...Animal Farm Comparative Essay Rebellion, gluttony, and manipulation are all common themes when it comes to the struggle for power. Animal farm by George Orwell, a book which all of these take place is remarkably similar to the Crucible by Arthur Miller and Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Animal farm, The Crucible, and Macbeth are all written similarly and revolve around the same themes, such that many characters in Animal Farm and Macbeth portray similar characteristics. Animal Farm and The Crucible share common themes and conflicts. In all three books the structure of peoples values change drastically for a turn for the worst. These novels and play all follow popular foundations of literature which revolve around inner evil, the addiction to power, and the loss and regaining of self-identity. Animal farm and Macbeth’s antagonists, Napoleon and Macbeth portray similar characteristics. Napoleon and Macbeth both share important roles in their respective books in that they directly influence and change the fate of many. The two power hungry tyrants go to an extreme to achieve their goals but in two very different ways. Napoleon a more cunning character abuses his superior intellect to deceive the other ignorant farm animals in order to gain power. Through Machiavellian methods he slowly begins to take over the farm by convincing the animals to be more reliant on him, ultimately making his self-proclamation of leader a reality “No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon...
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...The Crucible This essay will discuss, explain and evaluate the main ideas, themes and interpretations of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. It will also explain and evaluate the language Arthur Miller uses and how it contributed to the overall success of the play. The Crucible is set in 1692 in the puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, a theocratic society, where the laws of the land are laid down by the church. The main idea running throughout the play can be viewed as a direct comparison to McCarthyism which was happening in 1950’s America, in which members of the general public including public figures such as Arthur Miller were brought in and questioned over connections to communism. This can be seen as a direct comparison to people being brought into the Salem courts regarding connections with witchcraft. It was not until Miller saw this comparison that he then felt compelled to write The Crucible as he now felt he could get into the minds of those going through similar circumstances back in the Salem witch trials. Hysteria was the main cause of nineteen deaths in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and countless ruined reputations on account of Joe McCarthy. Hysteria does not just appear out of nowhere though. There are driving forces such as revenge and abuse of power that bring about the irrational fear that can take over society. These are the issues expressed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The Crucible is paralleled directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly...
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...The Crucible Essay The play, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials. The trials are started by a group of girls who do not want to get in trouble for dancing and conjuring up spirits in the forest. The theme that is brought about in this play is the nature of authority. In The Crucible, many characters present various views of the nature of authority. There are three examples of this theme: The authority of the church over the lives of the villagers, the control Abigail has over the people who are accused of witchcraft and her friends in the trial, and the power of the judge over the trials. The first example of the nature of authority is the church’s power over the villagers’ lives. The church and the everyday lives of its members are controlled by the preachers. Puritans were highly religious people. They had to live under a set of strict religious policies set forth by the church. The Puritans were governed by a theocracy, which is a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. The Puritans in the late 1600’s believed that the preachers were the purest men on the face of the earth. Unfortunately, that is not so. As evident in the novel, even preachers can become corrupted. John Proctor puts it as “I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I’ll not conceal it.” (856). Miller proves that this is so with his depiction of Reverend Parris’s...
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...The Crucible Essay The play, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials. The trials are started by a group of girls who do not want to get in trouble for dancing and conjuring up spirits in the forest. The theme that is brought about in this play is the nature of authority. In The Crucible, many characters present various views of the nature of authority. There are three examples of this theme: The authority of the church over the lives of the villagers, the control Abigail has over the people who are accused of witchcraft and her friends in the trial, and the power of the judge over the trials. The first example of the nature of authority is the church’s power over the villagers’ lives. The church and the everyday lives of its members are controlled by the preachers. Puritans were highly religious people. They had to live under a set of strict religious policies set forth by the church. The Puritans were governed by a theocracy, which is a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. The Puritans in the late 1600’s believed that the preachers were the purest men on the face of the earth. Unfortunately, that is not so. As evident in the novel, even preachers can become corrupted. John Proctor puts it as “I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I’ll not conceal it.” (856). Miller proves that this is so with his depiction of Reverend Parris’s...
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...waste in its wake. Throughout the ages vengeance has played an important role in history and literature. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the theme vengeance is portrayed as neighbor turns on neighbor. First, as the theme vengeance reoccurs throughout the play The Crucible many people end up turning on each other to exact their revenge. For example, Hale is in the home of the Proctors when he brings up how Rebecca Nurse’s and others names got brought up in court. Then Francis Nurse the husband of Rebecca Nurse enters the house following Giles Corey to inform them about his wife’s arrest, Francis exclaimed, “For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Good Putnam’s babies”(Miller 1175)....
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...Lindsey Sibille Ms. Gonzales AP English III, 1 16 October 2015 The Crucible Book Card Assignment Authorial Background Arthur Miller is the award-winning playwright of The Crucible along with many other famous plays such as Death Of a Salesman and All My Sons. Born in Manhattan in 1915, Miller experienced the pressing and devastating times of the Great Depression and both World Wars. His first two plays were The Man Who Had All the Luck and All My Sons, with the latter being performed on Broadway in 1949. His next play, Death of A Salesman, received a Tony award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer prize. These awards allowed him to rise to fame and helped his career skyrocket. Despite his successful playwriting...
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...playwright, to create a story that would grab an audience, and bring awareness to a budding crisis (Arthur). The Crucible tells the story of the power of hysteria during the Salem Witch Trials in a way that relates more to the underlying topic of the Red Scare rather than the actual history. Arthur Miller significantly changes...
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...The theme of oppression is constant throughout both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Crucible. Both show how religion can be twisted into a form of control in society and they show the huge detrimental and devastating effects this control can have. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible shows the horror and appalling nature of the Salem witch trials of 1692, but beneath this surface it shows the parallels to aspects in Miller’s own life at this period, with the idea of McCarthyism going out of control in America. McCarthyism was a result of the second red scare in America in the late 1940´s/1950’s. It was a fear driven movement that swept across the United States where the threat of a Communist world revolution seemed like a very real threat. In response to this branches of the government set up organisations such as HUAC (The House Un-American Activities Committee) to help fight Communism from infiltrating the state. Unfortunately in the end it simply led to a ´witch hunt´ in which people were brought to trial and accused of being communist, Miller amongst them. HUAC and McCarthyism were simply examples of how when those in power feel threatened they will do anything to maintain their position which is what Miller set out to show in The Crucible. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood took a different approach, with a dystopian text which shows a world in which women are heavily oppressed and religion is used as a tool to brainwash and control the population. Atwood has made a point of showing how...
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...LC Plays and Performance – Formative Assesment To what extent are the plays you have studied on this module concerned with issues of gender? Both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare are highly evocative pieces of theatre that have transcended the category of brilliance and have had a profound effect on the course of Western literature and culture. Both plays explore a broad range of themes, from the supernatural to comments on the power of religion in society. However, I have chosen to explore the ways in which they portray the theme of gender. Firstly I will examine the issues regarding gender in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in particular the oppression of the female characters. I will explore Shakespeare’s portrayal of Titania and Hermia and his ability to disguise the deeper feminist consciousness that is at work. I will then look at the way in which gender is presented in Miller’s The Crucible, ranging from the heroic depiction of John Proctor to the oppositional presentations of Abigail and Elizabeth. William Shakespeare is a famously suggestive author in terms of highlighting issues regarding gender ideology. Although in some works, such as Othello, he reflects and arguably supports the stereotyping of men and women, he is also seen to challenge such representations. A Midsummer Night’s Dream dramatizes tensions between genders, from a young woman quarrelling with her father for the right to choose her own husband, to Theseus...
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...modern day witch hunt. This idea of the McCarthy Era being a modern day witch hunt is what countless historians, authors, and poets have tried to relate. Which means there is no surprise that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an allegory for the Red Scare and the McCarthy Era as well. To start off, the background of The Crucible was awfully similar to that of the McCarthyism Era, making it viable grounds for creating an allegory....
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...Abigail Williams is the opposite of one’s thought of a Puritan. She is selfish, manipulative, ungodly, and especially fond of her adulterous relationship with John Proctor. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, Abigail attempts to save herself from embarrassment by initiating a cruel witch hunt, accusing those who are innocent but are in the way of her own devious plan. She lies about her and her friends attempting to murder Elizabeth Proctor with witchcraft in the woods by turning the blame on others. Abigail continuously displays her intentions as the play goes on changing from lust to power hungry. Abigail is tried on her honesty and self pride, contributing to the theme of power given without judgement tends to corrupt. Miller uses Abigail's...
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...A person’s immediate response when wronged is to make the scales even and in someway make that person feel the pain they felt. Although you can see this theme manifest throughout most plays, movies, and books, you can particularly see throughout The Crucible by Andrew Miller and Goodnight and Goodluck written by George Clooney. The The Crucible, a play, and Goodnight and Goodluck, a movie both dramatize times in history when, in the case of the play, a real witch hunt occurs, and in the Movie a metaphorical witch hunt takes place. In both the play and the movie, you see people's actions are often motivated by a desire for revenge. In The Crucible, there is a woman named Ann Putnam. She has had seven babies and only one of them has lived. This would obviously make any mother...
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...“Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15). When people are overcome by greed, they do whatever they can to get what they want. Often times, this is because they feel the need to benefit even if it causes someone else to suffer. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, tells an interesting story that revolves around the theme of greed. A couple of the characters in this play, Reverend Parris and Thomas Putnam, are good examples of how Miller portrayed greed throughout this story. The first of these characters affected by greed was Reverend Parris. In Act 1, Parris is standing over his daughter’s sickbed. As a reader, you soon realize that Parris doesn't care about his sick daughter as much...
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...Greed is often glorified, regarded as an endless means of gaining wealth and power. Though, in reality, it’s a lack of confidence in one’s own abilities, a form of overcompensation. Greed is a trademark of the weak, yet it stands as the driving force of corruption and regression during the witch trials of the small village, Salem, Massachusetts. It’s by Arthur Miller that the idea of intense, selfish desire is used as a powerful theme personified by many of the characters in his work, the Crucible. However, it’s regularly overlooked as a material issue rather than its deeper meaning. For Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam, and Reverend Parris, greed is a testament of what ails them at heart. Abigail Williams, the play’s obsessively lovestruck antagonist, has the conscience a psychopath, doing whatever it takes to hold onto one thing -- her brief affair with John Proctor. Abigail’s motivations for greed are often left there but when her last resort is an attempt to have Elizabeth killed for witchcraft, it reveals what’s in her heart. “I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet.” (Miller 24). She confesses that she can’t let go and it’s...
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...Drama is created by placing ordinary people in situations of crisis or conflict Explore some dramatic techniques used to create drama in the crucible In his play, The Crucible, Arthur miller presents an allegory for McCarthyism through the use of the Salem With trials of 1692. In the crucible, miller uses many techniques to create drama to influence the decisions of the ordinary townsfolk. Drama is created by placing key protagonists in situations of conflict. The intolerance of puritan society towards new or different practices is one of the ways that miller creates drama. Another factor is the maintenance of personal reputation and the consequences of conflict upon this status. By manipulating ordinary people, hysteria also creates a large sum of drama. Through an analysis of Intolerance, reputation and hysteria, this essay will explore how conflict creates drama. In a puritan society, not meeting the social norms was seen as treason and heavily persecuted. This lead to an intolerance of anyone who did not worship god, and dissent lead to beliefs of Satanic activity. Judge Danforth quotes in act three page 85 "You are either with the court or against it". Miller uses tone to foreshadow what is yet to come in the the text. The tone of this sentence shows that the witch trials are the ultimate form of intolerance and hanging...
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