How Is Heroism Shown In The Crucible

Courage is shown by many characters all throughout The Crucible, however; John Proctor and Abigail Williams are the most courageous of them all. Both John and Abigail show courage because they aren’t afraid to do anything. These are the two characters who stood to be the most courageous. After reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, courageousness is shown through different institutions(such as courts, religion and the church of God), yet; it is genuinely shown through the characters of the play.

The play The Crucible and movie Good Night, and Good Luck exemplifies power suppressing the truth, the manipulation of public opinion, and the wearing down of civil rights through the portrayal of individuals abusing their authority. In Good Night, and Good Luck, the power struggle between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McMarthy is depicted through their contrasting approaches to journalism and the use of authority. In similarity to Good Night, and Good Luck, The Crucible explores the idea of misused power and the consequences of unchecked authority. Salem’s power dynamics are portrayed through the fear and hysteria that grip the community during the witch trials, in The Crucible. The accusations of witchcraft become a means for individuals

In “The Crucible”, John Proctor is a courageous man who seeks proper justice, but isn’t honorable or truthful to himself, or his family. Furthermore, John Proctor lives on the outskirts of Salem; the home of many unjust witch trials during the late 1600’s. Arthur Miller, the author of “The Crucible”, wrote the play in 1953 for two reasons. First, to teach people the horrors of the Salem Witch Trials, which had many unjust cases. And secondly, he used “The Crucible” as an allegory for McCarthy's communist witch hunt during the 1950’s. Lastly, John Proctor’s lack of honor and truthfulness to his wife, Elizabeth, makes him a tragic home. He is a noble and respectable man, but has fatal flaws that lead to eventual demise.

More than 200 people were accused of being witches in the 1600’s Salem Witch Trials. Even though many people were assumed witches, only 20 people denied the false claims and were, therefore, hung (Blumberg). The integrity of those who denied any accusations and refused to give into the claims is shown through Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. Written during the time of McCarthyism, Arthur Miller attempts to warn people of the dangers of blame and giving into fear through his play. In the 1690s, fear of witches and the Devil riddled the town of Salem, causing them to act hysterically, jump to conclusions and point fingers at others to save themselves. Although most everybody in the town was taken over by this fear and hysteria, there were a selective few who stayed mentally strong throughout the experience. Among these few were John and Elizabeth Proctor, Martha and Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse. These characters are among the few that are respected in the town of Salem and, for the most part, seen as noble people with righteous intentions. One reason these people are so high in this town is because of their ability to stand up for themselves and their beliefs. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the motif of integrity to show people’s bravery to stand up against the powerful; thus, Miller emphasizes that one who stands true to their beliefs in the face of conformity remains on the highest ground of morality.

A hero is a person noted for brave acts or goodness of character. A person who face the danger and combats the evil. Heroic leaders have the purpose of achieving the goal, regardless of the challenging difficulties. Often sacrificing their own personal concerns for a greater good Some qualities are passion, integrity, honesty, confidence, patience, selflessness, courageous, and humble. An example of a hero is John Proctor. He is a tormented man. He believes his affair with Abigail irreparably injured him in the eyes of God, his wife Elizabeth, and himself. True, Proctor did surrender to sin and commit adultery; however, he lacks the capacity to exonerate himself.

The Crucible is based on the Salem Witch Trials that occurred in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials started when a group of girls claimed that they were being possessed by witches or had seen spirits. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, wrote to connect it to the Red Scare. One of the similarities The Crucible and Good Night, and Good Luck have is the mass hysteria it caused. In The Crucible, once word of the witches started spreading, everyone in Salem feared that the witches were the cause for the deaths of their children.

The paranoia and skepticism growing at the time ensued chaos for the country, just like in Auther Miller's book. One of the many things that The Crucible and Goodnight and Goodluck had in common was their antagonist. In the Crucible the main antagonist was Abigail, she was a character based on hatred and would do anything to achieve her goal, John Procter. Similarly enough, McCarthy had the same intentions, he was set on getting rid of all the communists in America, no matter what it took, even if it meant to make up for the fake communists. With these two people, they are the prime example of how power will do anything to stay in power.

George Clooney's film Good Night, and Good Luck and Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, are two patriotic pieces of literature that display the theme that unrestricted political power generates mass hysteria. Through internal instability, judgment, and deception, both pieces of work contribute to the sense of panic. Deception among a society results in widespread accusations, which is most prominently demonstrated by the antagonist Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. She accuses Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft, motivated by her jealousy of her husband. The scene in the courtroom is the most viable example where Cheever explains, “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir.

“It takes strength and courage to admit the truth.” In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller many characters are forced to make life threatening decisions to either lie or tell the truth. These choices signify if the character has the integrity and strength to confess the truth or lack of by telling a lie. Some might say the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller deals primarily with human weakness; however, the truly dominant subject is clearly courage because of the characters John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Giles Corey. The characters are a great representation of courage due to the fact that they are willing to risk their lives to prove the truth when no one else is.

“Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh, that is to say over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of illness, of loneliness and of death. There is no real piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage” (Henri-Frederic Amiel). To begin with, a hero is someone who can show courage when an issue is encountered. Nowadays heroes can be seen as soldiers, officers, and even teachers people who make decisions for the greater good.

I do not like the protagonist of this novel. One of the reason why I don't like the protagonist, Miller, is because he is has a horrible personality. He skips class and swears to his friends, family, and psychiatrist. When Miller’s father was sent to Iraq but then later sent back in a coma after a brain injury, Miller thought that he could wake his father up. He thought that if he brought his and his father’s favorite, author, who was a lying, alcoholic, racist, then maybe his dad would wake up.

In the book the crucible, it is about courage, weakness and truth. THroughout the book there are times where a character may either need to stand up and fight back or break under pressure. Some examples of what i am claiming are when abigail and tituba break under the pressure and say they were with the devil. Truth is also a big part in the book because all around were lies and more lies. A main example is when john proctor stands up to the little girl's claiming these things. When he shows courage against the children they know that what will happes is not going to come out in their favor. They create more and more false rumors but that is because they are too weak to tell the truth and face their punishments. I mainly believe that the

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Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, has many unique and complicated characters, purposed to show the severe injustice of the Joseph McCarthy trials in the 1950’s. The injustices created by these trails creates many different conflicts, both internal and external between many different characters. A similar motif is expressed in George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck. Arthur Miller uses many different characters to show the chaos the trails created, by relating it to the story of the Salem Witch Trials.