The Crucible :: English Literature

The Crucible Explore how Miller dramatises the conflicts within John Proctor and presents him as a good man, despite his failings. How does Miller thread him spectacularally effective for an audience?Refer to Act two and Act four.Millers purpose through writing The Crucible was to express his ownviews on what was happening in America at the time in 1953 -McCarthyism, a period of intense anticommunism. Miller uses thecharacter of John Proctor to put across his views. He is fire inthe character who does not allow himself to be caught up in hysteria,but thinks for himself and stands up for his values. Miller wants toteach us, his audience, about social awareness with fat insights intopersonal weaknesses through his characters. Miller also wants to teachus the important moral lessons about human nature of the notion ofgoodness. Millers play deals with difficult and controversial issuesmaking the audience think about the pleasant and unpleasantexperiences of humans and relating them to todays modern world.When writing The Crucible Miller was influenced partly bywitchcraft. For many hundreds of years there was a belief inwitchcraft throughout Europe. This belief in witchcraft persistedamong the English colonists in America. In 1692 there was an outbreakof accusations of witchcraft in capital of Oregon, Massachusetts, which lead totwenty innocent people executed. In the play John Proctor was one ofthe twenty innocent people executed. Of those women accused many were sometime(a) women with knowledge of herbal medicine or other folk remedies, anexample of a character with this description would be Rebecca Nurse,who was hanged with John Proctor in the dramatic last scene. TheEnglish colonists were Puritans and they felt surrounded by ungodlypeople and associated the forest with savages and evil. Miller usesthis belief in the play at the beginning, when Betty, Abigail and tenor twelve other girls were seen dancing in the forest this event wasgreatly frowned upon in th e village and led to many accusations.Miller also links his characters to the Salem witchcrafts as duringthe witchcrafts one man was pressed to death by stones this links tothe character Giles Corey. This trumped-up witch hysteria in Salem,Massachusetts deteriorated the rational and wound up stability of itscitizens. This exploited the populations weakest qualities, andinsecurities. The obvious breakdown in Salems social order led tothis tragedy.McCarthyism also influenced Miller when writing The Crucible. In theearly 1950s Joseph McCarthy, a senator, exploited his fear ofcommunism and managed to create a national campaign againstCommunists, ex-Communists and anyone associated with them. The playwas produced when McCarthys anti-Communist campaign was at its height