Anum Arshad November 7, 2012 Period 3 American Lit.

Crucible Essay The conviction and murder of innocent people based on absolute lies told by a crazed group tore a community to shreds. Families were forced apart in the blink of an eye. A village turned on one another to save their own lives, if only until the craze eventually took them too. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller was a story based on the Salem witchcraft craze that forced innocent citizens to either confess to crimes that they did not commit or hang for their accused sins. Protesting this craze or the fraudulent accusers would be useless, as the village was set on eliminating all witches that lived there. They were set in their ways and would not hear anything from an accused witch. This story is a strong allegory for the Red Scare that took over the United States in the 1950s, punishing accused communist sympathizers without very much evidence at all. This story shows the deceit and blatant lies told by a group of girls who want to escape conviction, but end up sacrificing innocent people in their effort to survive this craze. The quote that I chose was A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that his be fraud - God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together. This was spoken by John Proctor in Act III during the trial when everyone was turning against him,

including Mary Warren. During the trial Mary realizes that she needs to save herself first, so she speaks out at Proctor earning this powerful speech. There are several important meanings of this quote, being one of the most powerful moments in the play. The start of the quote A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth!... is saying that because of Johns adultery and Danforths prosecution of innocent people, they will be damned and thrown in hell for their sins. The middle section says "For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that his be fraud..." means that John is trying to tell everyone that the whole witch hunt is a hoax and the girls are lying about being affected by this witchcraft to save their own lives. The last part of the quote is saying God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together. This shows how Proctor is telling everyone that they will burn in hell because of the villages lies and their hype for the prosecution of innocent citizens causing several murders to take place. This quote shows the main theme of the story which is speak out for what you know is right instead of jumping on the bandwagon before it is too late. The theme in this story is quite evident with the witchcraft trials due to several different factors. For example, when people admitted to practicing witchcraft, they only prolonged the witch hunt because they were admitting to the accusations which forced the court to believe that people were actually committing this crime. John Proctor had enough of this hysteria so he decided to stand up for what he thought was right even though it cost him his life by the end of the play. He decided that it was wrong for him to admit to witchcraft just to save his life while knowing others will die because they told the truth, which would turn his life into one based on deceit.

The Crucible was written to show people in the United States that something similar to the Red Scare had already occurred in our history, and that they didnt realize what an awful thing they were doing until it was over. The main theme of The Crucible being speak out for what you know is right instead of jumping on the bandwagon before it is too late shows that in the end honesty is what ended the witch hunting craze instead of admitting to it and furthering the hoax. Honesty is what saved what could have been the murders of several more innocent people.