The Crucible By Arthur Miller - 1145 Words

Unbalance Through The Centuries In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the author reflects the persecution of communists in America in the 1950’s through a recount of the Salem witch trials. It is often presumed that Miller based his drama directly off of events that were particularly prevalent in the years surrounding the publication of The Crucible- which was released in the year 1953, towards the conclusion of the Korean War. Although there was not a literal witch hunt occurring during this time period, America was in a state of paranoia due to an enemy that was seemingly even more terrifying than witches: this time, America was looking for communists to burn at the stake. With heavy influences, such as Senator Joseph McCarthy weighing on him, Miller wrote about the historic Salem witch trials to create a juxtaposition to the anti-communist delirium that was consuming America in the era in which he lived. By highlighting the off-balance nature of order and personal freedoms within a society, Arthur Miller was able to communicate a timeless message, that is applicable throughout American history, and is still relevant in the twenty-first century. He emphasizes the necessary sacrifice every individual is forced to make as a means of maintaining our community, as well as the implications, both positive and negative, that come along with doing so. Whether it be in the form of Japanese-American citizens being stripped of their rights after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, theShow MoreRelatedThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1269 Words   |  6 PagesAt first glance, the playwright Arthur Miller in The Crucible highlights the historical significance of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, but in fact it is an allegorical expression of his perception of McCarthyism. If the reader has some background information on Arthur Miller’s victimization as a communist, it is evident that the play is a didactic vessel illustrating the flaws of the court system in the 1950’s. The communist al legations were launched at government employees, entertainers and writersRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1681 Words   |  7 Pagesof their way to the last dying breath to make sure they leave with a good or bad reputation. In one of the recent literature study in class â€Å"The Crucible† by Arthur Miller, Miller uses characterization to illustrate reputation throughout the play. â€Å"The Crucible† takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. It is based upon the Salem witch trails. In â€Å"The Crucible†, we journey through the life of three characters who reputations plays a major role in the play. The three characters are John Proctor, AbigailRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller998 Words   |  4 Pagesmotivated by jealousy and spite. The Crucible is a four-act dramatic play production that was first performed on January 22, 1953. Arthur Miller used dialogue within the characters to cover the multiple themes; conflicts and resolutions, plus the few directions for the different actions of the play. The Salem Witch Trials were intended to be performed as the play however, when read, it can be more carefully examined and broken down to analyze the techniques. Miller, the playwright, uses literaryRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1333 Words   |  6 PagesAs the various characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller interact, the dominant theme of the consequences of women’s nonconformity begins to slide out from behind the curtains of the play. Such a theme reveals the gripping fear that inundated the Puritans during the seventeenth century. This fear led to the famous witch-hunts that primarily terrorized women who deviated from the Puritan vision of absolute obedience and orthodoxy. Arthur Miller presents his interpretation of the suffering by subtlyRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1063 Words   |  5 PagesIn the English dictionary, there are three definitions of the word crucible. One is a metal container in which metals are mixed and melted. Another is a severe test. But the third definition, and the one that I think fits the best for this book, is a place or situation in which different elements interact to cre ate something new. In my mind, this fits because all of the characters had their little grudges and dirty secrets. But when all those seemingly little things interact, they formed somethingRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1285 Words   |  6 Pages Rationale, Morality, Stereotypes, Pressure, Self-Censorship, Unanimity, and Mindguards. Groupthink has also taken place in our history a a country. The play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about a the real-life Salem Witch Trials that happened in 1692 - 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts. Some symptoms of Groupthink found in the Crucible are Rationale, Pressure, and Self-Censorship. The Groupthink symptom, Rationale, is described as when victims of Groupthink ignore warnings: they also collectivelyRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller841 Words   |  4 PagesThe Crucible is a chaotic play, throughout this American classic Arthur Miller takes the reader through multiple events of terror and insanity. While creating a great on-stage play, Arthur Miller portrays his life through the events, the characters, and plot of The Crucible. Using vivid imagery and comprehensible symbolism, Miller manipulates the real personalities of the characters and events in 1600 Salem, Massachusetts to create a symbolic autobiography. Throughout this play, the reader experiencesRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller811 Words   |  4 Pages While The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is only a four act play, it still resembles the format of a five act play. The five-act structure evolved from a three-act structure, which was made famous by Roman Aelius Donatus. Donatus came up with thre e types of plays: Protasis, Epitasis, and Catastrophe. The five-act structure helped to expand the three act structure, mainly made famous by Shakespeare through his many tragedies. Even though The Crucible contains only four acts, it still has the commonRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1052 Words   |  5 PagesBuddy Al-Aydi Ms.Healy English 9 CP 14th October 2014 The Crucible Essay The Crucible was a novel written by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s. It was written in a format of the play, portraying an allegory of the Salem Witch-Hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book is known to have a inexplicable plot. This plot is advanced by multiple characters in the book in order to ensure that the reader maintains interest with the material that is being read. The farmer, John Proctor, would be theRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller Essay1646 Words   |  7 Pagesplays that came from the 1950s was Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. During a time when the U.S. was worried of communism taking over, Miller released The Crucible, which helped to capture the hysteria that was occurring. The play presents itself as a metaphor for the House of Un-American Activities Committee that was created during the Cold War when communism was spreading, but Miller never actually referenced it in the play. Although Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is set in the la te 1600s, it offers

Compare and Contrast of Hector and Achilles Free Essays

Option B : Compare and contrast the characters of Hector and Achilles. I choose to compare and contrast the characters of Hector and Achilles because I am interested in their story. I think there are many theme in this story, but the central theme is the fate of men; if it is ? xed or changed by the will of men. We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast of Hector and Achilles or any similar topic only for you Order Now I feel interesting that the gods decides the fate of people. And I choose this option because I feel that I can understand what the author wants to express to the readers by comparing Hector and Achilles. Therefore, I will compare the strengths and the weakness of both heroes. First of all, I will write about Hector. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest ? ghter for Troy in the Trojan War. He was born as a son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. His father was the king of Troy. He had a wife called Andromache and the son, Astyanax. In the European Middle Ages, Hector was one of the Nine Worthies. And he was a good son, husband and father. Most of all, he loved the peace. He loved his country, his people, his family and wanted to die with honor. When he realized that Jove and his son Apollo are not with him for the protection anymore against Achilles, he says to himself â€Å" My doom has come upon me; let me not them die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me ? rst do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter. †. The gods decided not to protect him. That was the reason why Hector lost, but he wanted to ? ght against the strong Achilles. Therefore, I think Hector was the true soldier. I want to write about Achilles now. He was a hero and greatest warrior for Greek in the Trojan War. He was the son of the goddess Thetis and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Achilles was a mortal person even though he was the son of a goddess. And he had the great pride that he was the strongest soldier, and he did not want to be under anybody. When the Agamemnon dishonored him, Achilles asked his goddess mother to go to Jove, then to ask Jove to help Troy, so that Agamemnon would be in trouble. Therefore, Achilles did not think about his country and his people. He only think about himself. So I think Achilles is not the person to be the king. Now I want to compare and contrast their strength and the weakness. First, I want to write about Hector’s strength. He was brave and courageous. He was the man who thought about his family, loved his family and thought his country and people. He wanted to die with honor. He went to Paris because he did not stand to hear bad things about Paris and said, â€Å"you ? ght bravely, and no man with any justice can make light of your doings in battle. But you are careless and willfully remiss. It grieves me to the heart to hear the ill that the Trojans speak about you, for they have suffered much on your account. Let us be going, and we will make things right hereafter, should Jove vouchsafe us to set the cup of our deliverance before ever-living gods of heaven in our own homes, when we have chased the Achaeans from Troy. † From this conversation, you can see that Hector thinks about his brother, thinks about the people of Troy, and is willing to push his brother to ? ght with honor. When he fought with Achilles, Hector escaped to ? ght him ? rst because he was afraid of Achilles. However, when he realized that the gods were not with him to ? ht Achilles, he decided to ? ght with honor until he died. Therefore, I think one of his strength is his brave heart. But Paris did not have the brave heart. Next, I want to write about Achilles’s strength. I think Achilles did not have many strength. I think the physical power from his goddess mother was the only strength he had. Even the king Agamemnon feared his strength. Hector was the greatest soldier in Troy, but even that greatest sol dier run away from Achilles when Hector was standing in front of the gate of Troy. It says â€Å" Fear fell upon Hector as he beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he was but ? ed in dismay from before the gates, which Achilles darted after him at his utmost speed. †. Then when Hector ? nally decided to ? ght with Achilles, Achilles killed him easily. Therefore, I think Achilles was the strongest worrier on earth. Next, I want to write about Hector’s weakness. I could not ? nd many weakness of Hector, however, the only weakness I could ? nd was that Hector did not know how strong he was. He thought that he could ? ht with Achilles, but when he met Achilles, he run away. He run away because he ? nally realized that he was not as strong as Achilles when he met the enemy at the gate. I think it is too late for him to realized that. Because of this weakness, he died. Therefore, Hector did not have many weakness, but the only weakness he had destroyed him. Next is the weakness of Achilles. I think Achilles had many weakness even though he was the greatest warrior on earth. I think Achilles was strong physically, but he was weak mentally. When Agamemnon took Briseis from Achilles, Achilles went to the sea and prayed to his mother such as, â€Å" Mother, you bore me doomed to live but for a little season; surely Jove, who thunders from Olympus, might have made that little glorious. It is not so. Agamemnon, son of Atreus, has done me dishonor, and has robbed me of my prize by force. †. He cried when he was saying it. This was not like the greatest warrior, but rather a small child’s doing. He liked to ? ght and liked to kill people. He was very good at killing people, but he did not have any respect to his king, his country and his people. When he killed Hector, he did something very dishonorable. Achilles treated the body of Hector with contumely. He pierced the sinews at the back of both his feet from heel to ancle and passed thongs of ox-hide through the slits he had made. He made the body fast to his chariot, letting the head trail upon the ground. Then Achilles lashed his horse on, and the dust rose from Hector as he was being dragged along. Thus was the head of Hector being dishonored in the dust. This is not something what the greatest warrior does. Again Achilles became so emotional that he acted like a child. Therefore, I think that Achilles is not a person to be a great king. If he becomes to be a king, his country and people will be destroyed. I do not want to live in his country. I think he has the extreme character. He was a supermen physically, but he was a little kid mentally. As the conclusion of the comparison between Hector and Achilles, Hector is more heroic than Achilles. I think that the hero is a person who think of his country and his people. After comparing the characters of Hector and Achilles, the person who thinks of his country and his people is Hector. Hector always thinks about his country, his people and his family. He loves his father, his mother, his brothers, his wife and his child. When Hector died, Paris’s wife, Helen, cried and said, â€Å" I have never heard one word of insult or unkindness from you. †. Helen was the person who was the cause of this war. I think it is dif? cult to be kind to Helen, but Hector was nice to her. That means Hector’s heart was so deep. And I think Hector will be the greatest king. I love to live in his country. How to cite Compare and Contrast of Hector and Achilles, Papers

Holocaust (2413 words) Essay Example For Students

Holocaust (2413 words) Essay HolocaustWhat is Holocaust Denial and Why Does it Exhist? What is Holocaust denial andwhy does it exhist? This is far from being a simple question, as itneccessitates a background knowledge of what the holocaust really was and whythere would be efforts to deny that it ever happened. In my paper, I hope toexplain some of the horrific aspects of the holocaust and provide ample factsfor proof that this terrible ordeal happened, then attempt to understand whyholocaust denial came about in the first place. Attempting to prove that theholocaust never happened seems virtually impossible given the known exhistanceof concentration camps in Auschwitz, Belzec, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, andWesterbork, to name a few. In Martin Gilberts Holocaust Journey, aprofessor and a group of students visit many of these former concentrationcamps. In order to prove that the holocaust really did happen, first one mustunderstand why and how the holocaust came about. It is important to note thatthe roots of the hol ocaust began years before the holocaust actually took place. One possible theory as to why there was anti-semitism against the Jews is thescapegoat theory of prejudice. Because of the social and economical depressionsfacing Germany at the time, the people of the country were very susceptible to apowerful leader who promised to make them the superior race and who providedthem with a scapegoat as to why there is situation was so dismal. By paintingthe Jews as a penny-pinching, money-taking, elitist class that was causing allof Germanys problems of the day, the people were easily led to believe thatthe Jews were the reason that they faced hunger, poverty and a poor economy. Oneweb site that I visited that had a chronological order of events that led to theholocaust was Holocaust and Genocide Studies at http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/chronology.html. Some of the events that led to the holocaust that can be related to thescapegoat theory were the collapse of the Germany economy due to hyper-inflationand Hitlers drafting of his anti-semetic views in Mein Keimf while he wasimprisoned in 1923 and the collapse of the Great Coalition in German governmentin 1929. The collapse of the economy and the government were linked to the Jewsbecause they were a convenient group to blame. The scapegoat theory fitsperfectly into the scenario of the holocaust and it is because of it that onecan understand why the common people supported the holocaust whether directly orindirectly. The support of the common people is absolutely essential to causedestrucution of this magnitude, and in order to obtain their support, a powerfulleader, such as Adolph Hitler must prove to them why the Jews are the cause ofall their problems. Through the use of propoganda and powerful speeches, Hitlerwas able to prove his point to the masses. In a time of extreme weakness inGermany, he was able to grab these helpless individuals and make them believethat the Jews were and inferior race and that only through their destrcutioncould the Germans once again become a powerful and great people. Now that wehave established a sound theory as to why the holocaust occured, it is now timeto provide evidence that it happened. For instance, there are a wealth ofpictures available that were taken at concentration camps that show the terribleconditions in which the Jews were forced to live and the horrific images of deadbodies piled up on top of one another like so many dead animals. There arepictures of the gas chambers, the mass graves, the human ovens. I was able toview a great many of these pictures at the web site The Holocaust Projectat http://www.holocaust-history.org/hungarian-photos/. Among these photos werepictures of tight living areas, forced labor upon the prisoners, and multuplepictures of Jewish victims of the holocaust whether in concentration camps or inthere place of living. Among the more chilling pictures from the holocaust werethe victims of scientific testing done on these poor individuals and the massgraves that the Jews were dumped into following their deaths at theconcentration camps. Other pieces of evidenc that prove the holocaustsexhistance and severity are the first-hand accounts delivered by individuals whosurvived the holocaust or people who witnessed it. One website that contains alink to the stories of holocaust survivors is About.com which can bereached at http://holocaust.about.com/education/holocaust/. Here is a breifexert of one of the first-hand accounts taken from the site: In March, orApril, 1944, we got the dreaded notice that we had been selected forre-settlement further East. The train cars they took us in were actually cattlecarsthere was not much room between us and the roofthe SS troops were onthe roofs of the cattle cars shooting past the windows to discourage people fromsticking their heads out. The story goes on to tell of how they werestipped of all valuables and property by the Nazis and about the conditions inwhich they were forced to live. This survivor also describes daily life at thecamps and portrays the grotesque images of the dead being piled up likecordwood, naked, and without dignity. He also speaks of the massgassings and mass graves that holocaust deniers attempt to prove did not exhist. How Can We Help the Homeless and Should We?: Searc EssayHere is a god example of the goal of holocaust deniers and what they believe in. This qoute was taken from The Student Revisionist Resource Site at http://www.wsu.edu/~lpauling/:Revisionists are, in fact, Holocaust DIMINISHERS, not deniers. They arequestioners about what they believe are significant exaggerations in theHolocaust tale, and they are critics of the view that somehow this historicalevent is beyond discussion on pain of being placed in the category ofchild-molester or worse, shunned by society, even fined and imprisoned by someso-called free countries in the western world. It goes on to say thatRevisionists do not deny that there were wrongs done to the Jews such as thewrongful stealing of property, brutality and many deaths due to disease in poorconditions, yet they look to diminish the terrible things that happened to theJews by pointing to other horrible aspects of World War II. They believe thatwhat happened to the Jews was just ONE of the terrible things that happened inthe war, and far from the worst. Here is a paragraph taken from the page that belittles what the Jews went through: One needs merely mention Hiroshima,Nagasaki, the deadly carpet bombing of German and Japanese working class livingareas, the Soviet of Germany in their 1945 advance, the treatment of Germancivilians and German POWs after the war. One could go on almost ad infinitum inthis recitation of atrocities. Fifty million some say sixty million died asa result of the war. Was there more criminal behavior on one side than theother? By denying the mass killings of Jews and claiming they were victims ofpoor conditions at the concentration camps which came from a lack of materialsdue to the war costs, which in turn led to disease, holocaust deniers attempt tobelittle the terrible things that were done to the Jews by Nazi Germany beforeand after the war. They do however, take blame for persecuting and robbing theJews of their possessions, and in addmitting so much, they may come off as beinga group that is speaking the truth. Now that we have established what holocaustdenial, or revisionism is, we may now examine why holocaust denial cameabout in the first place. Well, one reason may be that due to the lack ofphysical evidence, it is easy for them to flat out deny that it happened. Butwhat are the gains from denying the holocaust? Denying the holocaust everhappened is a terrible injustice to the not only the millions who suffered andperished in the concentration camps, but the people close to them who sufferedalong with them. It is considered by many to be a new form of anti-semitism andone can only imagine the pain it causes to the families of holocaust victims andespecially the survivors. Imagine surviving this terrible ordeal and then havingsomeone belittle what happened to you, the grotesque things you witnessed, thegrim conditions, the hunger, the forced labor, the imminent threat of beingkilled alongside many others. This is why the force of holocaust denial is sostrong in terms of anti-semitism, and that is often the goal of hate -orientatedgroups, to find the best way to hurt a group of people. There are also otherbenefits of white supremacists in denying the holocaust. First and foremost, itis easier to gain support for their cause if they dont come off as the animalsthat they are made out to be. Being associated with what happened during theholocaust can turn away many potential followers who hate, but do notneccessarily condone violence and killings. Another paragraph taken from theStudent Revisionist Resource Site is yet another example of belittle the Nazitreatment of the Jews. It is as follows: Contrary to Holocaust Mythologythere was no attempt by Nazis, or anyone else, to exterminate the Jews. Therewas an attempt, largely successful in the areas controlled by the Axis, to expelthe Jews from Europe. In the context of the 1990s it was a terribleundertaking. In adifferent context, the context of European history over thelast two millennia, the expulsion of the Jews from this region or that regionwas no t uncommon. Historically there seems to be something about the Jews thatbrings forth a plenitude of animosity on the part of people amongst whom theylive. By painting the Nazis as just another group trying to remove the Jewsfrom Europe, Revisionists can claim there is something about the Jews that makesthem undesirable and there is a reason that people dont want them around. Thishas another along with diminishing the crimes the nazis committed, it feeds intothe hatered of Jews as well and makes it seem that this type of hatred has ajust cause. Its as if they are saying that if everybody else hates the Jews,what is so wrong with us hating them as well?