The Guilty Characters in Miller's The Crucible Essay

Putnam is completely controlled by his greed and doesn?t care who is hurt or even killed, as long as he gets more land. The girls of Salem are also heavily controlled by their greed. The girls, especially Abby, are given an incredible amount of power during the trials. They are members of the court and anyone they accuse can be put to death: ?And folks are brought before them, and if they scream and howl and fall to the floor?the person?s clapped in the jail for bewitchin? them? (53). Abigail is not greedy for land, she just wants the power that has been bestowed upon her and the other girls. Abigail enjoys being seen as a saint: ??where she walks the crowd will part like the sea of Israel? (53). Girls in this time were used to being ignored and powerless. The trials forced people to give

Thomas Putnam has a very large part in initiating the Salem witch hunt. He is the first character who blames unnatural causes for the illness among the children. Furthermore, he firmly believes in the

to the dead and she had asked her to speak to her dead babies and out

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the normal criteria that a central character fits, is not met by the apparent protagonist, John Proctor. Common traits one might expect to find in a traditional hero are humility, patience and caring. John Proctor, while he is the principal, has many qualities that could instead assume him the role of the antagonist and land him in the adversary box. His background and slight character flaws cause him to take on the personalities of both a protagonist and antagonist. Proctor, because he exhibits qualities of both types of characters, is what is known as a tragic hero. Tragic heroes are characters within stories that due to a judgment error, is the cause of his/her own demise. In Proctor’s case, his error was made when he refuses to give up the names of other alleged witches, and refuses to allow the court to hang his confession in the center of town. John Proctor embodies three major signs of tragic heroism. Proctor, even through the rest of the village perceives him as great, knows deep down inside that because of past sins, he will never be able to live up to his reputation. As well, John Proctor is a tragic hero because he had the power to stop his own execution, therefore his downfall was no one 's’ fault but his own. This reluctance to forfeit the names of other “witches” could be seen as a character flaw. The final criteria that Proctor meets for a tragic hero is that the punishment received is way too severe for the “crime” committed.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the witch trials in Salem were a devastating time. The entire community was in disorder and chaos because of personal vengeance. This included accusations of innocent town’s people being called witches, so they hanged and were jailed. Throughout the play certain characters help the rise of witchcraft as well as the disapproval of all the innocent people who were being convicted for no reason. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character whom comes to rid of the evil spirits in Salem, yet he later tries to end the trials. Hale realizes the accusations are false, attempts to postpone the hangings, and persuade the victims to lie conveys that he is a dynamic character and changes throughout the play.

In 1692, during the Salem witch trials, a large amount of people were accused of witchcraft, which resulted in the deaths of nineteen innocent people. These events were recalled in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller. The play starts with a group of young women dancing in the woods and doing witchcraft. They are then caught doing witchcraft and must answer to the court. One of the young women, Abigail Williams, blames innocent people of doing witchcraft and practice with the devil so that no one focuses on her. In the meantime, she also accuses people she does not like, just so she can use this as an opportunity to get back at people. Thus, by cause of these actions, Abigail Williams is the main cause of the events in Salem.

(101)” The only families rich enough to be able to buy land that is auctioned would be the Putnams and the Nurses. The Putnams were the greedy ones, desiring more land and wealth. According to Giles, Mr. Putnam devised a plan to gain George Jacob’s land. Mr. Putnam told his daughter to indict Jacobs of witchcraft. The accusation leads to a sentencing and eventually a hanging, making Jacob’s land available for auction. The people of Salem lie and do wrong to defend their own lives at the cost of their morality. The reputations of the accused are tarnished, their morals are lost, and their lives ruined.

The court is composed of men who are supposed to keep peace in Salem, but they do the opposite. The goal of the court is not to see reason, but to find more witches. They are power hungry and extremely paranoid. In order to maintain a system that is efficient in their eyes, they try to convict a large number of people. When questioned in court, characters, such as Giles Corey, are asked to give names of potential witches. The court arrested Giles for contempt, and soon after he is pressed to death by stones simply because he refused to give a name. This is the type of government Salem has. The leader of the court, Judge Danforth, has a very menacing way to get information. “I say you will hang if you do not open with me!” (Miller 225). Judge Danforth is threatening to kill Mary if she does not disclose everything they want to hear. This shows that the court is willing to do anything, and kill anyone, in order to stay in power. The people in the court represent those who do not see reason because they are afraid of losing power. By the end of the play it is obvious that innocent people are dying. However, the court does not stop hanging innocent people because they are afraid of losing their power. This shows how fraudulent the court is. Miller views the court as unworthy people who punish others in order to stay ahead in life. The way he portrays the court shows his outlook towards the government. His experiences with the

In the literary piece, “The Crucible”, we are able to analyze the play with multiple theories or lenses, The play, which was written in the 1956 by Arthur Miller, is a play full of lust, passion, and lies. It all started when a small village which was once all about religion and simplicity and became a one stop ride to hell and eternal hanging. Tituba, Abigail, and the others were originally caught dancing and evoking the devil himself by Reverend Parris. Hysteria was what Parris originally reported and that was exactly what it was. Many innocent young ladies were humiliated and accused of practicing witchcraft. This was the original spark to the conflict as a whole. Those girls were living an extremely trite lifestyle that they no longer found interest in. The girls brought up the whole hysteria controversy amongst themselves unaware of the consequences and how far and dangerous it could get.The affair between Abigail and John Proctor is what sets the main plot into action. These two including Elizabeth are the most important characters in the play. There are three lenses or perspectives that the play can be analyzed by: Psychoanalytical, Archetypal, and Feminist perspectives. The Psychoanalytical perspective or theory is based off Sigmund Freud, who was known as the “Father of modern psychology”. Freud said there are three components to the subconscious: the ID which is one 's basic desires, the Superego which is the opposite of ID to find guilt and all behavior related to

“Honesty is the best policy.” Kids grow up hearing that from their parents and teachers and other adult figures. However, many grow out of listening to this advice, spreading bits of untruths as harmless as white lies to the more severe, like in the case of the Salem Witch Trials or the McCarthy trials during the Red Scare. Arthur Miller delved deeply into this topic in his famous play, The Crucible, in which he compared the Salem Witch Trials to the McCarthy trials as a comment on the self-preserving, rash, and gullible nature of human beings in order to open the audience’s eyes to the error of their ways. He wanted them to see the negative consequences of the Red Scare so they would put an end to it.

Unfortunately, mankind has created a paradigm in which women are frequently considered inferior to men. Even the Bible cannot be exempted from this sad idea, as the Genesis story details Adam “birthing” Eve from his rib, a relatively insignificant part of his body. Perhaps this serves as a reason for why the Puritans, a heavily religious group, showed signs of misogyny and gender-superiority. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, accusations of witchcraft run rampant in the seemingly holy town of Salem; no person is safe, and no feeling unstirred. Through their numerous allegations, the townspeople expose Proctor’s affairs, Putnam’s and Corey’s feud, and Abigail’s resentment of Elizabeth. Despite the unfavorable qualities and aspects of Salem as whole, women can be often be seen as the source of the town’s troubles. Thus, in The Crucible, Miller tackles sexism by showing the weaknesses of women such as Mary Warren, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Proctor, but in doing so revealing that their faults were a product of society at the time.

The Moral of Arthur Miller's The Crucible In the 17th century a group of Puritans from England immigrated to America to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. The white settlers arrived in New England in 1620, and Salem, Massachusetts had been in existence for about forty years by 1692. Salem developed as a theocracy. This was based on the coexistence of religious prayer and hard work. Entertainment, such as dancing, or any enjoyment at all was perceived as a sin.

Proctor Mr hale, I never knew I must account to that man for I come to

In the society that people live in, there are many among whom are despicable and there are also those who have morality. The Crucible is a play that takes place in Massachusetts in the spring of 1962; based on the true story of the Salem Witch trials, where many of the people in the town of Salem turned against each other because of their belief of witchcraft. Since Salem was deeply religious and believed in the words of the Almighty God, most of the people considered witchcraft as evil. Similar to the characters by Miller, his characters reflects on Kohlberg’s stages of development; for example in stage one of development, “We obey authority figures in order to avoid punishment” (Kohlberg), that reflects on the ideals of the people of Salem against their religion which they take very seriously. They must obey God and go to church every Sunday in order to go to Heaven rather than Hell. One character that the author introduces in the play is Abigail Williams, a young teenage girl that once held responsible for the well-being of a group of other innocent and naive girls in Salem but certain unforgivable acts caused her to become a cheater, and a liar. In the play, The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, the most vice character is Abigail Williams because she stole all the money of Reverend Parris, she had a love relationship with John Proctor, and she lied about many things just to get away to protect herself.

"Responsibility is accepting that you are the cause and the solution of the matter" - Unknown. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. If a person was accused of witchcraft, then they would be executed. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam, and Reverend Parris are responsible for the trials. Abigail Williams accuses Tituba of witchcraft to divert attention from her and the girls transgression. Reverend Parris, deeply engaged in the witch hunt, has also falsely accused random people of witchcraft. Thomas Putnam is guilty because he had people falsely accuse other people for his own benefit. Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam and Reverend Parris are responsible for the trials because they falsely accuse other people of witchcraft.