The Crucible presents women on a narrow spectrum reflecting the culture of the Puritan New England and the “cult of true womanhood.” Many of the play’s central conflicts exist because of limitations on the rights of women, and their low status in society. The status of the Puritan white male allows the infringement of women’s fundamental human rights to be overlooked by the public. The role of women and the theme of misogyny or distrust of women is an undercurrent theme in The Crucible. According to the ideals of the “cult of true womanhood”, women were supposed to embody perfect virtue in four cardinal aspects: piety, purity, submission, and domesticity. Piety maintained that a woman is more religious and spiritual than a man. Yet, in Miller’s play women were more susceptible to sin. Eve’s corruption, in Puritan eyes, extended to all women, and justified marginalization them within social avenues. In The Crucible, the ideal of femininity is presented within the traditional role of subservience, lack of voice, and suffering. The two female characters, Elizabeth Proctor and Tituba, both subordinate to their husbands and master, respectively, and in the religious life of both home and church. The fate of both characters; Elizabeth Proctor’s loss of her husband, and Tituba’s execution as a witch, provides a standing critique of the Puritan ideal of women being superior in embodying the Puritan religiosity juxtaposing the subordination of their gender.…
Abigail’s manipulations are partly responsible for the hanging of the 19 innocents. From act 1, her manipulative nature can be seen. She manipulates the girls with whom she practiced witchcraft with to not tell anyone what they did otherwise she would “bring [them] a pointy reckoning that will [shudder] them” (20). We can see other evidences of her cunningness in act 3, where Mary Warren, John’s current servant, accuses her and the girls of faking their ability to see spirits. Abigail, and the other girls, faked in front of the court to see spirits and fainted, which Mary was not able to do. Her acting was so good that Mary went back to her, knowing she would not be able to win.…
She will do absolutely anything to make herself look believable. When John Proctor is arguing about his wife going to jail, Abigail makes a threat:. “Abb’’ll change lechery on you Mr. proctor” (miller 427-426). She is trying to prove the point that she is not afraid to make the entire town hate John, if it means Elizabeth will be gone. Proctor wants to prevent Abigail from gaining more power than she had, so he could not sit back and watch his innocent wife get blamed for something that she didn’t even do, he had to come clean so Abigail’s plan would fail. Once John came clean a lot of people started to realize what Abigail was doing the judges did not want the town to believe that they have been hanging people for no good reasons, so they wanted John to sign the confession saying that he was involved with witchcraft but John did not want his good name to be useless like a car without gas. By John not confessing, he allowed for more people to realize what terrible things were taking place. Three innocent, trustworthy people, Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor, were hanged over this, and the townspeople knew this needed to…
Additionally, Abigail is displayed as the major antagonist and her role in the play remains static. Abigail falsely accuses innocent people of witchcraft and feels no repentance for her actions. She is a vicious antagonist who will stop at nothing to attain her uncontrolled goals. Her central role remains static throughout the play. This is proven from her hiding the truth and convincing the girls…
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…
Women play a crucial role in the conflict of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. They are the entire foundation to the play. Arthur Miller’s treatment of women in this play shows women as weak beings who give into their husbands. The way women are treated in this play is a reflection of the Puritan beliefs of that time. Women were believed to have only the job of reproduction, and supporting the family with food. The first example that exhibits this is the way Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, is treated as a character. Another example would be how Abigail Williams is a character that is very unique and smart but then again gives into society and is forced to lie to get herself out of trouble. Many other women are known in this story for revealing Miller’s treatment of women.…
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.…
Arthur Miller’s book The Crucible, expressed both sad and interesting tales of the times most considered outrageous. Not only were the witch hunts unpredictable and non-valid but anybody could be accused of practicing witchcraft- even the preachers and children. Unfortunately, this was the same situation that occurred with the Red Scare that occurred after World War II. No matter what age, race or religious view one had, everyone was considered a suspect. Even those who would never dare to think or act any different from the majority were put on the stand- which almost always ended tragically. Arthur Miller uses the History in his book to show how ignorance and faulty power holders can lead to even the most respectful and well known people to go down in flames.…
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.…
The most important parts of any story or play are the characters. Characters behave differently depending on the circumstances or changes in the environment. In "The Crucible", the hero John Proctor shows dramatic change for the good. Arthur Miller shows this by Proctor's intense dialogues and Miller's stage direction. Miller reveals the growth of Proctor from a man who is arrogant and conceited to a man who is determined and stands up for what he believes in.…
Many people would never consider pride as to being a sin, however the Catholic Church considers pride to be a sin because pride is about "me", "myself" and "I", they only worry about themselves and no one else. Although people might not believe it, today's society is filled with pride; from being proud of your heritage to being proud of your sexuality, pride is all around. However, the Catholic Church believes that pride is the foremost among the seven deadly sins because all a prideful person thinks only of himself, and that is the exact opposite of what the Catholic Church teaches. The Catholic Church wants them to forget about themselves and go out and help others. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Reverend Hale, Elizabeth and John Proctor all have a great deal of pride which in each case eventually decided their fate.…
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.…
We all lie but to what point do the lies just go too far? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller Abigail Williams tells lies to the city of Salem, she speaks of witches. At first she told a small lie so she would not get it trouble but the lies soon escalated. Now she was lying for her own gain, to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor so she can have John Proctor all to herself. Arthur Miller teaches that lying is harmful through characters developed by the usage of dialogue, stage directions and diction.…
Short Response Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the drama. Write a response on a separate sheet of paper.…
An outlook on gender roles in today ‘s advanced society is drastic contrast to the views portrayed in the crucible written by Arthur Miller depicts women as weak . None of the females in crucible posses extreme power but the truthful pre-hearted and family oriented women seemed to be even less powerful than the others . Therefore, Miller has also shown women sufferance In crucible through interpretive evidence on how tituba was being accused for all witchcraft and how she demolished the puritan society rules. According to the document women are not as inferior as men , despite how literate they are , their always fictionalize as barmaids, bitches, whores, or brainless housewives .…