The Crucible Weaknesses

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams and Mrs. Putnam are are the sources of the witchcraft mysteries because they are able to use their manipulating witchcraft skills to throw the blame onto their enemies. Abigail Williams hates Elizabeth Proctor, for she had an affair with her husband,John, and still has lustful feelings towards him. Abigail used to work for the Proctor family, but was immediately thrown out because of her relationship with John, of which Elizabeth has no idea existed. Abigail believes Elizabeth hates her and calls her a “bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman” (12). This of course shows tensions between Elizabeth and Abigail. Abigail even admits she would do ANYTHING to get of Elizabeth, perhaps

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, the protagonist, is a farmer in his middle thirties. The author gives little to no detailed physical description of him, but from Proctor’s speech, we can still picture him as a strong and powerful man who is able to keep every situation under the control, the kind of personality which earns him deep respect and even fear from the people in town. On the other hand, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, plays an inferior role as an orphan who has no social status in a place like Salem. Over the course of the play, John Proctor is absolutely awakened and transformed by Abigail Williams. In the end, he overcomes the crucible by releasing himself from his guilt of

One of the main characters, John Proctor, faces many adversities throughout the play. He has to overcome his emotional and moral problems, which changes and develops his character into someone different from before. At the beginning of the play, Proctor appears an average person, respected in his community for his honesty. Miller describes him as “a kind man- powerful of body, even- tempered and not easily led…” (Miller 19). Later on in the play, a shift in his character shows when he learns of the many accusations of witchcraft, one including his wife Elizabeth. The unfortunate events he was experiencing brought out his characteristic of leadership and he becomes an influential leader in the effort to save his wife. Towards the end of the novel, John faces an important moral choice, he can tell the truth about his wife and die honorably or he cannot tell the truth and live the rest of his life as a lie. He shows his respectful and honest character by telling the truth and dying. The adversity that John experiences proves very powerful, but his morally right mindset stands out even more than before. The Crucible is yet another literary work that demonstrates Horace’s assumption about adversity and its

In the Crucible written by Arthur Miller, he essentially talks about “courage, weakness, and truth.” Arthur Miller gives multiple scenarios when different characters have their time to shine and take the reader's attention. They’re multiple examples to prove this statement. For example would be when Thomas Putman stated, “he felt that his own name and the honor of his family had been smirched by the village, and he meant to right matters however he could.” In this specific quote he is very courageous to say something like this and take the law into his own hands.

Abigail was being accused repeatedly of lying and making up all of the accusations which were of false nature. The many people who were hung because of her testimony was what would now hang over her head. When she was brought before Mary Warren her false tears and outcries of pain were all an act, but in her mind she was the only one who was correct in her dealings. Abigail was for unfathomable reasons a port of knowledge through which the judges and lawyers convicted and sent to death those who were accused. The awful girl was but of one mind. She wanted revenge and to be back to her “love”, John Proctor. Abigail tried and tried repeatedly to get her hands on John, she tried to get his wife hanged, and when she couldn’t have him she decided that no one else could. Abigail soon began to accuse John Proctor of the precise thing she was known for, witchcraft. Abigail had been in the woods when the young Mary Warren went mute from the shock of seeing Abigail drink chickens blood and curse Goody Proctor, all of these happenings had to do with Abigail Williams, and now she would have to suffer through her own crucible, to figure out how she was going to get out. And though Abigail did narrowly escape the major shackles of her crimes, the guilt and foreboding of being a treacherous liar found her rumored to be a young prostitute in Boston. Forever to be alone and used. That was Abigail’s crucible and punishment for all the problems and

There has been a statement about The Crucible being “essentially about courage, weakness and truth.” I agree that this statement is true due to the events and characters in The Crucible. The reason others believe The Crucible is described as courage, weakness and truth is also because of the characters and events that went on. Some characters have showed their weakness in certain situations when they are afraid to face the truth. The courage in the play is when the characters still fighting for either themselves or others, even when they think they have a small chance of them succeed to win their fight. Now, the truth in the story has to do with most of the characters saying the truth about the devil and the witchcraft that is going on in their town because the town and everyone who lives in it are big god believers and to them being connected to the devil or witchcraft is dangerous and a sin to them.

Page 1 of 3Hai Nguyen John Proctor and the McCarthyism “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller illustrates the reflection of the anti-communist hysteria in the United States known as McCarthyism. Miller uses the character John Proctor as a force in demonstrating the way lives were destroyed by McCarthyism. Throughout the story, while Proctor is respected in the community, he has conflict secretly with many people as well as himself. John Proctor is a perfect character because the readers are able to view him as a victim in the society where McCarthyism took place. He is also an adulterer, husband of Elizabeth, and knows what is happening in and outside of the Salem society. Proctor was having a conflict with his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth did not trust John because he had an affair with Abigail Williams. Elizabeth was supposed to trust John, but she refused to because he said he was alone with Abigail for a moment. John cannot say or argue against Elizabeth because of his guilt:” Because it speaks deceit, and I am honest! But I will plead no more! I see how your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!” Elizabeth tried to make John feel guilt, so John wanted to make sure she understood her cold nature may have prompted his cheating. He also has conflict with Abigail Williams which is his mistress. John Proctor was so angry because Abigail accused his wife to witchcraft. She sent Mary Warren with a puppet that has needle inside its

The Crucible shows bravery and cowardice throughout the book. Abigail Williams is a cowardly girl who doesn’t want to get in trouble for her foolish acts, who is then is offered a way to blame others for her actions by giving the names of “witches” in the town. John Proctor starts out as a cowardly man who cheated on his wife and didn’t want to give away Abigail’s secret that her accusations were false, but he ends up being a man that will die for his friends and the goodness of his name.

There are many flaws that people have, do you have any flaws? In the novel, The Crucible, Abigail shows many character flaws. Abigail’s flaws are jealousy, lust, and remorsefulness.

In The Crucible, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor are arguably the most important characters. The affair between Abigail and John drives the plot of the play. Abigail begins accusing societal outcasts as witches and gradually works her way up the social ladder until she is able to accuse an upstanding citizen like Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch and having people believe the accusation. She accused Elizabeth of being a witch so that Elizabeth would be hanged. Then, Abigail would have John Proctor all to herself. Abigail, while certainly diabolical and ruthless, is rather misrepresented. Abigail has received nothing but tragedy in her life; short, though it is at this point. Her parents are killed in front of her at a very young age and while there is not anyway you can take that in a sympathetic aspect, seeing as she uses it to convince the girls to do her bidding, it is very clear that this image has stuck with her. The Crucible paints John in the position of a tragic hero and then ineluctably places Abigail in the light of an antagonist with no hope of retribution. Once you commend John for his actions, you must implicate Abigail for hers. Simply stated, Abigail should not just be incriminated based on what information we are provided. Abigail, while still very much faulty in her actions, deserves to be examined at a deeper level to provide you with the full understanding of just why this woman’s scorning was her breaking point.

She first appears in The Crucible in Act I. She and her uncle, Reverend Parris, are treating her cousin Betty who is asleep and will not wake up. Parris believes that Abigail conjured spirits in the woods with Betty, and that is why she is asleep. At the end of Act I Abigail is accused of witchcraft, and she immediately shifts the blame to Tituba, who confesses so she can avoid being hanged. Abigail and Tituba then start naming many others of the community who they claim to have seen with the devil. While doing so Abigail states that she “wants the light of God and the sweet love of Jesus” ( Miller 1234). Since Abigail is so young, she is perceived as being sincere when saying she wants more of the Christian faith in her life. However, her willingness to lie and blame others in order to save herself is what makes her very hypocritical. In many times throughout the play Abigail merely put on a show to try to convince others of her lies. She may seem like a pure person at heart, but the motivations behind her actions tell otherwise. Later in Act III, Abigail lies to Judge Hawthorne even after he tells her that “to God every soul is precious and His vengeance is terrible on them that take life without cause” ( Miller 1258). Abigail still continues to break the ninth commandment of not lying, even though she seems like she is telling the

Blindly following authority can lead to ruin in society. This becomes apparent in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, as members of society are quickly singled out and executed. In the strict puritan society in which The Crucible lays its foundation, diversity is feared and seen as a threat. When Abigail begins to make false accusations about witchcraft in the tight knit society, panic runs ramped. In an effort to purge the town of all impurity, those accused are hung unless they confess to the crime. Among the chaos, John Proctor is a strong character, who is able to see beyond the strict and unjust puritan beliefs.

Abigail's Torment in Act II Although Abigail is not physically present in Act II of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, she affects many of the characters in it. The first person that Abigail affects in Act II is Elizabeth by convicting her of witchcraft. Abigail’s strong love for John Proctor -Elizabeth’s husband- has brewed a strong hatred inside of Abigail. During a conversation with her husband, Elizabeth worriedly cries, “She wants me dead. I knew all week it would come to this!...and what of tomorrow?

Abigail lying is the perfect way to show she is a crucible because in the play she tries to melt away her problems by lying which relates to a crucible which is a melting pot. In her affair with John Proctor she is a great example of a hard test or trial because John cannot figure out this test which is Abigail and it impacted how he moved on because he always had the thought of his lechery in the back of his mind. Finally the trials with Elizabeth showed how Abigail is a high grade steel because she took a needle to her belly in order for her to get rid of Elizabeth and have John Proctor all to herself. Everything didn’t work out in the end for Abigail Williams as she left the town and her family behind because she knew she would be caught for lying in court but she was a perfect example of the word crucible in the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller.

One of the most prominent human weaknesses that is revealed when conflict arises between the individual and the collective is fear. Arthur Miller explores human weakness caused by fear in his play The Crucible through false accusations and writes about this weakness in his article “Why I Wrote The Crucible: An Artist’s Answer to Politics.” Patrick Henry also addresses fear in individuals that arise from struggles with the collective in his speech “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (1775).” Ultimately, these texts all address the fear of being different, which drives people to match their beliefs with the beliefs of the collective, because those who do not conform to the norms of the collective receive differential and unequal treatment, thus suggesting that people who have different beliefs or practices from the majority tend to be silenced since it is difficult for them to overcome the collective’s discrimination against them.