Female Dominance In The Crucible
In 'The Crucible', Acts Three and Four, Arthur Miller has demonstrated female roles and dominance through the use of the themes: prejudice, paranoia and power. Moreover, Miller also utilises poetic and language devices to express the female roles in the times of the Salem witch-hunts and trials in the 1600s, as well as the ‘McCarthyist’ era in the 1950s. Firstly, Act Three leads on and constructs female dominance as a follow on from Act Two, the playwright than ‘morphs’ female dominance into female submission as the play enters into Act Four. In Act Three, ‘Abigail’ is the most dominative figure in the text, she also represents Senator McCarthy through demonstrating his powerful influence and involvement with the HUAC trials as ‘Abigail’ does
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This is so, as ‘Danforth’ asks ‘Elizabeth’ “…be there no wifely tenderness within you....” The sub-text of the quote practically asks ‘Elizabeth’ if she even cares for ‘John’ as it questions her role as a wife. This statement is supported by ‘Danforth’s’ following remark “…He will die with the sunrise. Your husband…Are you stone...”. This supports the question of ‘Elizabeth’ being a good or faithful wife as it emotionally explores whether ‘Elizabeth’ will be dearly affected by the hanging of her husband. This is female submission as these emotional remarks and gestures acted by ‘Danforth’ towards ‘Elizabeth’ were able to manipulate ‘Elizabeth’ to tend to her husbands needs. In conclusion, Act Three and Four of ‘The Crucible’ are a metaphor of the turning of female dominance into female submission in the 1600s of Salem and the ‘McCarthyist’ era of 1950s America. Thus leading to the controlling womanly figure of Act Three to the dominating male society in Act Four.
Acts Three and Four, of Millers’ allegorical play ‘The Crucible’ contains the swift movement from male submission to male dominance through the use of poetic and language devices and the creation of an illusion between Salem in the 1600s and 1950s America. As previously discussed, the female figures dominated the Salem community in Act Three until this was metaphorically adjusted to male characters being the dominative society members in Act Four. However, Act Three also allowed males to show physical domination over females at occasional and rare moments. This can be observed on pg. 97:
Proctor: How do you call Heaven! Whore!
This is so, as ‘Danforth’ asks ‘Elizabeth’ “…be there no wifely tenderness within you....” The sub-text of the quote practically asks ‘Elizabeth’ if she even cares for ‘John’ as it questions her role as a wife. This statement is supported by ‘Danforth’s’ following remark “…He will die with the sunrise. Your husband…Are you stone...”. This supports the question of ‘Elizabeth’ being a good or faithful wife as it emotionally explores whether ‘Elizabeth’ will be dearly affected by the hanging of her husband. This is female submission as these emotional remarks and gestures acted by ‘Danforth’ towards ‘Elizabeth’ were able to manipulate ‘Elizabeth’ to tend to her husbands needs. In conclusion, Act Three and Four of ‘The Crucible’ are a metaphor of the turning of female dominance into female submission in the 1600s of Salem and the ‘McCarthyist’ era of 1950s America. Thus leading to the controlling womanly figure of Act Three to the dominating male society in Act Four.
Acts Three and Four, of Millers’ allegorical play ‘The Crucible’ contains the swift movement from male submission to male dominance through the use of poetic and language devices and the creation of an illusion between Salem in the 1600s and 1950s America. As previously discussed, the female figures dominated the Salem community in Act Three until this was metaphorically adjusted to male characters being the dominative society members in Act Four. However, Act Three also allowed males to show physical domination over females at occasional and rare moments. This can be observed on pg. 97:
Proctor: How do you call Heaven! Whore!