Examples Of Fear In The Crucible

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Fear: The Core of Our Actions
Oftentimes, people act impulsively simply because they are afraid of what inaction may lead to. Fear is used as a tool in the Crucible. It shows how one can take advantage over another’s fear in orders to gain authority. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the characters of Abigail and Proctor help clarify that fear is an important factor in decision making. Abigail is afraid since the beginning of the play of being accused of witchery. Because of this state of worry, Abigail begins to blame others. She also pleads her innocence while being questioned by saying, “I never sold myself! I’m a good girl! I’m a proper girl” (Miller 45). The first person Abigail blames is Tituba. When Hale asks Abigail about Tituba making her drink chicken blood, Abigail replies with, “She tried, but I refused” (Miller 45). She blames Tituba because she is an easy target. Tituba lacks of power. Abigail clearly does not want to be accused of witchcraft because it would hurt her uncle’s name. Therefore, she pins the suspicions on others who are afraid of her and have less authority. In this way, it is easy for the church to believe that she is not guilty of performing witchcraft. Through the course of the play, John Proctor is afraid of many things. He is afraid to be involved with the court, admit to adultery, and for his wife to be killed. Yet, his fear was so powerful for his wife to be hanged that he eventually gets involved with the court, and admits to adultery. Proctor eventually feels that saving only his wife is not enough. He feels that staying in court and fighting for the other wives will help gain more self respect and finally give him a reason to be content with his well being. Proctor is given a choice to sign a confession to the church but refuses to sign because he fears what his name would become.

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a classical tragedy, with John Proctor as the play’s protagonist. Honest, upright, and blunt-spoken, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. His lust for Abigail Williams led to their affair. This created Abigail’s jealousy of his wife, Elizabeth, which sets the entire witch frenzy in motion. Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can stop Abigail’s rampage through Salem but only if he confesses to his adultery. Such an admission would ruin…

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Conformity In The Crucible

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. He wrote this book because he had a story to tell. The issue of individual freedom versus conformity is present in society as well as in The Crucible. This is important because people who did not conform to society, were severely punished by authority in the 1950s when communist speculations arose. There were non-conformist attitudes when dealing with external pressures put on individuals. People were too afraid to be an outcast because then they would be…

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Jealousy In The Crucible

Jealously, the weakest link. In the crucible I believe a theme or a thematic ideal in the crucible is jealousy, we can see in this play that jealousy play a big role to the crucible and the who chaos was all filtered from one character and was displaced as death in many other characters in the crucible, jealousy can also be a very broad and essential topic in the crucible because jealousy was used as a foundation for the play. In the beginning of the play we see the children dancing in…

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Reflections On The Crucible

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Puritanism In The Crucible

people who wanted to purify the church or make it a lot holier than it already was. The characters in The Crucible are affected by Puritanism in a big way. Everything they do has to do with their beliefs of Puritanism, for example, the way they dress, their punishments, what they believe in, etc. The characters in The Scarlet Letter are affected by Puritanism, but not as greatly as in The Crucible. The Scarlet Letter has to do with Puritanism, for example, in the way that they look at their ministers…

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The Crucible Essay

The Crucible The Crucible. What is the first thing that comes to you mind when you hear that? For me it was Judgment. The three reasons that support why Arthur Miller named his story, “The Crucible” are that crucible means to melt at high temperatures (Heat that the characters are going through), how the town begins to form after everything has been heated up (Trials, executions), and how everything cools down after its been formed. The first reason is that crucible means, “To melt at high temperatures”…

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Deception In The Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the lack of truth propels the hysteria surrounding the Salem witch trials. The initial conflict arises when Abigail Williams makes accusations against the people of Salem, Massachusetts. However, the lies told by the accused incriminate them further. The consequences that the characters face as a result of their deception, attests to Miller’s belief that lies, regardless of the intention, do not warrant justification. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller suggests that choosing…

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The Crucible Theme

doing something that you have never done? There are many people that have been accused of something they never done. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a story about people being accused of doing witchcraft, and people telling lied about other. There are three main theme in The Crucible, the three main theme are Deception, Irony, and Guilt. The first main theme of The Crucible is Deception. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you…

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The Test In The Crucible

The term crucible can be defined as an object to melt an object; the term can also be used to define to put someone or an object to the test. Arthur Miller, the author of “The Crucible” uses the term as a hint to the audience. The characters in the play forego many tests throughout this play, however very few succeed. Miller may have used the term to tell the audience, the character’s true colors will show. One character that shows failures from the beginning is Reverend Samuel Parris, not only…

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Paranoia In The Crucible

witchcraft. In fact, The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller depicting the Salem Witch Trials, has a strong correlation with a modern witch hunt in the Holocaust. The Holocaust, regarded as one of humanity’s darkest times, was a genocide orchestrated by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in which about six million Jews were killed. The lack of importance of truth, paranoia, and valuing one’s reputation over what’s considered right are characteristics…

Words 1457 - Pages 6