putting them upon her fellow villagers, harming others in protection of her personal reputation. Not only so, Abigail threatens, or on many occasions, harms, or possesses thoughts of harming others in order to satisfy her own desires. From the beginning, Abigail, as Elizabeth Proctor argues, “thinks to kill [Elizabeth], then to take [Elizabeth’s] place”, possesses motives not only to preserve her name within the town, but to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft, and consequently obtain her status of being John Proctor’s wife as well
John Proctor’s words towards Elizabeth signal irritation and annoyance. John Proctor, the main character of The Crucible, has an affair with a much younger girl, Abigail Williams, breaking his wife, Elizabeth’s trust in him. Her suspicion of him rises when he tells her he was in a room alone with Abigail. Elizabeth’s growing mistrust begins to aggravate John, which is revealed when he says, “I’ll not have your suspicion any more” (489). Elizabeth is doubtful after learning about John’s affair with Abigail and her lack of trust in her husband begins to anger him.
This secret was his affair with Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams was trying to get rid of Elizabeth, because she wanted to take over her spot as John Proctors wife. Due to Abigail's jealousy and revenge for Elizabeth she mentions Elizabeth's name during the Salem witch trials which causes nothing but chaos. During this chaos, John Proctor displayed traits of being short tempered and aggressive. The characteristics of anger, aggression, innocence and compassion where portrayed by John and Elizabeth Proctor in the story The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
Abigail 's heartless attitude is shown in act two when she frames and accuses Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft. She desired and longed for this revenge on poor Proctors innocent wife, aiming for her through out the play. Later on in Act Three she seems to lose her last attachment of society by destroying John Proctor, who she claims to love with all her heart. When John attempts and threatens to expose Abigail’s wrong doings, she skillfully manages to turn the whole problem around on him, sending him off
Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.