Ryan Edwards

Monday, Jan 15

Ms.O’Keefe

“The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is a fictional story written in play form of the Salem witch trials

that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-1693. Wikipedia says, “the play was

performed at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway.” Looking through the sociological lens at “The

Crucible” by Arthur Miller ​it can be seen that the fact of fear is very important and how it takes a big

stance with some of all the things that happened in the small town.

Fear in “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is seen throughout the poem with the fact that religion

played a big part in this play. In the book people were supposed to be so religious but they were actually

doing the bad things. “The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, developed from a

paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we will discover it’s

revolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a

theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together,

and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. It

was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all organization is and must be

grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space.

Evidently the time came in New England when the repressions of order were heavier than seemed

warranted by the dangers against which the order was organized. The witch-hunt was a perverse

manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater

individual freedom.” (Miller 6). This quote is basically saying that all of the tragedies was for the greater

good and that nothing else really matters. It is also saying that religious passion taken to extremes results

in all of the tragedy. I could connect this to the article called “Behaving badly? Stop Using Religion as an
Excuse!” by Roy Speckhardt is says, “Ancient religious texts and divine revelations about the will of God

are often used as convenient excuses for personal prejudices and may even instigate people to act on those

prejudices.” This helps to support my idea because like in the book they killed and tortured people of

“witchcraft” saying that it was of religious purposes but it wasn't.

A question raised by looking through the literary lens is “What does the crucible have to

contribute to archetypes?” When asked this question you first have to first to understand what a archetype

is “t​he concept of an archetype appears in areas relating to behavior, modern psychological theory, and

literary analysis” says Wikipedia. In “The Crucible” archetypes of the characters could all be described as

of good or bad. For example Proctor would be the rebel hero and The court would be who rules the evil

insensitive force. What this contributes to the point is the fact that everyone in the had something that

would contribute to the areas off a character and the things that ​further develops them together.

Through the literary lens in this play you can see that symbols are a huge part in this piece. Some

of the symbols that are used in this play can be seen through the characters, some colors, figures and some

objects used in the text. “ Mary, do you send this shadow on me?” (Miller 101). Mercy is asking if Mary

sent darkness on her. This could be seen as symbolism because the shadow refers to the evil darkness.

“Open yourself, Tituba----open yourself and let God’s holy light shine on you.” (Miller 43). This quote

can be seen as symbolic because Tituba is the character who is supposed to be impure and evil, an

impression of the devil. Yet they are asking her to let God flow through her. In the article called “Why

You Should Use Symbolism In Your Writing” by Guest Blogger say, “Story symbols are often the most

powerful types of symbols. They usually root themselves in climatic events.” This quote helps to tell and

provide the reason why the symbols are so important.

In conclusion “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller made big on the idea of fear. One thing that made

the play very interesting is the fact that anything outside the comfort zone of others or outside the
“norms” for people was considered witchcraft. This can be seen through all of the evidence stated and put

in above.