Use evidence from the play to show how Arthur Miller conveys
one of the following themes:
1. Fear and
suspicion are infectious and can produce a mass hysteria that destroys public
order and rationality.
2. It is more
noble to die with integrity than to live with compromised principles that harm
others.
3. The ideas of
witchcraft and “the devil’s work” in The
Crucible are extended metaphors for Communism. (You may need to do a little
background research for this one – check out the notes in the textbook.)
2.It is more noble to die with integrity than to live with compromised principles that harm others.
ReplyDeleteRebecca Nurse was an outstanding, wonderful citizen that was wrongfully accused of witchcraft simply because Ann Putnam lost seven children and Rebecca Nurse was the one that delivered them. Rebecca Nurse, regardless of her desire to stay alive, never accepted the offer to live post confession; she knew she had done nothing wrong, and would never lie to save her life from stupid people anyway. Another example is John Proctor; though he was an adulterer, he didn't lie. He started to, but realized that he was better than the lies, better than the conformity of the town.
1. Fear and suspicion are infectious and can produce a mass hysteria that destroys public order and rationality.
ReplyDeleteThis theme comes up many times in the Crucible. In act one of the play, Paris had feared witchcraft and the girls dancing had been a sign of witchcraft to him. Knowing this made him fearful that his enemies would ruin him especially since one of the girls dancing was his daughter, "now look you, child, your punishment will come in 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". Paris then talks to some doctor to find a cure for the girls but the doctor says nothings wrong with them after the dancing Betty, cant wake up and when she does, she says she saw the devil. After all of this, the witch trials begin and everything becomes chaotic.
Paris' daughter and his niece were both dancing and Abigail said they drank blood.
Delete3) The ideas of witchcraft and “the devil’s work” in The Crucible are extended metaphors for Communism. (You may need to do a little background research for this one – check out the notes in the textbook.)
ReplyDeleteCommunism was a scary thing back when America was still relatively young, it had managed to take over the Soviet Union (Russia) and China, two very large and powerful countries. Not only was it possible for America to become communist, but communism was seen as a very bad thing thanks to Joseph Stalin. Stalin had killed any citizen that spoke against him or communism, and by the end of his reign he had killed an estimated 20 to 60 million people, many of which were citizens of the Soviet Union. The number can't be exact because they were slaughtered all over the place and even thrown into mass graves and pathetic holes in the ground.
In the Crucible, the townsfolk are afraid to step up and fight against the corrupt court system. Those that do, for example Giles and Proctor, are killed without proper trial. Much like the people that spoke against communism in the Soviet Union. The "witch hunt" can also be referring to when people blacklisted communists and searched them out and convicted them of crimes they may have not been responsible for.
1. Fear and suspicion are infectious and can produce a mass hysteria that destroys public order and rationality.
ReplyDeleteArguably the most significant theme in The Crucible. A large portion of the town's population ends up dead by the end of the book, all due to intense paranoia and personal grudges. By the end of the book the lies and accusations get too great and can't be stopped. It consumes the town like a wild fire; all attempts to stay off the flames only make them burn hotter.
heLLO
ReplyDelete