Both Geraldine Brooks and Arthur Miller were motivated by a desire to share the extent to which

people transform and grow when faced with a crisis. How was this achieved in Year of Wonders
and The Crucible?

In both Year of wonders and The Crucible, Brooks and Miller demonstrate the ways in which fear and
paranoia caused by mass hysteria can transform a person when confronted with difficult situations.
In The Crucible the willpower of innocent men and women are put to the test when they are falsely
accused of witchcraft, this being the ultimate trial of determination and strength to withstand such a
horrible ordeal. These accusations causing mass hysteria and fear among the village. Abigail
Williams, Elizabeth and John Proctor, Mary Warren, Reverend Parris and even Reverend Hale
changed considerably throughout the play because of what they encountered. For John Proctor his
wife is accused of being a witch. This is what leads to his important transformation in his personality,
he changes from an ordinary citizen and a sinner to a hero and a person of high sense of morality.
This is due to many situations he is faced with and which provoked strong feelings and beliefs. At the
end of The Crucible, he shows motivation, bravery and makes good decisions. He changes from a
selfish man and an outsider that committed adulty to a hero that died to protect his name. Similarly,
in Year of Wonders Anna Frith undergoes a character transformation in the text. Alike to john, she
becomes a stronger and more respected character due to the tragic events placed before her, such
as her husband and children passing due to the plague. We watch her undertake a search of self-
discovery as she learns about herself, redefines her relationship to the world, and eventually rejects
the limitations that society places on women, resulting in a significant change in Anna at the end of
the novel, from a recently widowed mother of two who's still readjusting to life as a single woman to
a stronger, more independent woman. Characters in both The Crucible and Year of wonders traits
change dramatically because of crisis’s faced.

Paragraph on John Proctor

– whoops forgot about this sorry, also didn’t know what I was supposed to be writing about

Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" focuses on the life of John Procter as Puritan, Husband and a
respected person on his journey to reserve his name. Proctor is a farmer and villager faced with a
predicament, whether or not to tell the truth and die or lie and his life be spared, through this
dilemma the ethical issues about the trials are revealed and the audience questions how this mass
hysteria got so out of hand. The readers able to sympathise with John, as we can recognize that he's
a flawed character, the flaw of lust leading him to commit the adultery that makes him defenceless
to Abigail's manipulations. John is striking similar to Anna Frith from Year of Wonders in the sense
that her pursuit of hope and truth is alike to his desire to hold fast and good to his name. He is also
comparable to other Eyam outsiders such as Puritans that fall under public suspicion, just because
they are outsiders. John Proctor is a respectable character that fights for his desire to hold true to his
name ultimately causing his death.