Arthur Miller's The Crucible depicts the events of the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote the play in the 1950's during McCarthyism, while politician Joseph McCarthy sought to find hidden communists in the United States government. He falsely accused numerous Americans of being Communist spies and ruined their reputations in the process. Although Miller set the play in the late 1600's, he wrote it to address these current issues facing the country. He illustrates the detrimental effects on a community when people are wrongly accused. He also shows that the accusers are often those that can gain something by ruining others reputations. In The Crucible, Miller illustrates through the Salem Witch Trials the mass paranoia and hysteria that occurs when people blindly accuse others of misdeeds.
In The Crucible, the main accusers were those that wished to raise their power or social standing in society. Thomas Putman became a leader in the search for witches as a way to acquire more property. Once he accused someone and they were sent to prison, he quickly took over their land. Abigail accused people as a way to gain power and hide from her own sins. Miller shows that witch hunt was "a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims" (7). Abigail accused others so she would not be reprimanded for her own wrongdoings. She had an affair with John Proctor and often laughed during prayers, which was highly looked down upon. Abigail decides to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchery so she can continue her affair with John. Abigail also wanted to alter her reputation. Miller demonstrates how people accuse others of witch craft in order to gain something in return. .
In the play, Miller depicts how the accusations can quickly spiral out of control and lead to mass hysteria. He shows how people simply accuse others to take the blame off themselves.
"The Crucible" The movie "The Crucible" portrayed the Puritan lifestyle in many ways. It showed the beliefs of people, and how they easily gave into a lie if it was related to their religion. It's astonishing what people would give into believing back then. It's also amazing what one girl would ...
Film Review of The Crucible Salem was a town in which, perhaps like many others, various people held grievances or grudges against one another. ... While there are some obvious differences between the stage play and the film adaptation of The Crucible, the latter stays quite true to its original form. ... The movie version of The Crucible, having the advantages of film, conveys the story better than the stage play does. Because motion picture opens up the possibilities and mediums in which to get a message across, it has the potential to do so, and it does so quite well in The Crucible. ...
Towns from New York to Savannah participate in this outrageous behavior, and when it comes to films depicting such grand dissipation, one of the best is Nicholas Hytner's "The Crucible." Based on Arthur Miller's play of the same name, "The Crucible" is set in the small settler town of Salem, Massachusetts in the early 1690's, a town with many young ladies looking for love. ... Many of the people targeted in McCarthy's hunt were celebrities based solely on the reason that they spend a lot of time outside the country; Miller topped this exclusive list and in response he wrote...
Introduction Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible,"" was first published in 1953 during the politically tumultuous time of McCarthyist America. ... Throughout "The Crucible," John Proctor is not the same type of in his own eyes as others perceive him. ...
He wrote The Crucible in an attempt to enlighten the public about the unjust persecution of "Communists" during the 1950s. ... It is clear that Miller's The Crucible parallels his life and times. ... There are some difficulties in interpreting The Crucible as a strict allegorical treatment of 1950s McCarthyism. ... As a result, writing The Crucible was his way of making a stand on the issue without being unjustly persecuted. After writing The Crucible, interviews with Miller revealed that the play was his answer to politics. ...
In the article, "Why I Wrote The Crucible,- originally published in The New Yorker, Miller explained how he came to write the drama: "The Crucible- was an act of desperation. ... Miller basically used information on the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy trials, in order to write The Crucible. ... There are many parallels to these two trials in The Crucible. ... Although most of Miller's thoughts in The Crucible are factual, some of them never actually took place in real life. All of the characters in The Crucible have distinct personalities, which truly bring this drama to ...
The Crucible In literal terms, a crucible is a little metal bowl used to heat metals to break them down into their original elements. In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, the title plays a very important role in symbolizing what the characters themselves go through. ... Miller easily shows the crucible experience in 3 main characters. ... Once these characters were put through the crucible experience, their motivations changed in one way or another. ... All the changes made in these characters can easily be traced back to their crucible experience. ...
The title of the play being The Crucible, the term "crucible" is never actually mentioned. The word crucible, in simplest terms, means "a trial." ... Many of the characters in The Crucible face difficult decisions, or crucibles, piecing together the story. ... John Proctor has yet another crucible to overcome. ... He has conquered his final crucible. ...
The Crucible is a play that reveals the story of the famous witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. ... The settings in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are similar in many ways. The Scarlet Letter takes place around the 1640s, as The Crucible occurs in 1692. ... The towns desire to seek out and personally condemn sinners is also the source of conflict in The Crucible. In The Crucible, the townspeople hunt out the witches in the community as an attempt to rid the town of evil. ...
The Crucible Arthur Miller's 1950 play The Crucible uses literary elements to mirror the Mc Carthy Ear. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a "witch hunt" play that takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. ... Miller's 1950 play The Crucible expresses a variety of themes. ... In The Crucible reputation is a fear of guilt by association becomes particularly pernicious. ...
