theme of injustice is ubiquitous throughout literature. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is no exception; both social and personal injustice prevail in his retelling of the Salem witch trials. Though all of the characters are flawed, Miller manages to elicit sympathy for the victims of the trials through background exposition pieces in act one and the characterization of Proctor as a victim with more contemporary beliefs. In The Crucible, Miller utilizes the uncommon technique of inserting lengthy interjections…
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In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams portrays the three character flaws of lust, envy, and selfishness, which leads her to be responsible for a majority of the tragedy taken place in the play. Miller’s character developement of Abigail throughout the play strengthens these flaws, adding to the overall death toll of the fact-based witch-hunts in the play. A character flaw Abigail Williams has in The Crucible is lust. After having an affair with John Proctor, Abigail longs for…
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Every story has a setting to go with it’s characters. Writers use these settings to develop texts and explain why characters think or act a certain way. A good example of this can be seen in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, and the article “Geography Matters,” by Thomas C. Foster. Both works show us how characters can be influenced and motivated by where they live or where they are at the moment, which can be really important to a story. First of all, in the article “Geography Matters,” Thomas…
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John Proctor and His Motives in The Crucible Proctor was predestined to die. It was inevitable. Reading through The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one might see how this is true. The Crucible is formatted as a play, but the emotional aspects are described well enough to be a novel. As hero of this novel, Proctor must overcome his obstacles, and defeat the villain. The only way for these things to happen while Proctor is in jail is for him to die without confessing. To find this element, a reader truly…
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The Crucible Essay In Arthur Miller’s 1952 play The Crucible, Hale appears in Act 1 as a response to Reverend Parris’ request to examine his daughter Betty Parris. Hale devoted most of his life to the study of witchcraft and other demonic practices in the hopes of being able to destroy them in the name of God. As a devout Christian, Hale sees it has his duty to seek out the witches of the Salem village and “save their souls”. A few of Reverend Hale’s actions show the changes he undergoes in…
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Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, and Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, both ordinary townspeople and high level authority figures deflect their own sins onto a seemingly more obvious perpetrator. People exploit the wrongdoings of others to excuse their own sinful actions, leading to the exposure of weaknesses within the society as a whole. In Puritanism, adultery is a very obvious sin, and the reason for Hester Prynne’s societal…
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downfall of Salem. In Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible,” the downward spiral of the town and increase in witchcraft accusations is caused by the lack of individualism and high intolerance for anything but the rules of the Puritan culture. However, it is possible the demise…
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The McCarthy era was known also as the “ Second Red Scare.” In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, he demonstrates how hysteria and dogmatism can play a major role in the tearing of religious communities. The McCarthy time period was when people with power accused vulnerable people, since it was much more easier to accuse them since no one would believe their side of the story because of dogmatism. Also during the era people used fear to gain power, and with that came the abusing of it. When…
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who are subject to it.” These words spoken by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi show the idea that fear can cause individuals to make unmoral choices and is a concept that is shown throughout literature, including in Arthur Miller’s work The Crucible. The Crucible is a play that is based on the witchcraft hysteria that occurred in the small Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. In the town of Salem an eighteen year old girl and former servant of the Proctor’s; Abigail Williams serves…
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“Whilst we are appalled by Abigail Williams, we are intrigued and fascinated by her as well” Abigail Williams is clearly the antagonist of Miller’s The Crucible. She manipulates others through her “endless capacity for dissent” in order to achieve her goal of being in a relationship with John Proctor, eventually leading the executions of many innocent people and the imprisonment of even more. However, even though the reader cannot defend her actions, there is no denying that she does impress us…
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