John Proctor fears his name’s identity, which is evident near the end of the play when he resists Deputy Danforth and Reverend Hale’s posting his name on the church door, accusing him of witchcraft (IV.712-717). John Proctor is Elizabeth Proctor’s husband, who involved in an affair with Abigail Williams when she was still working as the Proctor’s maid. Elizabeth fires Abigail, once she realizes her maid and her husband’s covert relationship. Elizabeth’s dismissal causes Abigail to become very angry, for women had little power at the time, let alone unmarried women like herself. By playing her Mafia-like wailing and doll piercing games and forcing the other Salem girl to participate, Abigail determines to terminate Elizabeth and keep John for herself (460-473). Nevertheless, the court concludes John as a witch when Elizabeth—hoping to keep the Proctor’s honor—twists the story about how she dismissed Abigail. Even though the court understands John to be innocuous man, fearing their reputation, they persist in delivering his a death sentence,…
Guilt pushes John Proctor to not only protect his wife but to protect the whole town at the end of the play. protects his wife by owning up to committing adultery with Abigail. “I have known her, sir. I have known her.” (Miller, 220). This…
Reverend Parris is the reason the trials occurred in the first place. One night he saw that his niece, Abigail Williams and all of the other girls were dancing, and singing in the forest he became very angry at them. When he asked them the next day what happened none of the children wanted to be whipped, so they made up stories that they were bewitched. As, the problem escalated he wanted to protect his own name so he went along with the hysteria of the town.…
Throughout Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, there are a series of prevailing questions: “Who was conspiring against you? Might you be a witch and not know it? Can an innocent person be guilty? Could anyone think themselves safe?” (Schiff 4). These questions are evidence of the hysteria that swept through Salem, Massachusetts during the winter of 1692 and again during the peak of the anti-communist revolution in the 1950’s. In The Crucible, innocent people were in danger of being accused of witchcraft and during the reign of McCarthyism innocent people were being accused of communism.…
In “The Crucible”, John Proctor expresses extreme guilt about his affair with Abigail throughout the book. This guilt leads John to confess to Judge Danforth and sets himself up for chaos. At first, he wants to expose Abigail for faking it, but he is scared because of the guilt of his affair. He realizes that in order to keep his family together, and his friends alive, he must confess about his affair before it’s too late.…
In the beginning of the play, John has an affair with Abigail, but this a problem because he is married to Elizabeth. In the town of Salem, this would be considered a sin, lechery, and John could be sentenced to death if someone were to find out. John has to overcome his past with Abigail by resisting her temptations. Later in the play, Abigail tries to flirt with Proctor and win him over. John rejects her by saying, “I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again. We never touched.” By not giving into Abigail’s ways he shows maturity and…
In his autobiography, Timebends, Arthur Miller claims it is only when observing the “break of charity” within the human community that one can fully understand the true meaning behind the outbursts of mass hysteria, which later result in a loss of sanity and civility. Miller’s historical-based play, The Crucible, validates his belief and subtly draws attention to the similarities between the response of the people in 1690 Salem and 1950 America to witchcraft and McCarthyism, respectively.…
The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a…
Salem, Massachusetts, a place of beginnings in the New World, shows that the Puritans’ “self-denial, their purposefulness, their suspicion of all vain pursuits, their hard-handed justice were altogether perfect instruments for the conquest of this space so antagonistic to man” (Miller 6). The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, describes the Salem witch trials during the seventeenth century. Numerous people were hung and jailed for being accused of witchcraft. In his work, Miller describes how a young girl, Abigail Williams, becomes the main accuser in the town of several honest and truthful Puritan individuals. The trials are “a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins,…
), however he transcends that condescension by the end, dying an honest, righteous man at peace. Parris on the other hand is initially portrayed as an immaculate example of an elect Christian, however his web of lies and deceit become unwound his and his nieces’ own machinations. his importance toward his reputation also becomes an evident flaw along with the others just mentioned. “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 my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.” Parris (Act I pg…
Arthur Miller’s play ‘The Crucible’ was composed in the context of McCarthyism, using the subject matter of the Salem witch hunts to make comments about the communist witch hunts that occurred in the 1950s in America. ‘The Crucible’ explores the destruction of the Salem community caused by mass hysteria. The hysteria was ignited by a group of young girls who were powerless individually, yet as a group, had the power to control the court. This resulted with the death of 19 people including John Proctor and several other highly respected members of Salem.…
Reverend Parris is greedy and selfish. In act one when his daughter Betty is sick, Parris seem worried but only about his reputation. Also in act three Parris does perjury when he tell the court that he say no one dancing naked in the woods even though he has when he tell Abigail. In act four he is lying when he tells Danforth to postpone the hangings because his life is in danger…
Reverend Parris abruptly enters the forest and the girls all scuffled about, not to be identified by the local minister including Tituba his black slave. He witnesses girls being naked dancing around a fire as well as the presence of his niece Abigail and daughter Betty. Afraid of being punished, Betty falls to the ground on Abigail crying with dismay, later presuming that she is ill and hoax by spirits. In extremely religious Puritan New England, frightening or surprising occurrences were often attributed to the devil or his cohorts.…
Everyone, at one point in his or her life, experiences greed. Not because of choice, rather, by human nature alone. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays greed throughout many of the main characters. The main people, for example, include Thomas Putnam, Abigail, and Danforth. Each character shows greed in their own way. Throughout these characters, Arthur Miller try’s to show us that as a human, we cannot help to control the underlying greed within ourselves.…
When you’re scared, sometimes it’s hard to go with your gut feeling, right? It may be hard to stick up for yourself, or stand up for what is right. This is the feeling most of The Crucible characters probably felt. Reverend Parris, Abigail Williams, and John Proctor are good examples of how fear and hysteria can destroy good judgment.…