...The witch trials were always fake and are now forgotten, but the behavior of the characters of the play was real then, and it’s still real now. At the beginning of the play, Reverend Hale, the “expert” in witchcraft, decided whether a person was a witch or not based on his or her physical appearance. Today, it´s amazing how many comments I hear every day on people´s clothes, faces, and body figures. I think everyone, including me, has decided at some point if we want to be friends with someone without even talking to them, just by looking at them. Most of the times we don’t do it consciously, it’s what our society has taught us. “Ew, she dresses like a homeless person” “He looks like a drug dealer” “Don’t get close to them, they look scary”...
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...Reverend Hale In the United States of America, The Bill of Rights states that everyone is “innocent until proven guilty.” In the Salem Witch Trials, this right was not in effect. The judges accused people of being witches without any real evidence, they were guilty until proven innocent. However, Reverend Hale was one voice of reason. In The Crucible, Reverend Hale goes from assisting the accusers of witchcraft, to denouncing the accusations. In the beginning of The Crucible, Reverend Hale is somewhat skeptical, but doesn’t reject the idea that there are witches in Salem. When he arrives, he states, “We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise.” (Miller 1146) This tells me that Hale is not ready to do something impetuous, and wants to do some investigating before anyone is indicted of any wrongdoing. Hale is a holy man, but also a man of substance and...
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...Miller’s Universal Truths through the Characterization of Reverend John Hale Throughout The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the characterization of an archetypal hero, Reverend John Hale, to reveal how when arrogant and nationalistic pride becomes involved even the most intelligent and moral man’s moral compass can be distorted. This universal truth and Hale’s archetypal characteristics were revealed by Miller to reprehend those who fell into McCarthyism and the flaws in the American society in the nineteen-fifties, which were impacts of their blinded morals. To comprehend the idea of this specific universal truth, one first must understand Hale’s characterization through Aristotle’s archetypal hero traits. The first criteria, Noble...
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...Religion Presented in The Crucible? Arthur Miller presents religion both through narration, which is examined in this analysis, and through the words of his characters. In the opening to The Crucible, Arthur Miller provides some background insight into the Puritan faith, writing that the Puritans believed that their religion was the only right way in life. In coming to America, the Puritans wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to spread their belief to more people. Miller writes, "They believed, in short, that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world. We have inherited this belief, and it has helped and hurt us." The Puritans were quite arrogant people. They felt that their faith was "held in their steady hands," implying that Puritanism can bring order and stability to anybody who accepts the religion. They felt that any other religion was wrong and wanted to rid the world of these thoughts. This is paralleled in contemporary American society, seen in the idea that the country has the duty to bring the rest of the world to what they believe is the right way to live. Both the Puritans and contemporary Americans want to change the world by infiltrating their beliefs, shoving them in the faces of everybody, whether the other people are open for change or not. In his account following the entrance of Reverend Hale, Miller argues that the Devil is an essential element of the world because it provides an opposing force to God. The concept...
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...Literary Analysis: A Character from The Crucible By looking at The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one can infer that the character, John Proctor, reveals the theme of reputation and integrity. These are important because refusing to lie to protect one’s reputation can stop hysteria from spreading. In The Crucible, John Proctor was more worried about his reputation for his family to live with than he was concerned with his own life. Basically, the idea of John Proctor protecting his reputation motivates him to deny that witchcraft exists in the village. Proctor had stated his worry by saying, “The town is mumbling witchcraft” (1.1.511-512). Proctor says this in reference to Reverend Hale walking through town with a stack of books for researching...
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...Extension class. To be perfectly honest, when I first picked up this text, I was unsure of what to expect. Apart from reading Shakespeare, I had never been exposed to reading in the playwright form. I did not know what my approach to the play was going to be or how I would react to reading it, or if there was a certain way in which I was supposed to be affected by it. I also had yet to read a text written by Arthur Miller, so I was unaware of his style of writing and again did not know what to expect from it. After finishing the play for the first time I was satisfied that I had thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, whilst developing a love hate relationship with some of the plot lines, characters and themes that it portrayed. At the beginning of the story, I found myself sympathizing with the character Abigail Williams. She is a young teenage girl, in love, and I felt myself trying to relate to her and the way she may be feeling, being rejected by the man she loves. Before Abigail’s true personality was revealed, I thought...
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...In Arthur Miller’s drama the Crucible, the main character John Proctor proves to show a copious amount of positive personality traits but is sinful to one fatal flaw, committing adultery with Abigail Williams that he can’t allow himself to be forgave for. Though Proctor believes this sin has damaged God’s view of him, the character has proven to show throughout the play he is capable of reclaiming his goodness. Ultimately, in the words of Hannah Montana, “Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days.” Proctor realizes he doesn’t have to be a saint to be good. To understand how John Proctor reclaimed his goodness, the story needs to be set to when the reader is first aware of Proctor’s lost sense of goodness. The play introduced Proctor as a man repleted with guilt. Known for being highly respected in the town of Salem, he is struggling with his self image and sense of goodness, rightfully so. Following the event of Proctor...
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...Character Analysis of Abigail Williams Author Miller’s drama The Crucible takes place in the seventeenth-century in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem suffers from witch-hunts, trials, and false accusations. In effect, the town is full of worry and suspicion; and when young girls falsely accuse self-righteous neighbors in Salem of witchcraft, the town goes against itself, which ultimately causes a conflict between power and aggression. The personality of Abigail Williams, the understood leader of all the young girls, ultimately causes the whole play to go into effect. Abigail displays that she is sinful, envious, and manipulative. Abigail Williams’ characteristic of sinfulness causes her to be the antagonist of the whole play. Abigail commits...
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...(Miller,60) This shows the deficiency Mary is beginning to show towards John Proctor. Also another example of Mary’s new realization of power is when Mary refuses to tell that Abigail’s actualizations against Elizabeth are are a lie. For instance, when she says “I cannot , and will not.” (Miller, 66) As can be seen Mary Warren is using her new profound power to help Abigail frame Elizabeth Proctor for practicing witchcraft. In Act 2 Mary Warren makes a poppet and gives it to Elizabeth Proctor. Then when Reverend Hale searches the house he finds the poppet and it has a needle in it’s stomach, this symbolizes a voodoo doll and makes it look like Mrs. Proctor was the one to blame for Abigail being stabbed. Mary Warren made the poppet for Elizabeth to help frame her for practicing witchcraft. In other words this demonstrated when the text states “ why I made it in court, sir and gave it to Goody Proctor tonight.” (Miller,72) In addition to making the poppet Mary tells Hale she meant no harm by making the doll for Mrs. Proctor. to clarify this statement when the play quotes “ why, I meant no harm by it,sir.” (Miller,75) All in all by making the poppet with a needle in the stomach Mary was clearly trying to set Elizabeth Proctor up and make it look as if she was practicing voodoo against Abby. Although in Act 2 it appears that Mary Warren is helping Abigail prosecute Elizabeth for practicing witchcraft, but some would say Mary is helping Abigail out of fear of what...
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...Title: The Problem of Faith in 'Young Goodman Brown' Author(s): Leo B. Levy Publication Details: JEGP: Journal of English and Germanic Philology 74.3 (July 1975): p375-387. Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Juliet Byington. Vol. 95. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. p375-387. From Literature Resource Center. Document Type: Critical essay Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning [In the following essay, Levy examines Faith as a character, an allegorical figure, and a symbol.] Few of Hawthorne's tales have elicited a wider range of interpretations than “Young Goodman Brown.” The critics have been victimized by the notorious ambiguity of a tale composed of a mixture of allegory and the psychological analysis of consciousness. Many of them find the key to its meaning in a neurotic predisposition to evil; one goes so far as to compare Goodman Brown to Henry James's governess in The Turn of the Screw [Darrel Abel, in “Black Glove and Pink Ribbon: Hawthorne's Metonymic Symbols,” in NEQ 42, 1969]. The psychological aspect is undeniably important, since we cannot be certain whether “Young Goodman Brown” is a dream-allegory that takes place in the mind and imagination of the protagonist, an allegory with fixed referents in the external world, or a combination of these that eludes our ordinary understanding of the genre itself. The story is all three: a dream vision, a conventional allegory, and finally an inquiry into the problem of faith...
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...INTRODUCTION The present course- paper is devoted to the comprehensive study of stylistic device – the epithet in the literary work “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. The topicality of chosen by us theme lies in the fact that a human being perceives the reality by means of various images. These images exist everywhere: in art, in nature, in thoughts, and in speech in particular. Each of us at least ones created an image. We use different means (stylistic expressive means and devices) to achieve the aim. In our research we would like to concentrate our attention on “epithet”, a figure of speech which gives the opportunity to create the most expressive and vivid images. Despite the fact that there are many works devoted to the problem under analysis some important aspects such as structural - the lexical stylistic device the epithet as its component have not been fully investigated. This defines the actuality of the work and its theoretical value. The basic purpose of this course-paper is formulated as a research of linguistic nature of epithet, its types from the point of semantic, structural parameters and its informational significance in the text. The given aim predetermines the concrete tasks of the research. The course- paper pursues the following objectives: 1) to read the novel “Jane Eyre” and to find epithets; 2) to reveal the theoretical notion of the epithets and its categories; 3) to observe emotional, evaluative, expressive components of the lexical meaning...
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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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...BRITISH SHORT FICTION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY This page intentionally left blank British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century The Rise of the Tale TIM KILLICK Cardiff University, UK © Tim Killick 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Tim Killick has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Killick, Tim British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale 1. Short stories, English – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Short story 4. Literary form – History – 19th century I. Title 823’.0109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Killick, Tim. British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale / by Tim Killick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6413-0 (alk. paper) 1. Short stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th...
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...BRITISH SHORT FICTION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY This page intentionally left blank British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century The Rise of the Tale TIM KILLICK Cardiff University, UK © Tim Killick 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Tim Killick has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Killick, Tim British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale 1. Short stories, English – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Short story 4. Literary form – History – 19th century I. Title 823’.0109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Killick, Tim. British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale / by Tim Killick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6413-0 (alk. paper) 1. Short stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th...
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...BRITISH SHORT FICTION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY This page intentionally left blank British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century The Rise of the Tale TIM KILLICK Cardiff University, UK © Tim Killick 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Tim Killick has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Killick, Tim British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale 1. Short stories, English – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Short story 4. Literary form – History – 19th century I. Title 823’.0109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Killick, Tim. British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale / by Tim Killick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6413-0 (alk. paper) 1. Short stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th...
Words: 98420 - Pages: 394
