...repercussions. William Shakespeare and Arthur Miller show evidence of this in The Merchant of Venice and The Crucible, when their characters step away from their morals and carry out wrongful actions. Although the underlying reason for the characters’ social demises is similar, the motives for their actions are specific and personal. By carrying out actions fueled by revenge, both Abigail...
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...others, and readers of The Crucible feel this way about Abigail Williams from the beginning. Arthur Miller influences the readers to think that Abigail is manipulative by using stage directions, quotes from other characters in the play, and quotes from Abigail. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses a variety of stage directions to formulate the opinion that Abigail in manipulative in the reader’s minds. For example, when Abigail is having her statements questioned for legitimacy, she shifts the court proceedings’ attention to Mary Warren by staring at Mary. Arthur Miller makes Abigail flawlessly throw the attention onto Mary when Miller narrates. The stage directions...
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...Truth and Lies How can one’s reputation affect his or her decisions? Reputations decide whether or not one is accepted or denied within the community. With reputation, comes a great responsibility, the responsibility of maintaining that reputation through actions of right and wrong. One’s actions can overall result in a truthful representation of one's reputation, or the falsity behind one's lies. In the tragedy, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, reputation motivates one's actions, whether right or wrong, to ultimately derive in life, or death. The idea of reputation can persuade someone to create lies, in hopes to achieve his or her desired position within the community. The doubts of Abigail's good reputation within the community prompts...
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...Individuals, subject to human frailty and motivation, exhibit inconsistencies among the greater collective human experience. In turn, preconceived notions of the audience are challenged by the exposition of humanity’s complexity to invoke personal assessment and reflection. As such, it is presented within Arthur Miller’s tragedy, “The Crucible”, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s romantic fiction, “The Scarlet Letter”. Both works explore the contradictions of judgement and consider the inconsistencies of personal integrity, encapsulated under the guise of Puritanism within New England America, political agenda, and historical calamity. Therefore, audiences foster introspection and reflection by developing nuance surrounding the inconsistencies of human...
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...How the contrast between two characters highlights one another's character traits Re: Abigail & Elizabeth Elizabeth and Abigail are the epitomai of foils in The Crucible. Abigail represents evil and duplicity while Elizabeth represents naivety and truth. These two characters highlight one another's traits in the result of the contrast of personality between the two. Abigail serves as a representation of all things evil, sly, and treacherous. Almost everything that can be heard from her mouth is either a lie or a form of deception. To begin on page 1195 Abigail says, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!” (Miller 1195). In this quote, Abigail is accusing Tituba a person who has shown nothing but kindness toward...
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..."…. A person is either with this court or they must be counted against it." How do both texts show us that there is little room for justice in an oppressive society? Injustice is often a result of oppression as absolutist societies establish a dichotomy of good and evil to manipulate the powerless into subservience. The allegories by George Orwell and Arthur Miller denounce the harmful effects of tyranny, as it generates deception and fear, enabling despotic individuals to gain power and control. Miller’s play, The Crucible, advocates for the necessity of transgression to gain autonomy, as Salem’s theocracy is eventually broken; however, it is Orwell’s novella, Animal Farm, that exposes the unjust reality in which rebellion does not always guarantee freedom,...
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...changed women into an accessory, taciturn and subservient. Although my parents want me to be the stereotypical women, devoted and family oriented, ultimately I do not want this kind of life for myself. I want to be a resilient, ambitious, hard-working, independent women, traits that do not fit the ‘mold of being a women.’ There is a difference of expectations between the two genders, with men as independent and assertive and women as selfless and interdependent. Traditional females characteristics are used to complement the male, conforming women to not be seen or heard. However, gender stereotypes are in a sense complementary to each other, with each gender having their own set of strengths and weaknesses. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, women are described as deceptive and powerless, with no means to do anything but serve as housewives. Illustrating the prejudices of the 17th century, if one tries to break the women stereotype, people assume they are witches. In Salem, the local authority is almost equal to the sovereignty of God, and women as inferior to men. Women are portrayed positively as faithful and good, but also negatively, illustrating the inability for them to obtain power without manipulation, and as weak, inferior human beings needing to adhere to gender norms. Women in the play are faithful and caring, doing whatever it takes to keep the family together and standing firmstrong in their beliefs. Even though Proctor commits adultery with Abigail, Elizabeth...
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...The Crucible By Arthur Miller ACT I SETTING: A bedroom in Reverend Samuel Parris’ house, Salem, Massachusetts, in the Spring of the year, 1692. As the curtain rises we see Parris on his knees, beside a bed. His daughter Betty, aged 10, is asleep in it. Abigail Williams, 17, ENTERS. ABIGAIL: Uncle? Susanna Wallcott’s here from Dr. Griggs. PARRIS: Oh? The Doctor. (Rising.) Let her come, let her come. ABIGAIL: Come in Susanna. (Susanna Walcott, a little younger than Abigail, enters.) PARRIS: What does the doctor say, child? SUSANNA: Dr. Griggs he bid me come and tell you, Reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books. PARRIS: Then he must search on. SUSANNA: Aye, sir, he have been searchin’ his books since he left you, sir, but he bid me tell you, that you might look to unnatural things for the cause of it. PARRIS: No-no. There be no unnatural causes here. Tell him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mister Hale will surely confirm that. Let him look to medicine, and put out all thought of unnatural causes here. There be none. SUSANNA: Aye, sir. He bid me tell you. PARRIS: Go directly home and speak nothin’ of unnatural causes. SUSANNA: Aye, sir, I pray for her. (Goes out.) ABIGAIL: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor’s packed with people, sir.--I’ll sit with her. PARRIS: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing ...
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