Why I Wrote The Crucible by Arthur Miller

[stephw07]

Why I Wrote The Crucible: An Artist's Answer to Politics
By Arthur Miller

www.honors.umd.edu/HONR269J/archive/MillerCrucible.html

[jordynz2]

"Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can warp judgment, its absence can diminish memory's truth. What terrifies one generation is likely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next. "

i feel that this topic really relates to everything we have learned so far in class, Miller is saying that fear can control every one, and that people will do horrible things because they fear what can happen if they do not. when he says "its absence can diminish memory's truth" he is saying that although its very powerful we need it in order to progress and remember why things were done. when we look back on things that were done in the past such as the salem witch trials we almost laugh at the fact that this can occur. but during the times in which it was happening this was a real concern, they had legitimate reasons to do what they were doing. the puritans of Salem truely believed that all of the horrible occurances happening to them where because of witch craft. the people needed a scapegoat, someone or thing to take out all this "fear". i really liked that quote and felt it had a good conection to the text.

[jillianb02]

"McCarthy's power to stir fears of creeping Communism was not entirely based on illusion, of course; the paranoid, real or pretended, always secretes its pearl around a grain of fact"

This quote points out how, though the response was irrational and extreme, the original cause of the red scare was based in fact. However, I find it hard to believe that the witch hunts were fact based, since their is no evidence of witches actually existing.
It is interesting to note that though their are many parallels between the red scare and the witch hunts, a crucial point, the origins of the fear, differed. One was legitimate while the other started merely as a way for people to explain away their sins or misbehaviors.

[mikef7]

"Naturally, the best proof of the sincerity of your confession was your naming others whom you had seen in the Devil company"

This quote seems to speak directly to the first accusations that Tituba and Abigail give in the end of Act 1. Parris and Hale don't give much regard to Abigal and her dancing until she "confesses" that she danced for the devil and wants the light of God back (P. 48). In the same passage, Abigail starts spitting out names of people she saw with the devil and Parris and Hale call for the marshal and irons immediatly. Her confession opens up the ability to accuse others and have Hale and Parris believe every word of it.

[katiem7]

"--an invitation to private vengeance, but made official by the seal of the theocratic state"

I think that this quote applies to not only the prose in Act I but to the accusation of Elizabeth in Act II. The prose in Act I states "Land-lust which had been expressed before by constant bickering over boundaries and deeds, could now be elevated to the arena of morality; one could cry witch against one's neighbor and feel perfectly justified in the bargain. Old scores could be settled on a plane of heavenly combat btween Lucifer and the Lord" (Miller 8). This quote shows how the people in Salem during this time really took advantage of the situtation to gain power and seek vengance. This is extremely evident when Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, even though we know that she is a perfectly good woman. I think that Miller, in that quote, is trying to show the downside of the theocracy in Salem. If religion wasn't as much of a factor, the disputes that should have remained totally and completely secular would have still been secular. This way, people would not use witchcraft as a justification for land disputes, or in Abigail's case, mere jealousy.