...A Throne of Lies This is all more than just a little white lie. In 1953, Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible because of his experiences during the Red Scare of which many people were being accused of being communist. The Crucible is about trials for people who allegedly practiced witchcraft in the late 1600’s in Salem, Massachusetts. Herbert Lawrence Block was a cartoonist during the Red Scare period and was also impacted by the Red Scare. His cartoons had a similar theme as The Crucible. The Red Scare affected many people through false accusations; we see this in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. Many of the characters in the Crucible were falsely accused of witchcraft. People would accuse others without having any actual evidence, by using what they called spectral evidence. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil, I saw Goody Osborn with the devil, and I saw Bridget Bishop with the devil “(Miller 89). These were examples of accusations in which innocent people were implicated of witchcraft. The people that were accusing did not understand the harm they put on others until they were accused themselves and could not do anything to prevent it. Herb Block’s cartoon “It’s okay… We’re hunting Communists” was a cartoon for the Red Scare showing the harm the House Committee inflicted by hurting innocent people just for finding possible communists. In the cartoon Herb Block shows the reckless driver running over innocent people. This was similar to Salem because many innocent people...
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...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 tragedy fiction play, The Crucible, displays is hysteria and desire leads to unconscious consequences. As conveyed throughout the play, hysteria is most clearly observed in the villagers' illogical acceptance of the girls’ claims of witchcraft. Specifically, Act III depicts the idea of mass hysteria devastating the community when the afflicted girls led by Abigail, accuse Mary Warren of witchcraft for testifying against them. Furthermore, several people including Mary Warren have indicated that the witchcraft accusations are false yet the court refuses to be persuaded. Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible was an exaggeration of the Salem witch...
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...nothing evil will succeed. For example if someone was getting bullied and an onlooker decide to do nothing than evil would prosper. This quote id false because there in no way to know who is “good” and who is “bad” due to everyone having a different understanding of what is good and what is bad. Some people believe that those who don’t go to church are bad but in reality many people who don’t go to church have better morals than those who do go to church yet the fact they don’t makes them seem bad. Another way this quote is false is that if someone were truly “good” then they wouldn’t stand around and watch as evil prospered. One piece of literature that proves this quote true is The Crucible by Arthur Miller through his use of characterization and conflict. As stated above the quote “Evil Triumphs when good men do nothing” is false due to the elusive from in which “good men” is used. In The Crucible Arthur Millers’ use of characterization proves this quote false. The Crucible is a play about the domino affect which wild accusations about witchcraft caused in a small religious town known as Salem’s Village. In The Crucible Arthur Miller shows that people are ignorant and only care about their well being. Arthur Miller shows this through the characteristics of Parris, Abigail, Marry Warren, and the town’s people. The false accusations all started when Reverend Paris questions his niece, Abigail about dancing naked in the woods...
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...Repetition, Regression, and Variation Throughout history, the same events are repeated as groups of people deal with problems in their society. Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, was written when McCarthyism, which involved the persecution of suspected communists, was at a high. The play explores the seemingly timeless parallels of panicked groups hoping to protect themself and their own between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era trials that are still applicable today as the fight on terror advances. Notwithstanding the likeness between the three, anomalies appear that show growth or even regression in a culture do remain. Events such as unfair stereotyping, magnified paranoia, and targeting ideas through accusing people,...
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..."Why I Wrote The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, connect accurately and correctly with specific events in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The first topic represented in both is the acts of desperation. In "Why I Wrote The Crucible", Miller states The Crucible was an act of desperation. Much of my desperation branched, I suppose, from a typical depression-era trauma-the blow struck on the mind by the rise of European Fascism and the brutal anti-Semitism it had brought to power" (W.I.W.T.C 2). This goes to show us that one of the reasons he wrote the play was due to the political events happening in the real world. This evidence correlates with Abigail's...
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... 11/3/13 The Crucible as an Allegory English 101 In 1953, American playwright Arthur Miller produced a play titled, The Crucible. It takes place in 17th century Salem, a small town in colonial Massachusetts. The play focuses on the actual events known as the Salem Witch Trials, in which dozens of people in and around the town of Salem were wrongfully and chaotically accused of witchcraft, Satanism, and devil worship by a group of teenage girls. It is firmly established that the play is an allegory of the hysteria and chaos that took place throughout the events of the Red Scare in the United States during the Cold War; a period in which politicians and ring leaders also wrongfully accused numerous amounts of people for supporting communism. It makes perfect sense as to why Miller wrote The Crucible allegorically to these events, 1953 was a time in which American fear and madness concerning communism was frankly getting out of control, just as the experiences in Salem were in the 1690s. The Crucible is a historically fictitious adaption of the Salem Witch Trials which as previously stated, was an episode of unjust accusations of witchcraft/devil worship carried out by a group of female teens. In the play, the group of accusing teens is led by girl named Abigail...
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...Communist sympathizers, and even anyone who acted suspicious. There was no requirements for an accusation, which led it to become a 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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...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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...Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible using catastrophic periods in history to create his vivid literature as a metaphor for alienation of the innocently accused and influenced minds of an entire community. The Red Scare connects to The Crucible by the indistinguishable missing evidence of the accused and crossing the border to a megalomaniac. In addition, Miller uses actual names and historical events from the Salem Witch hunt in the 1690s in this play. He uses these events to explain what happened with Abigail’s plan for lovelorn revenge by the similar false accusations, mass hysteria, and aspiration of power during the Red Scare. During the red scare in the 1950s, the senator of Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, caused mass paranoia by telling the...
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...The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play that focuses on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from hidden agendas and others desires. Miller focuses on the discovery of several young girls and a slave playing in the woods, conjuring or attempting to conjure sprits from the dead. Rather than acknowledge their actions and accept their punishment, the girls accused other residents of Salem of practicing witchcraft. The girls avoided punishment by accusing others of the exact same things they were guilty of. This finger pointing resulted in mass paranoia and a fear that everyone was potentially a witch. This created a cycle of distrust, accusation, arrest, and conviction. By the end of...
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...Taylor Paschal Mrs. Sills English II B4 Date due Title In the late 1690’s, Salem had been flipped upside down. Between the witch trials and false accusations, this town made a hate-filled lasting impression on these people and history forever. An example of someone who has been through all of these hearings and prosecutions, is a man named John Proctor. John Proctor is a young man who made a huge mistake. Early in his life he had an affair with a young girl named Abigail. He also had a wife named Elizabeth, who he loved deeply. He thinks this affair damaged him in the eyes of everyone he loves; including Elizabeth, himself, and even God. Though he did let his sin get the best of him, he does not have the capacity to forgive himself....
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...When you compare two time periods with such time in between ,you rarely find any similarities but with expert crafting by Arthur Miller was able to draw lots of the same moods and evidence from both time periods . Using the basis of the witch trials and the red scare he was living through I believe Arthur Miller wrote “”The Crucible” to show how stupid the current era of McCarthyism. The Red scare was a time period in the 1950’s where American senator Joseph McCarthy was accusing many Americans of being communists. This was a time where the entire country was weary of their neighbors because of the thought that they supported the communist opposition. Most of these if not all of the accusations were false and only caused hysteria . The...
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...Meghan Marasti Ms. Kelly Survey of American Literature 16 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...
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...The Connection by Kathleen Orozco P. Sepesi English 3.1 December 5, 2011 Outline I. Introduction II. 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...
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