...In The Crucible, some people’s reputation seem to be more important to them. John Proctor, Abigail WIlliams, and Reverend Parris worry more about their reputation than about family and lives. Proctor is more worried about his good name and is scared to confess his affair with Abigail. Reverend Parris is worried about about his job and image than his daughter's sickness. Judge Danforth worries about his good name, like John, than about the people’s lives. Abby is one of the girls accusing people of witchcraft. She cares more about her importance and reputation in the community that she does not care that she is the reason the lives of people, who were accused, are being taken. In The Crucible, the characters make it clear that reputation and importance is more important than family and life....
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...Arthur Miller’s The Crucible exposes conflicts between the characters and the Christian society of Salem, Massachusetts 1692. The concept of social pressure and rules are used to establish the play. If the common man in Salem is to work proficiently in his surroundings, he must participate in all social activities or he faces the consequences of untrue allegations. Miller uses the character John Proctor as a prime example whose individuality ultimately isolates him from his community. Proctor tries to avoid any involvement in the Salem witch trials. His reason for this attempt is motivated by his past fault of committing adultery with Abigail Williams, who is leading the accusations. As the pressure from his peers grow on him, Proctor must decide whether to save himself, or to die and save Salem. The theme individual v. society exists through the character John Proctor. Proctor is cautious to speak openly due to his affair. He attempts to isolate himself from the first proceedings of the trial by stating to Reverend Hale, “I’ve heard you to be a sensible man Mr. Hale. I hope you’ll leave some of it in Salem.” (Miller 1231). Proctor is trying to cleanse himself entirely of his affair, rather than get involved with the community. Elizabeth, his wife, encourages Proctor to speak out about his knowledge against false accusations against her. He is hesitant and responds, “I know I cannot keep [confessing his crime]. I say I will think on it!” (Miller 1237). Before Proctor can...
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...against women. For instance, "Female Hysteria" used to be a medical term for women who showed any type of abnormal behavior. In fact, the word "Hysteria" is greek, meaning "Uterus". This is due to the fact that women are viewed as the weaker gender. The play, "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller is about a mistress name Abigail Williams what wants John Proctor to be her lover for life, but Mr. Proctor would not leave his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, for her. So, Abigail seeks vengeance...
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...Bryanna Miller English 2 L1 The Crucible essay March 13, 2014 “Because it’s my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them to hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (43) This is the reasoning John Proctor, a tragic hero, gave to why he wouldn’t sign his name on the document confessing to witch craft. This is also one of his last statements he made before he was hung to prove that he is a hero. John Proctor is a tragic hero because not only does he bring trouble on people, but in the end he tries his hardest to fix his mistakes, making him a hero. Proctors mistakes and attempts to fix them also helps the author, Arthur Miller, of the play The Crucible, get the theme, your mistakes will catch up with you, across. John Proctor is known as a tragic hero because he has made many mistakes and brought trouble into people’s lives, but he tried to make up for the mistakes and fix the problems he caused. The mistake he made in the play was when he had an affair with Abigail. This causes troubles, with not only his wife Elizabeth’s life, but also with Abigail’s life. This causes great trouble for Goody Proctor because she had to live with the fact that her husband cheated on her, because divorce was very looked down upon in the community. To try and get over the affair John had, she tried her best to pretend that it didn’t happen, and that everything...
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...Kantor Mr. Smyth 11th Grade ELA/WL CP (Period A) 26 November 2012 A Condemned Man’s Secret to Peace In The Crucible, set in the Puritan village of Salem, John Proctor is a conflicted man of varying emotions, and makes decisions which end up costing him dearly, unlikely for someone who goes out of his way to avoid trouble and being held accountable for it. One basis of Proctor’s guilty conscience is that he has had an affair with Abigail Williams, thus committing adultery because of his relationship with Elizabeth Proctor. Adultery, set is The Crucible, in the Puritan community of Salem, is more than a crime; it is a wrongdoing that has very serious implications and is punishable by death. With this guilty conscience, there are also witchcraft proceedings ongoing in Salem, and Proctor eventually will have to make decisions regarding taking the action that is morally fulfilling and telling the truth about the witchcraft trials to the judges. Although in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor’s actions have led to his moral degradations and a heavy conscience, he makes the choices of telling the truth and doing what is right when he admit that he had committed lechery with Abigail, when he brought Mary Warren to the court with him to confess the truth, and by giving up his life in order to keep his name in good standing. Even as it goes against everything John Proctor strives for, he admits his secret to the court, just like he had done earlier with Elizabeth, thus subjecting...
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...in society, thus potentially having to lie and hurt someone else’s status in the process. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, many characters demonstrate self-preservation to avoid the consequences of their own actions. This results in prolonging the witch trials in the town of Salem, causing the destruction of the community. Reverend Samuel Parris is a prime example of a character that uses self-preservation throughout the play to maintain his high position in society. When he realizes that his daughter Betty and his niece Abigail danced in the woods and potentially performed witchcraft, he knows it can hurt his reputation to be associated with them, especially if the rumours of their blasphemous actions are proven to be true. In act one Parris speaks with Abigail and says, “I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character" (Miller 11). The townsfolk already question his values and see him as an unfit minister for the town. Parris is afraid that the actions of his rebellious daughter and niece will destroy the name he has worked to build over the years and thus give the community a reason to drive him out of the ministry. Accusations on innocent people are soon made and the witch trials proceed. Giles Corey, Francis Nurse, and John Proctor bring Mary Warren’s signed deposition to court as proof to clear their wives’ convictions and prove that...
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...Relationships are a significant part of life that can alter your whole outlook on it. In The Crucible, there are a variety of different relationships, but the one most prevalent is that of John and Elizabeth. As the plot unravels one can see that their relationship is put under much stress. The Proctors clearly demonstrate that a couple can stay together even when life gets problematic. This is proven when John shows his morality, demonstrates his devotion and protective instincts, and when signs indicate that they truly love each other. John Proctor validates that his relationship with his wife can stay together through the use of his moral goodness. At one point in the story, he has an affair with Abigail Williams, their servant at the time. Immediately after the incident he...
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...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 remains loyal and stays by his side. One reason a man would commit adultery was if his wife was not good enough for him, and Elizabeth blames herself for Proctor’s cheating. “I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery… It were a cold house I kept! (Miller 1162). Highlighting the stereotypical wife of the 17th century, Elizabeth loves her husband even when it hurts to save their marriage. Being the epitome of a loving, devoted wife. Elizabeth blames herself for Proctor’s...
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...Chapter One A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic gooseflesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a laboratory. Wintriness responded to wintriness. The overalls of the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale corpse-coloured rubber. The light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables. "And this," said the Director opening the door, "is the Fertilizing Room." Bent over their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing silence, the absent-minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle, of absorbed concentration. A troop of newly arrived students, very young, pink and callow, followed nervously, rather abjectly, at the Director's heels. Each of them carried a notebook, in which, whenever the great man spoke, he desperately...
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...'Vhat'Ve Can't A Guide J. Budzisze wski WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW J. BUDZISZEWSKI WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW A Guide Revised and Expanded Edition IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO First edition published by Spence Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas ©2003 by J. Budziszewski All rights reserved Cover illustration: Comstock/Fotosearch.com Cover design by Sam Torode ©2004 Spence Publishing Company Used by permission Published in 2011 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco ©2003, 2011 J. Budziszewski All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-58617-481-1 Library of Congress Control Number 2010927673 Printed in the United States of America To my grandparents Julian and Janina Budziszewski, long departed, not forgotten The mind of man is the product of live Law; it thinks by law, it dwells in the midst of law, it gathers from law its growth; with law, therefore, can it alone work to any result. —George MacDonald CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION A New Phase of an Old Tradition ix PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Whom This Book Is For xix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxiii INTRODUCTION The Moral Common Ground 3 I THE LOST WORLD Things We Can’t Not Know 1 2 What It Is That We Can’t Not Know 3 Could We Get By Knowing Less? II EXPLAINING THE LOST WORLD 4 The First and Second Witnesses 5 The Third and Fourth Witnesses 6 Some Objections vii 19 29 54 83 93 116 viii WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW III HOW THE LOST WORLD WAS LOST 7...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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