Rhetorical Devices In The Crucible

The Devil had infiltrated the small town of Salem, Massachusetts and it was up to the townspeople to get to the bottom of it. During the Salem witch trials, the town was surrounded by hysteria and panic. At a vulnerable state, many people let others take advantage of them and blindly trusted anyone who had an inkling about the Devil among the town. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, highlights these gullible and panicked people by showing how others rose to power at this time. Girls like Abigail Williams were trusted on who to blame for witchcraft while others like John Hale were pushed to the side and silenced for questioning the reliability of these blind accusations.

Due to paranoia, the once quiet town of Salem, Massachusetts has erupted with accusations, rumors, revenge, and in the end, death. The one thing that makes or breaks these characters is reputation. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, goes back to the year 1692 when witchcraft took over Salem. Neighbors are now seen as enemies and no one can be trusted. Over 15 people died in this true, American event because of false, witchcraft accusations.

Arguments and debates are a part of everyday life, being used to convince others to agree with a certain point of view or belief. Elizabeth Proctor makes a perpetual effort to argue during The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, while the chaos of the Salem Witch Trials continues . She employs an earnest and dignified tone simply to convince Reverend Hale that she has nothing to do with witchcraft and never has during her Puritan life. Elizabeth Proctor utilizes critical rhetorical devices including tone, logos, and pathos throughout Arthur Miller's The Crucible to argue that she is innocent of witchcraft.

In “ The Crucible, “ Miller uses the character Mary Warren to describe the confusion, anxiety, and peer pressure that the people of Salem felt at the time and to further put the audience in the shoes of one living in this crucial time in early history. Mary Warren is a vital character because she demonstrates an accurate illustration of how young women in this time period get peer pressured into committing crimes against innocent people. The author goes on to give insight to how a young woman in that situation might have lived and realistic experiences someone might have went through. The reader can learn lifelong lessons and themes from the role of Mary Warren because of the facts the things she did resembles a lot of recurring crimes faced today.

Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.

Salem Witch Trials, in the spring of 1692, was a time of chaos and turmoil in Salem, Massachusetts. The novel, The Crucible by Arthur Miller illustrates a series of accusations of witchcraft against many citizens of Salem. The Salem Witch Trials consisted of accusations, court hearings, prosecutions, and executions of people who were believed to have been possessed by the devil and therefore committed witchcraft. It was a time were citizens of Salem “accordingly looked on neighbors with some suspicion” and Salem was “a community riven with schisms” (Miller xiii). The Crucible’s tragic hero, John Proctor, a farmer in his mid-thirties who “was the kind of man – powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led – who cannot refuse support to partisans without drawing their deepest resentment” (Miller 19) is a man who experiences the trials first hand through his affair with Abigail Williams and through his marriage to Elizabeth.

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.

The crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller which focuses on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior flaws that the people represented during the 1690’s. In the story all the characters lived in a puritan town where several young women were exposed or afflicted to witch craft. These young women decided to accuse people of witch craft in order to save themselves from punishments such as, torture and execution, the people being accused by these girls were usually people that their families didn’t like or have had issues with in the past in order to get them out of the town. The main women to continue the act of accusing innocent people in order to save themselves from punishment was Abigail Williams. Around the same time of these events Abigail had relations with a married man named John proctor.

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.

Published in 1952, during a period of cold war tensions, which culminated in the ideological witch trials of the mcarthy era in America; The crucible by Arthure miller is set in 1692 during the witch trials in salem massachusetts. The author has used allegory to position the reader to draw parrelels betweeen the to time periods and critisize the persecution that occured in both eras. One of the main themes that Miller has used to portray this viewpoint is the representation of personal integrity. Integrity is the quality of having strong moral pronciples. This is acheived through strongly contrasted characterisation of characters such as Abigail williams and and Rebecca Nurse, aswell as the inclusion of textual features such as irony, symbolism

Rhetorical appeals serve as a major role in the characters speaking style. The speaking style reflects his or her main points that the character is trying to convey. It also reveals the characters feelings and emotions. John Proctor uses strong rhetorical appeals throughout the play. John Proctor is loyal, honest, and kind-hearted.

“’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.

“Character Analysis over The Crucible” Arthur Miller is a commonly-known playwright, most famous for his 1953 play, The Crucible. The basis for The Crucible came from the witch trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts during the puritan era. Miller even uses some of the same characters in his dramatized play that were a part of the original witch trials in Salem. However, Miller made a few alterations to the historical members of the Salem society in order to suit his dramatic purpose in The Crucible, particularly Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Samuel Parris.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play full of suspense and suspicion. Many people involved in the Salem witch trials died because of vengeance which is amplified by many groups. Problems arose when people began to choose sides. In the Crucible, the conflicts of the play illustrate the power of a crowd mentality to influence the actions of people.

When people think of the play, “The Crucible”, they usually picture the witch trials and women being hanged, but Arthur Miller depicts the witch trials in a completely new light. He shows through a story that the witch trials were much more than just people calling others witches. There was deceit, pain, greed, and more. Through the play, we follow the character, Abigail, observe her actions and their consequences. We witness the lives of people she impacts, what happens to them, and how many times she lies to get her way.