“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”(Roosevelt). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a historical fiction about how hysteria and groupthink can have drastic consequences. It follows the Salem witch trials and the events that led to 19 people being convicted of witchcraft and subsequently killed. The most important subject in The Crucible is how fear can affect decisions. Betty’s fear of punishment was the first domino to fall. Betty was among the girls that were dancing in the forest, and she was scared of being punished for it. Rather than get a whipping, she pretended to be bewitched. While Parris and Abby are talking about what happened in the woods, she was lying still on the bed, apparently bewitched. But when Abby says that she’s already told everything and that they won’t get into any more trouble, she is suddenly awake and exclaims “You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that!”(Miller 19). That she knew what their conversation was, shows that she was actually awake the whole time, and just pretending to be …show more content…
When Reverend Hale is questioning her he is yelling and she is threatened with death. Only after the suggestion of hanging her does she confess to dealing with the devil. “I don’t compact with no Devil!”, but then one of the onlookers says “This woman must be hanged!”. After that, she changes her tune asking Hale to “Tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.”(Miller 44). In saying that she doesn’t want to work for him anymore she is confirming that she is working with him now. This confession of witchcraft is what eventually led to the hangings, but it was only made out of fear. After this confession the aggressive questioning continues, and she is asked if any others were consorting with the Devil. She does tell him of others that were supposedly witches but it is only because she knows that if she doesn’t throw someone else to the lions it will be her neck in the noose. (finish
After learning Rebecca Nurse has been put in jail, Reverend Hale pleads to Francis, “I have seen too many frightful proofs in court- the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points” (75)! Salem has become a dangerous place full of corruption and dishonesty. Many people used the power of false accusations for personal gain and for their own self protection. After much time passes, no one in Salem, not even the honorable judge, has begun to realize there is no Devil wandering in town. This shows the lasting effect that hysteria can create.
Throughout history there have been instances where individuals inflicat chaos to gain their desires. The dramatic play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was written in the 1950s but takes place in the last 1600s during the Salem witch trials. These trials are notorious for the public hysteria it caused and drew out. Due to individuals greed and deception many innocent were accussed and sentenced to death for witch craft. This only subsisted the hysteria and caused several unjust deaths.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play based on the events that occurred during The Salem Witch trials. It follows the townspeople as they accuse more and more women and men as witches. Throughout the Crucible many themes exploit themselves, and many of these themes influence the story itself. Integrity influences the reader's thoughts on different characters, corruption of justice helps the climax grow, and the mass hysteria helps to create the initial problem of the play.
Fear—“a darkroom where negatives develop”(Asif). People in history are bound by fear, so great that it causes mass hysterias. As portrayed in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the Salem Witch Trials brought fear to everyone of being accused of being a witch. Everyone is afraid of being accused of being a witch, so people started to accuse each other. Just like the hysteria in the Salem Witch Trials, the September Eleventh event occurred when a plane crashed into the Twin Towers by Muslim hijackers.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is one of the leading titles in American literature when it comes to the understanding of human motivation. This literature demonstrates what enables the human mind to push itself forward into doing what is set in their mind. As the setting takes place in the 1690s in Salem, a small town in the new colony of Massachusetts Bay, people were living in a Theocracy and were accusing each other of witchcraft and working with the devil. As a result of these accusations, people were getting executed under the court of Salem, which leads to the theme: fear can drive one to the action of the abnormal. This theme reoccurs in The Crucible, and also in literatures outside The Crucible.
In the background of the Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller's timeless masterpiece "The Crucible" explores the themes of hysteria, power, and truth. The play, which is a metaphor for the McCarthy era of the 1950s and is set in the puritanical culture of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, was written by Arthur Miller. " The Crucible" investigates how fear may proliferate like wildfire and result in devastating conduct, especially toward helpless people. Miller makes a statement in his writing on the perils of groupthink and the necessity of maintaining personal integrity in the face of peer pressure. The characters are captivated by their fear of the devil and the presence of evil throughout the entire play.
Have you ever had those nosy neighbors that start rumours about you or the people that live around you? Having those people around you can lead to discomfort and drama. People were accused of being communists in the 1960’s. Arthur Miller was exposed to it. The mcCarthy hearings inspired Arthur Miller to write The Crucible.
The Crucible, Arthur Miller takes the reader into the society and community of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Introducing him or her to a densely populated cast of characters who represent all different sorts of personalities. Miller exposed just how easily and how quickly paranoia can spread throughout a society, and to what lengths people will go to protect the values and the institutions that they consider to be sacred. A tragic hero dies a good man when brought to trial over nothing more than child’s play and dishonesty. Miller dramatized his characters nicely, pitting extreme types against one another to show just how infectious and ridiculous paranoia can become
“The Crucible” by Arthur Miller in 1953 portrays the realistic story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. During the 1950s, the “Red Scare” occurred in the United States. The “Red Scare” was a massive wave of hysteria that hit U.S. citizens and people were convinced there was going to be a communist takeover. Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” to draw an allegory between the trials held by McCarthy and the trials held for the supposed “witches” of Salem. The allegory was that during both times of U.S. history, people were convinced that they were attacked by an unseen enemy.
The crucible is a historical fiction text that is well known throughout the world and is a staple in English literature. In 1952 Arthur Miller, a popular writer in the 50s, set the stage for a dramatic act of the Salem Witch trials. Miller wrote this play not only to shed light on the tragedy that is the Salem witch trials, but also a subject that hit closer to home for him; the red scare. He wrote the essay “Why I Wrote the Crucible to educate his readers and viewers on the true purpose of the story.” Miller explains in his writing through logical historical examples, comparisons to the Red Scare and McCarthyism to the Salem Witch trials through strong illustrations of personal experiences.
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.
The Crucible Essay Rough Draft In Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible,” he analyzes fear and how it is used to reveal the hysteria of the characters caused by the witch trials. CONTINUE INTRO Miller shows how the citizens of Salem neglect to confess, due to their fear of the court. Mary attempts to convince Proctor that "they will not hang them if they confess" (Miller 48).
The Crucible is a book written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is about the Salem Witch Trials. “The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunts in the United States.” (Miller, Arthur The Crucible). What makes the Crucible a good book/play is that some characters change.
Arthur Miller's The Crucible presents the mass hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials, which can be related to the events following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a once faultless naval base in the United States. Just as in The Crucible Abigail caused the unjust imprisonment of nearly all of the members of the Salem community, Franklin D. Roosevelt also caused a mass hysteria when he used fear to encourage the United States to action following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This marked the beginning of Japanese internment where all Japanese people, including Japanese-Americans, were taken from their homes and relocated to isolated internment camps. Abigail's accusations on the people of Salem and Pres. Roosevelt's
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was a dramatic enactment of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The Salem witch trials were intended to serve as an allegory of the anti-communist Red Scare at the time. The play demonstrated the hysteria caused by the witch trials as many innocent people were accused of witchcraft and succumbed due to the hypocrisy of the accusers. The play also shifted the issues of many people to the concerns caused by the witch trials. The protagonist of the story, John Proctor, experienced a numerous amount of dilemmas throughout the play, each in a sequence with the other.