...Arthur Miller wrote an imaginatively creative interpretation of the famous Salem Witch Trials in his 1953 fictional play The Crucible. Though the actual details of these true events are unknown, Miller takes his audience back to the overtly religious town and brings to life characters found in historic documents from the 1692 hearings. He cleverly unfolds an intriguing tale of possibilities about the Salem witch hunt which occurred during an era when America was partially unsettled and primitive. This harsh setting easily produced a fear that overshadowed many predominately puritan settlements where it was common to attribute every occurrence, no matter how small, to good or evil, the Lord or Lucifer. The strict environment was bound by rules...
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...In late March 2011, a Muslim third-grader was found hanging unconscious in his school in Louisville, KY. It was not the first time Muhammad had been bullied and abused. This is happening all over the World, and we need to change it. In Arthur Millers the Crucible, Witch Trials were taken place all over Salem. Most trials were corrupt, they were listening to teenagers during the trials. The trials were not accurate, due to them believing the teenagers that were being accurate and not choosing anyone that was weaker or different from the group of teenagers. The teenagers were choosing anyone less superior to them. This is happening in real life. Teens of all ages and even adults are making fun of Muslims due to their religion. Both the Salem witch trials and our actions and views show that fearing something we do not understand causes hatred toward a group of people. The Salem witch trials show that fearing something we do not understand causes our actions to get out of hand. In The Crucible...
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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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...Crucible Essay History repeats itself in many ways sometimes it will be a man making a simple mistake like a man forgetting to pick his dry-cleaning up or it can be something along the lines of people becoming paranoid and fighting and preparing for things that aren’t really there. The Red Scare of 1947 to the late 1950s is a perfect example of our nation repeating a history event from 1692, The Salem Witch Trials an event that our nation still remembers today innocent lives lost that definitely didn’t deserve it. One of the victims to the Red Scare Arthur Miller made a satire of it using “The Crucible” (A play based on the witch hunts) comparing the Red Scare to the Salem Witch Trials, he claims everything he was accused for is just as ridiculous and embarrassing to our country as the Salem Witch Trials were. In this Essay I will be comparing Arthur Miller's Crucible to the Red scare of the 1940's. There’s this Guy who basically claims our government is filled to the brim with communists and we need to weed them out, His name is Joseph McCarthy, he was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin in 1909 and he died in 1957 on May 2nd due to Alcohol poisoning.(Joseph 1) On 9th February, 1950, at a meeting of the Republican Women's Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, McCarthy claimed that he had a list of 205 people in the State Department that were known to be members of the American Communist Party (late he reduced this figure to 57)(Joseph 1). Joseph McCarthy was a dirty man who in fact...
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..."The Crucible" Hanging Ending? "The Crucible" was a 1953 play written by Arthur Miller that focuses in on Salem Massachusetts in the breaking point of the 1690's. This work was written to not only inform but to demonstrate the hard times and wrong doings of the Salem witch trials. Miller wrote the play to show the people McCarthyism in its full depth. Having Miller speak his voice in the form of a play write he rose some red flags for many other Authors and pushed them to make works about the issue. Let's just take a look into some of the major discussion topics that make Crucible the great work it is today. My initial thoughts and reactions after finishing "The Crucible" were grief and I felt cheated.It ends completely when John Proctor (our protagonist) is hanged publicly (Miller 1073). John Proctor was a simple and humble man that made one mistake and it haunted him until the day of his death. All of this being said Proctor fits perfectly into Aristotle's concept of being a tragic hero because Proctor is haunted throughout the whole play about one mistake he made, this being the affair with Abigail Williams. Us as...
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...even the most trusted person in town could be guilty (Salem). Meanwhile, in the early 1950s, a similar paranoia spread throughout Washington D.C. urging Arthur Miller, an up and coming 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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...English 10H 23 April 2018 The Crucible Essay One connection that is often overlooked is that Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties at a time when America had developed a newfound fear of communism and politicians were investigating people, accusing them of being communists and wrongly prosecuting them. It has been said that Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible because he was fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials and because he wanted to remind people who had forgotten about the fear and shame that resulted from so many innocent people who were found guilty of being witches and hanged. Arthur Miller used his writings in the Crucible to tell the world that a community...
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...America in the 1600’s A. Puritanism B. Salem Witch Trials III. America in the 1950’s A. Communism B. Joseph McCarthy IV. McCarthyism A. McCarthy Trials (HUAC) B. Blacklisting C. Elia Kazan D. Arthur Miller V. The Crucible A. The Summary B. The theme VI. The Allegory A. Danforth and the HUAC B. Danforth and Joseph McCarthy C. Elia Kazan and Abigail Williams VII. The conclusion The Connection The Crucible written by Arthur Miller has a symbolic meaning. It is an allegory, “a story in which people, things, and events have a symbolic meaning, often instructive.” (Agnes 17). The setting, the Salem witch trials of the 1600’s is similar to the McCarthy trials of the 1950’s. The people, the events, the details relate to one another. Miller purposely wrote his story to instruct the fact that the mentality of the people in the 1950’s was no different than the mentality of people in the 1600’s. In the 1600’s people followed a strict religion known as puritanism. The Puritans believed they were sent by God to purify the world of sin and evil. Because of this they believed they were superior to others. Consequently, when they did sin, they tended to feel guilty and blame others for their faults. This blame and guilt led to one of the most fearful times in America. The Salem witch trials happened during the 1600’s and at a time where everyone was supposed to live a life of pureness. The people from the Salem witch trials whom named names were quickly disliked...
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...The Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1690s. Mass hysteria broke out as young girls accused people of dealing in witchcraft. The accused were punished and killed for these false accusations. Eventually, the town shamefully realized what they had done. The playwright, Arthur Miller, wrote The Crucible as a display of a corrupt Puritan society as well as an allegory of modern American history. Miller demonstrates the government issues and religious conflicts of colonial and modern-day America in his play, The Crucible. Miller’s play reflects the corruption of humanity that is seen throughout American history. Puritan hypocrisy is a major focus of this work which is portrayed at the end of act one when Abigail Williams...
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...The Holocaust and The Salem Witch Trials are two major events in history that are studied today. The Holocaust and The Salem Witch Trials have many similarities. These events are alike because of the accusations, a certain group of people, and the innocent lives that were taken. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, a mass hysteria of witchcraft came about because of a group of girls(The Crucible, miller, arthur). The mass hysteria caused numerous but different reactions. Many of the reactions were having fits and outbursts, random screaming, and claims of being possessed(The Crucible miller, arthur).During this time, over two hundred people were accused and twenty people were killed.(The Crucible miller, arthur). Rumors had spread throughout the town about witchcraft and many had accused others, so they could have their land. (History.com) The Holocaust went on from 1933-1945 and six million of innocent Jews were killed(History.com). The Holocaust was during World War ll and Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis, had blamed the Jews for the country's defeat(wikipedia). Adolf...
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...The cauldron The Crucible a play written by Arthur Miller is a story about the the witch trials in Salem. The theme of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, is that dishonesty started and perpetuated the witch trials, while honesty brought about their end . The girls started the witch trials in Salem. Lies from the accused kept the trials going. The Honest brought about their end. The girls started the witch trials in Salem with their dishonesty and lies. It started when Abigail and Parris talking about, why they (the girls) were dancing in the woods. Then Proctor shows up and Abigail tells him the truth, Betty starts to scream and hale shows up Abigail tells him that Tituba’s a witch. “She sends her spirits on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayers”(Miller 46). In this quote...
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...In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the tone of irony boats from every corner you look, this story casts a mirror onto McCarthyism and reflects the outcomes of this ironic process. The Crucible depicts the reality of the Salem Witch Trials in a time of hysteria and fear. Miller uses a past event to emphasize the effects of unnecessary fear imposed by McCarthyism, indirectly relating to the Salem Witch Trials. Miller’s, The Crucible, is one of irony in which it obliquely equates to the consequences of fear and blaming others by relating the Salem Witch Trials to McCarthyism. Abigail’s intentions regarding John Proctor are nothing if not ironic, you can see this perfectly in which Abigail acted out in a complete façade so that she could be...
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...The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play written about the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. The story shows how people were accused of witchcraft through the corrupt society and killed for their supposed crimes. The time that Arthur Miller lived was filled with fear of communist infiltration into the government and accusations of people who were thought to be communists. Through his use of the Salem witch trials in The Crucible, Arthur Miller effectively illustrates the lives ruined from accusations during the Red Scare, showing the irrational way of dealing with paranoia and mob mentality leading to these accusations. The paranoia growing in people’s minds led to accusations during both the Red Scare and Salem witch trials. In the 1950s communism seemed like America’s greatest fear. The thought of communists infiltrating the American government was terrifying to Americans. With such fear of something comes paranoia of it. Because of this situation,...
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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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...Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, Judge Danforth was called, along with Judge Hawthorne, to deal justice and deal with the situation. Throughout the play he is made out to be incredibly precise and scrupulous with everything he does. Due to a perhaps pompous position of power, his attitude and demeanor come across as very stubborn. Nearing the end of the play, his mindset that any wrongdoing is punishable becomes applicable to him, and he is unwilling to consider the possibility he might have made a grave mistake. Almost ironically however, the real-life Thomas Danforth is much the opposite. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to criticize the McCarthy hearings and the hysteria surrounding them and he used the Salem witch trails to do so; as he saw many parallels between the two. To do this, Miller portrays Thomas Danforth, who, in real life, did not even sit on the Court of Oyer and Terminer,(Linder 1) (A group dedicated to the prosecution to those accused witches) is a bitter, scrupulous, controlling old man set on keeping order, or, what he believes to be order. The McCarthy hearings were quite harsh and Miller needed a reciprocated leadership shown in the Crucible. (Lorcher 1) To do this, Miller bent the more level headed, genuine Thomas Danforth and transformed him into the domineering Judge we know in the crucible. While the McCarthy era and witch trails follow each other closely, they are not a perfect mesh. To add onto this, the parallels Miller draws are his and they...
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