Ambiguity In The Crucible

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Moral Ambiguity is directed towards those Characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller whose behaviors discourage readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good, and characters that can be identified as this in The Crucible is Reverend Hale. Reverend Hale is looked at differently through The Crucible by the reader. He symbolizes one of Miller's views of persecution and Reverend Hale contradicts this view that rips apart Salem and this makes Hales moral ambiguity a significant factor for what Miller wants the reader to understand. To begin with, Miller wants the reader to understand Hale's changing view of justice/contradiction to his ideal for being in Salem. Evidence regarding witchcraft changes throughout The Crucible. …show more content…
The girls at the beginning of the play, are the one’s playing a part of the witchcraft. Yet, instead of the focus being placed on the girls who were in the woods dancing/breaking rules the act of witches is focused on others because the blame they took for it through the accusation of the girls. In this act, the contradiction emerges in that the girls who were behaving like witches start to accuse others of it. The town begins to emphasize upon these individuals rather than on the girls who actually began all of this. This contradiction has a symbolic meaning of moral ambiguity and it can be seen in Salem, itself. A town that is under a theocratic rule in the hopes of maintaining unity and purity turned out to be the opposite throughout the course of the trials. A town that prided itself on moral notions of the good and spirituality that would bring individuals together in the ultimate representation of community turned out to be self-interested. A community that professed to bring others into one unit could only exclude those who would be a witch or people they think were witches, and Arthur Miller uses Hale to remind the readers of theocratic values throughout the story which connects to his situation of McCarthyism and makes Hales ambiguous morals parallel to the
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