Preview

The Crucible

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
870 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Crucible
In the 17th century, religion had a major influence on authority. Religion and authority went hand and hand. An authority figure is someone whom has control, at least to a certain extent. My analysis of 17th century North American Calvinists and Puritanists display a shift of faith and assurance in religious authorities. This is evident in Mary Rowlandson’s “The Narrative of the captivity and the restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”, Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Verses upon the Burning of our house” and Arthur Miller book titled “The Crucible”.

In the 17th century religion was a big thing in North America. There were two major religions, Calvinism and Puritanism. Both religions were sets of Christianity; one was more extreme than the other. Calvinists had 5 tenets or beliefs. The tenets are Total depravity, unconditionally elected, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace and Preserve. Based on those tenets as a Calvinist, being chosen you have a chance to escape your life of sin. They believe that they were born into sin and you can’t escape your sinful nature. Once you are chosen, you must do the work of God and teach despite suffering. On the other hand, Puritanists were more extreme than Calvinists. In the word “Puritanism”, the base word is pure. Pure basically means clean or without sin in this context. Puritanists must sleep, think and breathe God. Doing anything else is sinful. There is no one above the almighty God. Materialistic things have no value, especially when compared to God.

Mary Rowlandson author of “The Narrative of the captivity and the restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” believes that her God is the supreme authority. In the 17th century the husbands were seen as their lords. She didn’t call on her husband during the invasion, she called upon God. This shows that she is devoted to God and her belief system. In Addition, she thinks everything happens for a reason. She thinks that the Indian invasion is a test of faith from her God. In the text

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Crucible

    • 36302 Words
    • 146 Pages

    THE CRUCIBLE BY ARTHUR MILLER CAST (in order of appearance) |Reverend Parris |Fred Stewart | |Betty Parris |Janet Alexander | |Tituba |Jacqueline Andre | |Abigail Williams |Madeleine Sherwood | |Susanna Walcott |Barbara Stanton | |Mrs. Ann Putnam |Jane Hoffman | |Thomas Putnam |Raymond Bramley | |Mercy Lewis |Dorothy Joliffe | |Mary Warren |Jennie Egan | |John Proctor |Arthur Kennedy | |Rebecca Nurse |Jean Adair | |Giles Corey |Joseph Sweeney | |Reverend John Hale |E.G. Marshall | |Elizabeth Proctor |Beatrice Straight | |Francis Nurse |Graham Velsey | |Ezekiel Cheever |Don McHenry | |Marshal Herrick |George Mitchell | |Judge Hathorne…

    • 36302 Words
    • 146 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Puritan Beliefs Essay

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a Puritan is a member of a Protestant group in England and New England in the 16th and 17th centuries that opposed many customs of the Church of England. These Puritans broke off from the Church of England and started a new church after the Church of England disagreed to the Puritans’ requests. The Puritans held multiple beliefs and were very serious about religion. Puritans believed the community had a responsibility to punish sinners harshly for the good of the individual. These beliefs are highly debated by some individuals on rather the Puritans were right or wrong.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Crucible

    • 2315 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Describe the personality of Reverend Samuel Parris. Reverend Parris believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God to his side. He was a widower with no interest in children, or talent in them. He never conceived that they were anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak. He is described to have cut a “villainous path, and there is very little good to be said for him.” Describe the life in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem was a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics who were shipping out products of slowly increasing quantity and value to the European world. Salem’s creed forbade anything resembling a theater or “vain enjoyment.” The town was very centered around the idea of prayer. Hard work kept the town’s morals from spoiling, for the people were forced to fight the land like heroes for every grain of corn, and no man had very much time for fooling around. Personal privacy was taken quite lightly in Salem, for the people believed that it was their duty to mind people’s business. How did the men who settled Salem differ from those who settled in Virginia? The people and church of Salem found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom (their fathers had been persecuted in England) lest their New Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong ways and deceitful ideas. They believed that they held the candle that would light the world. They were dedicated folk and they had to be to survive the life they had chosen or been born into in this country. People of Jamestown in Virginia were the complete opposite. The Englishmen who landed there were motivated mainly by a hunt for profit. They had thought to pick off the wealth of the new country and then return rich to England. They were individualists and tried to kill off the…

    • 2315 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    the crucible

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rev. Parris and Rev. John Hale are both important characters in the story. These two characters can easily be compared and contrasted. There are some commonalities between the two in the story. Both men are lead male figures in the town, but they were also ministers in the Puritan faith. This was important during this time period because of the beliefs of the time period. And the obvious one if you read the book, is that both are main characters in the story.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Puritan Persuasion Essay

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Puritans are often portrayed as stiff and rigorous in their religious pursuits and are often described as fanatics, punishing those showing any bit of jubilation that would detract from their worship of the Almighty. Observing Puritanical behavior and ethics more closely, however, would suggest that they were not in fact always overbearing and grim zealots living in constant fear of an omnipresent monolithic God-figure, but instead had a complex and sometimes inconsistent relationship with sin and religion. Puritans thought of themselves as a chosen people, akin to the ancient Israelites of the Old Testament, and as such strove to make themselves a “city on a hill,” as John Winthrop put it. However, this did not mean that they were without…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 973 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It has been said many times that if people don't learn from their mistakes they are doomed to repeat them, such is the case throughout history. There are many different examples of this, but one example is the blatant similarities between the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts and the era of McCarthyism. When considering the nature of these events, it is hard to believe that they could have actually happened, not would only once, but twice. If one would take the time to compare these events he or she will be able to see numerous similarities between them. In The Crucible Miller relates an analogy of the witch trials in Salem to the investigation of communists by Joseph McCarthy. There are many similarities between these two events in history.…

    • 973 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the play, The Crucible, there are a variety of characters that serve various purposes, a primary one being a representative of the people that were actually present during the Salem Witch Trials and The McCarthyism era. Albeit different people, many of the people presented in both of these times had similar roles to play in the grand scheme of things, and thus, Arthur Miller created Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor to portray two kinds of people that were present. We are comparing Abigail and Elizabeth due to their stark differences in personality and character. In the play, Abigail serves an antagonist role, fully utilizing her devious nature to bring about chaos in the Salem village, and even more so, bring destruction in the Proctor house. Whereas, Elizabeth, with all her righteousness and chivalry, attempts to save her family, and also try to reason with the reverend to persuade them to use better judgment. They both play different roles in the play, and it naturally the consequences of their actions are remotely different.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Arthur Miller in the novel, “The crucible”, analyze obliquely the relation between The Salem witch hunt with The McCarthyism. Miller supports his analogy by emphasizing the characteristics that relate the witch hunt with the McCarthyism. The author’s purpose is to express his philosophical assumptions about the misjudgment, chaos and hysteria, that is reappearing throw the history in different faces and political assumptions of the McCarthyism in order to arouse people from their blind obstinacy for what was really happening. The author writes in a formal tone to of course all socialists, historians, and people with vulnerability to suffer this kind of event.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Having a good reputation is a goal that every human being wants accomplished during his or her life, but only to a certain extent. Having a reputation, the basic theme of this book, has a great amount of importance in The Crucible. This theme plays a tremendous role in what the basis of this book is. Arthur miller developed this theme throughout the book by accumulating characters with this quality. There are many characters in this book, but the ones that convey these qualities are, Reverend Parris, Abigail along with John Proctor. Miller uses Parris, in the first act, to demonstrate the theme of having great reputation and integrity.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Crucible

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the article "Witch-Hunting, Thwarted Desire, and Girl Power: Arthur Miller's The Crucible by Karen Bovard, Bovard talks how people fight to gain power in the hysteria of the witch trials. Abigail Williams leads the girls into accusing people and turns people against each other. Mary Warren tires to stand up and tell the truth but fails. Male ministers and judges fight for power. Proctor and Abigail have an affair that starts the turning of friends against friends by the towns’ people accusing others of being witches. Bovard says that it is interesting that no young men have interest in Abigail, except a married one. Proctor and Abigail’s relationship could be seen as harassment because Abigail worked for the Proctors in their home as a maid. Proctor’s wife Elizabeth knows about Abigail’s desire for Proctor before the affair even starts. She knows that Abigail want to replace her, in her home and bed. Another desire is of Ann Putnam who has lost 7 children during childbirth and she starts to accuse her neighbors of witchcraft. She accuses Rebecca Nurse, who has had many children and grandchildren and out of jealousy Ann accuses Rebecca. When girls are found dancing they are thought to be posed by the devil and then they fall ill and everyone thinks it was the devil and witchcraft. Bovard also makes the comparison about how slaves in Barbados and the town misfits are accused of witchcraft because they are easy to accuse and easy to bring down. And they accused people by what they were. More women with accused and race were also an issue.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the 1950’s people were imprisoned for being accused as communists. Many lost their jobs and family. Many were afraid to stand up for themselves, therefore people just accused them even if they were innocent. How would innocent people feel if they were used as everyone’s scapegoat? Imagine if they had to accuse other people of witchcraft just to save there job, and social status. Senator McCarthy had accused various amounts of people, of communism. Even the people from the Government that have a higher power would not stand up to him. There were only a few people that would stand up to Senator McCarthy. A definition, a theme, and how the theme affected my daily life are important in understanding The Crucible.…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a caliginous time in American history. The moral superiority that engulfs the town in a time of great despair and deep divide accurately sums up the atmosphere of that period of injustice that will forever stain the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This is the subject matter for the play entitled “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller in 1953. According to the Teacher Vision “The play was adapted for film once, by Jean-Paul Sartre as the 1958 film Les Sorcières de Salem and by Arthur Miller himself as the 1996 film The Crucible, the latter with a cast including Paul Scofield, Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller's adaptation earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay based on Previously Produced Material, his only nomination. The play was adapted by composer Robert Ward into an opera, The Crucible, which was first performed in 1961 and received the Pulitzer Prize”. (“The Crucible” Teacher Vision; Family Education Network, 2001-2012. web. Nov 23, 2012. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/historical-fiction/literature-guide/3498.html)…

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I. In 21st century American society people protect their own, love and also act in such…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 1342 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the Salem witchcraft trials accidentally become what are known as one of the most controversial events in Massachusetts history. A young woman named Abigail Williams, along with several other girls, lead accusations of witchcraft against their community in an attempt to deflect repercussions from their own witchcraft encounters. This constant accusing results in the wrongful condemnation of innocent townspeople, creating uncomfortable paranoid tension amongst the townspeople. This Puritan society changes from calm and easy going to a paranoid disarray. The three most recognizable causes that contribute to the Salem witchcraft trials; the impending fear of punishment, a cry for attention, and a sense of prideful vengeance power the girls into deluding their fellow townspeople.…

    • 1342 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the story The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, it explains a play that involves historical events like witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This drama is an example of the unjust events that happened, due to the terrible lies that some young girls made up, who were supposedly witchcraft. This was a hard situation for the entire town because of the accusation of witchcraft toward innocent people. In The Crucible, Miller shows us several examples of themes, some interesting themes were man vs. society, man vs. man, and man vs. self-internal.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays