...Authority is Power – Crucible Essay Is authority power that is given to an individual? Or must that individual earn their respectful status with no faults? When does the power given begin to become too much for an individual to regulate? An individual with a lot of power over a certain group or person may misuse their authority in negative ways. Many figures of authority misuse their powerful influence over other individuals which can negatively impact the lives of others or even themselves. A number of people with authority tend to misuse their powerful influence over a group of individuals, as seen in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Many characters with power try to maintain their respectable reputations but along the way end up dissipating the authority they have. Other characters misuse their positions of power over certain individuals for personal gain such as love and for wealth and land. Individuals with respectable authority tend to misuse their power in hopes of maintaining their idea of a perfect reputation. Reverend Parris is known as the town reverend, a title with power and high expectations. He has power over the town due to his title but he misuses the power he has over his slave from Barbados, Tituba. Once Parris discovered that Tituba was present in the woods with the girls dancing, he felt as though she were responsible. He used his power, as her boss, to threaten Tituba into giving information as he asks her “who? Who? Their names, their names”...
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...considered blasphemous as witches. Through The Crucible, Arthur Miller describes the irrational behaviour of people in “all classes”(Miller 7) from Salem, Massachusetts during this time of misdemeanor. Many characters throughout the play incriminate others due to bitterness and jealousy. For instance, Abigail indicted her former lover, John Proctor’s, wife. Ultimately the corrupted men and women of Salem reached their goal of hanging the pure, which leads to hysteria amongst the townsfolk. Although John Proctor begins the play as an ambivalent and uncertain man, who is paralyzed...
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...they get away with it. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is one of those mean girls. The Crucible displays the chaos of the Salem Witch Trials, during which, an accusation meant time in jail and a trial. If the indicted person admitted to practicing witchcraft and repented, he or she was set free; but if the accused did not confess, that person lost their life. Abigail is one of the girls that charges many people of witchcraft, which leads many of those people to their hanging. She especially has it out for John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, because Abigail would love to replace her. Ever diabolical, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft...
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...Does power corrupt the mind of individuals? In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, power plays a tremendous role in the Salem witch trials causing chaos and terror. Abigail Williams abuses the witch trials to her advantage by accusing people of witchcraft, thus striking fear into people. When Danforth, the deputy governor of Massachusetts, arrives in Salem, he was given judicial power that affects Salem’s courthouse and as well as Salem’s society. In Salem’s society, Judge Danforth has the ability to make the verdict in court without any question by the people of Salem, and he could also give anyone he believes to be a “witch” a death sentence. Abigail and her friends, a group of other young girls in Salem who want to protect...
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...Dylan Gates Mr. Woody 4 November 2012 Accelerated English 2 Crucible Essay Straying from Puritanism The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was produced in 1953. To this day, the play remains very popular. In this play, Miller talks about a witch-hunt that took place in 1962 which compares to the “Red Scare” that went on in Washington, D.C. in the 1950s. Miller writes about a Puritan village with a Christian religion that seems to be forgotten when under pressure. Puritans are taught to stick to their Christian beliefs, and in The Crucible, they simply stray away from the beliefs and violate them to save their own life. One instance where they go away from their puritan beliefs is that the people of Salem drift away from each other and turn on each other. One very strong belief of Puritanism is that unity among them strengthened their community. In a Puritan community, they take care of each other’s needs and look out for their neighbors. In The Crucible, they certainly do not take care of one another. In fact, it is the complete opposite. Almost everyone in the play becomes very egocentric. This is all the effect of the accusations of witchcraft in Salem. Another instance where they stray from their Puritan religion is that they break many of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the ten basic rules that shall not be broken by any means by a firm Christian believer. One of the ten commandments they break during the play is killing. The bible clearly states in...
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...superpowers had almost all of the power. Russia and The United States had become the two most important and powerful countries in the late 1940’s. This set the stage for some of the most influential decades in modern history, not only on the political level, but in literature and how it affected aspects of life or Americans and Russians. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, the topical views towards communism were usually filled with hatred. This was because of propaganda and government actions against anybody that gave off communistic vibes. The only way to know if literature successfully portrayed an idea is if there was social change...
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...Arthur Miller’s The Crucible details the power that can be gained through manipulation of weak-minded or easily swayed individuals for one’s personal gain. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams manages to manipulate young girls in her town into pretending that other people are engaging in witchcraft. Abigail begins to accuse a significant number of townsfolk that protest her lies, all the while managing to manipulate the judges in charge of the trials into believing her and the other young girls. Abigail’s ability to lie and control those around her has been paralleled a multitude of times throughout history and continues to present itself in other instances today. With this in mind, it is clear that The Crucible strongly illustrates the ability...
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...The Crucible, Mrs. Putnam and Abigail Williams have hidden motivations fueling the Salem witch trials by making false accusations against people causing mass hysteria in the village. Mrs. Ann Putnam has experienced seven of her children die at childbirth in which she is in desperate need to find a justifiable reason. She argues with Rebecca Nurse because of Rebecca’s success in childbearing, Mrs. Putnam says, “You think it God’s work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one? There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!” (Miller 26). Mrs. Putnam does not understand why God would punish her by losing so many children and someone else like Rebecca have luck in...
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...The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play that is based on the Salem witch trials and shows how people react in mass hysteria. The mass hysteria was caused by the religious belief that witches were in the town of Salem. A story that was made up by the girls in the village to save themselves the punishment of dancing in the woods. Religion was used in the crucible to manipulate in many ways such as misinterpreting religion, manipulation through lies, and to enforce the strict rules that held the community together. The play of the Crucible is based on the real witch trials in Salem. Arthur Miller changed the real events to fit with the play better. Like the ages of the girls, making them older to fit in his time. The author also did a great...
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...Abigail's actions were convicted of a bogus crime by an effective yet dishonest jury of young youth villagers. John Procter himself had none of this expected to come his way, apart from his affair with Abigail he was known as an exceptional member of the community especially portrayed when he criticized the witch trials even after he becomes convicted of the crime himself. The self inflicted pressures that Abigail places upon herself due to her selfish love of John Procter, result in complex and uncontrollable lies that eventually leads to the social destruction of Salem in Arthur Millers The Crucible. Abigail desires to have power in the court, in this way she can sway the decisions of the Judges and make anyone appear as a threat to Salem. This empowerment causes Abigail to get all girls involved in the court hearings, if all girls follow her lead in making these decisions; then it is these girls that are in charge of the fate of innocent villagers. Elizabeth Procter fears for her life in act two, "Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel" (Miller 52), as she feels victimized by Abigail and all knowingly realises that she has a strong persuasion in the other girls. The other village girls will follow the lead of Abigail; therefore Elizabeth should fear her life, as she knows about...
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...“Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15). When people are overcome by greed, they do whatever they can to get what they want. Often times, this is because they feel the need to benefit even if it causes someone else to suffer. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, tells an interesting story that revolves around the theme of greed. A couple of the characters in this play, Reverend Parris and Thomas Putnam, are good examples of how Miller portrayed greed throughout this story. The first of these characters affected by greed was Reverend Parris. In Act 1, Parris is standing over his daughter’s sickbed. As a reader, you soon realize that Parris doesn't care about his sick daughter as much...
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...of the character of Lady Macbeth authored by William Shakespeare within the book Macbeth to that character of Abigail authored by Arthur Miller within the book the Crucible. .......... The act of manipulation overwhelms the mindset of Lady Macbeth and Abigail. Although, how they choose to react to such a feeling is where individuality from one another occurs. The concept of Macbeth revolves around Lady Macbeth corrupting her husband’s mental stability and convincing him to commit a murder. She does so by questioning his manhood and referring to him as a coward. “[He] is too full o’ the milk of human kindness” (I.ii.16). Lady Macbeth is worried that he is not strong enough to perform such a task, so she manipulates him by telling Macbeth how far she will go if it is necessary. “While [the baby] was smiling in my face, / have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums/ and dash’d the brains out” (I.VII.56-58). With such ideas of murdering someone and manipulating someone else, only for self gain, does not come without the feeling of remorse. “What need we fear who/ knows it, when none can call our power to account? / yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (V.i.36-39). The manipulation of Lady Macbeth’s husband leaves her feeling guilty to a point where it leads her to her own demise. Abigail also manipulates others for her own personal gain, as she is in a great deal of trouble if she does not. Abigail and her friends are caught dancing in a forsaken...
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...Monique Clay Honors English II Ms. Bambic 22 November 2011 Blinded Authority Do authority figures have the sense of sight? Inspired by the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, focuses on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. In particular he focuses on the discovery of several young girls and a slave playing in the woods, conjuring spirits from the dead. Ironically, the girls avoided punishment by accusing others of the very things of which they were guilty. As the number of arrests increased, so did the distrust within the Salem community. In the play Reverend Parris and, Judge Danforth are blind by power and their own personal gain. But Reverend Hale is blinded by his inaccurate judgments and convictions about witchcraft in Salem. Being a steadfast authority leader does not mean you have your eyes open at all times. Parris believes that the church is the authority of all people in the town. Since he is a Reverend, he considers himself an authoritative figure. He makes a comment that people are not following their obligations to the church. He thinks that if people do not live their lives as committed to the church, and according to what the church dictates, then they need to be questioned as to what their motives are. “Now look you, child, your punishment will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely...
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...Conformity in The Crucible We often hear about people of Middle Eastern descent being called terrorist at the airport and no one doing anything to stop that behavior, if you do anything people hate you. In our daily lives we face many decisions that are minor but affect our future. For example, do you go with the crowd and bully someone or do you attempt to do the morally correct thing and stand up to the bullying and face social harassment of your own? The Crucible, by Arthur Miller is a play about an affair between John Proctor and Abigail Williams and most importantly the Salem witch trials. Innocent people are being accused of witches for no reason and people blindly follow along, but John Proctor dies to go against the conformity. In...
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...In the book, The Crucible, the entire community turns on each other, and almost all of the citizens are accused of using witchcraft. The book is an iconic example of betrayal that displays how far people will go to get what they want. In this book, that wanted thing was a man Abby liked and Abby's innocence. Not only does the book show how characters turn on each other in fear, it also shows how far characters go to attempt to fix it. This book in particular also has several characters sacrifice themselves for the greater good, and in this book, John Proctor is admirable in that respect. In comparing these two dynamics, we see how John Proctor challenges existing power structure, even sacrificing himself, when in contrast, Abby betrays societal...
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