...Being the main source of drama, Abigail Williams was altered The Crucible, a historic play, by Arthur Miller to provoke the witch trials, to develop the protagonist, John Proctor, and to draw parallelism McCarthyism. Abigail, at the age of 17, who is 5 years older than the historical Abigail, was the main accuser in the witch trials. According to the Shmoop Editorial Team, “Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar...She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them”(n.p). In regards to their remark towards Abigail, we can infer that her personality caused the entire witch trials in the play. Arthur Miller also had to alter Abigail’s real age in order to match her nasty personality and to make her...
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...After reading the historical aspect of the Crucible allows the reader to distinguish the different representation of the main characters. The characters in the Crucible each of a different meaning and Abigail Williams best displays a connection to Senator McCarthy. Senator McCarthy and Abigail both deemed an antagonistic approach to the events. Senator McCarthy was the one who accused "205 card-carrying members of the Communist Party who worked for the United States..." (History.com). And Abigail who announced a string of names in Act 1 of the Crucible when her cousin Betty was ill (Miller pp. 189). The connections establish a direct relationship to the character, both McCarthy and Abigail is deemed to be antagonists who accuse a list of people...
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...The protagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor, passes his extreme test because he is willing to put his life and reputation at risk to free Elizabeth from all of her troubles. John’s past affair with the jealous Abigail Williams is no secret to Elizabeth. Determined to do anything she can to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft, Abigail makes up many lies about her like accusing her of implanting a needle in a doll. John finally sees that there is only one way to stop the hysteria in Salem: to admit his sin of adultery. “I have known her, sir. I have known her”(1145). Proctor faces one of his crucible moments in the play, when he tells the court he committed the crime of adultery, and he passes. He confesses in front of the court and the judges that he himself was an adulterer. Proctor feels he owed this to Elizabeth. He wants to make up for...
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...Throughout Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, the characters are constantly faced with compelling influences. The protagonist in The Crucible, John Proctor, is faced with the conflicting decision of pleading guilty along with countless others in being a witch or dying a guilt-free Christian. For John, the choice that he must make is a direct reflection upon Proctors morals. In the choice of nobility or life, ones morals will come into consideration. The main consideration which affects Proctors view on life is the possibility of pleading guilty of being a witch and staying alive not only for Elizabeth but for their children. By pleading guilty, Proctor will have succumbed to pressure from the rest of the community as well as from Danforth....
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...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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...October 2015 The Crucible Analytical Paper “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it,” Benjamin Franklin once said. Reputation has a large impact on the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts in the play, The Crucible. John Proctor is most affected by the thought of maintaining an acceptable reputation for his name. Throughout The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, John Proctor made many mistakes, one such as committing adultery, which made his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, lose his trust. Although he made mistakes, the town still saw John as a respectable man who cared immensely for his family. In the end, John did admit his sin of adultery and was hanged. Through “Aristotle’s Poetics” it is proved that John Proctor is the tragic hero of The Crucible because his true character comes out and he becomes a good man in the end by admitting to his wrong-doings, committing adultery, in order to save his reputation and family. John Proctor ruins his reputation within the change of fortune, or catastrophe, appeal of “Aristotle’s Poetics”. A change of fortune is explained as “occurs when a character produces an effect opposite to that which he intended to produce…”(McManus). John Proctor did not want his reputation ruined or his relationship with his wife ruined, however the complete opposite happened to him creating a major problem. The change of fortune is when John is finally forced to admit to the court about his sin (Miller 119). John Proctor commits adultery...
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...Morality play is a type of dramatic allegory, performed in a theater, in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil” (newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Morality_play, November 21, 2014) Miller, Arthur, Robert E. Probst, and Rinehar Holt. “The Crucible.” Elements of Literature Literature of the United States, with Literature of the Americas. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston 2003. “I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched. Abby” Miller, Arthur, Robert E. Probst, and Rinehar Holt. “The Crucible.” Elements of Literature Literature of the United States, with Literature of the Americas. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston 2003. “If the crop is good I’ll buy George Jacobs’ heifer. How would that please you?..... I mean to please you Elizabeth” Proctor hesitates to expose Abigail’s truth by admitting his adultery at first, but he determines that he should admit to stop Abigail’s calumnies (http://historyofmassachusetts.org/john-proctor-first-male-accused-witch/October 27, 2011 ). Proctor question the court and wants justice as he concerns about he worries about the innocents. (http://historyofmassachusetts.org/john-proctor-first-male-accused-witch/October 27, 2011 ). Miller, Arthur, Robert E. Probst, and Rinehar Holt. “The Crucible.” Elements of Literature Literature of the United States, with Literature of the...
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..."The Crucible" by Arthur Miller was very interesting,...
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...play, Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, utilized the five-act structure to further develop his plot. The exposition of a five-act structure introduces the setting, main characters, and conflict of a literary work. The audience gains critical information that is crucial for understanding the...
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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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...Arthur Miller’s The Crucible gives an insight into how reputation is one of the most crucial parts of colonial living in the 17th century. When living in a small colony, one’s reputation is linked to quality of life. Having a good name is necessary to do business, have friends, and, for the Puritans, being known as a religious person. Someone without a good name in the community would be rejected, and avoided by all other townspeople. This is noted in The Crucible, where characters like John Proctor, Reverend Parris, and Abigail went at great lengths to keep their reputations pure. But, is reputation, how other people see you, more important than integrity, how you see yourself? The Crucible’s protagonist, John Proctor, is a perfect example of how keeping one’s good name can lead someone to extreme actions. When the witch trials began, and John Proctor went to court to protect those he knew were innocent, he went as long as he could without admitting he had an affair with...
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...13 February 2016 Reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller was a thrilling and mesmerizing experience. Every aspect of the play was entertaining. The story of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is less about the tale of the witch hunt and trials. Subsequently, it is more about how the witch hunt and trials take an effect on the communities. Throughout the course of time, when a situation that causes a mass hysteria, people will force themselves to conform in order to place themselves in a safe spot. For instance, during the Salem witch trials, people admitted to “crimes” that they never actually committed, or began accusing others who were once allies (ex. neighbors, friends, etc.) in order to keep themselves in the clear and safe from being hanged or jailed. If one was doing what they could in order to maintain the safety of the community, they earned themselves a safe spot. It was the individuals who were not pointing fingers in order to help out the “witches” that were soon assumed to be subject to the Devil’s influence and were eventually either jailed or hanged (sometimes both). Arthur Miller utilizes John Proctor’s protagonist character in order to show not just what he believed was the right thing to do in a situation such as this one, but to show how difficult it is to sometimes play the role of a nonconformist tackling a much larger group of people. Also, The Crucible shows how mass hysteria can eventually allude to violence. The Crucible was not only a terrific story of...
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...ENG3U1-05 November.11.2015. The Crucible: Is John Proctor truly a tragic hero? A tragic hero is a person with admirable qualities yet they have a tragic flaw that leads them to their downfall. In Miller’s play “The Crucible,” the protagonist, John Proctor, is a tragic hero known for his good reputation yet commits adultery with Abigail thus making it a tragic flaw that leads to his death. John Proctor is a tragic hero because he is a well-mannered person that has a good reputation. John strongly believes in Elizabeth’s good morals by proving his honesty and bond towards Elizabeth and speaks up for her as he tries to get her and his friends’ wives out of jail. He tells Danforth...
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...his quote, faith seizes an individual’s life and allows them to see “clearly” with support in their beliefs. True faith is like water, it flows clearly through the world, but can be easily polluted. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a play that’s theme heavily revolves around and relies on faith. The fact that so many individuals, such as Abigail Williams, have their faith “polluted” and choose to lie and falsely accuse others of witchcraft shows just how easily an individual’s faith can be “polluted”. However, there were also those who had strong faith, like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, whom were eventually hanged...
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...dictates that a tragic hero must be of noble birth, John Proctor demonstrates more qualities of a tragic hero than he does not, therefore John Proctor is best understood as a tragic hero. John Proctor, the protagonist in The Crucible, who was seen as a highly renowned man in his society, saw error in his ways despite his affair with Abigail. He knew what he did was far from forgivable and acknowledged himself as a sinner. Even despite the fact that he cheated on his wife, Elizabeth still saw him as a man of justice and honor and pleaded with him to end the trouble that he inadvertently started with Abigail. Elizabeth says, “Then go and tell her she’s a whore. Whatever promise she may sense--break it, John, break it,” (Miller 62). Elizabeth still knows that John is a...
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