Sample “The Crucible” Essays

Resource Description

Storytelling ignites new ideas about the multifaceted nature of human behaviour.

Discuss this statement in relation to your prescribed text. 

The human experience is in a pendulum of complex change, eternally showing the different aspects of itself, that makes it so unique. Arthur Miller exposes this concept through his allegorical drama, the Crucible. Living through the tumultuous 1950’s, a time era riddled with removing any ‘un-American Activity’, Miller reinvents the McCarthy communist hunts through the town of Salem in the late 1600’s, which similarly sought to rid the enemy, even if they were innocent. The society of Salem disregards any need for integrity, and through creating inconsistencies within characters, the impact of lies is shown, specifically through wide-spread hysteria.Additionally, through aberrational characters who strive for power, the importance of compassion and selflessness is shown to be vital in preventing unnecessary grief. Miller further investigates the complex human nature through an analysis of the town’s religion. Throughout the drama, their own puritan values are demolished, and instead, the town of ‘God’s children’ is subject to ‘the devil’s grip’.Miller accurately and effectively portrays the sad, ‘devilish’ nature of the human condition. 

Abigail Williams is a prime example of a character whose lack of integrity has damaging impacts. After she is told she’ll never be ‘reached for again’ she allows ‘common vengeance to write the law’ by making revenge-driven lies. Abigail screams, exclaiming ‘I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osborne with the Devil, I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil’. The anaphoric starts, along with the stage direction: ‘cries out’, foreshadows the terrible events to come. In an attempt to ‘dance with [Proctor] on [his] wifes grave’, she creates baseless accusations that spread throughout the town like wild-fire causing many to be imprisoned and hanged. Abigail sets lose a rapid fear that subsequently causes mass hysteria throughout the town.

How does The Crucible represent the complex human emotions which arise from individual and collective experiences?
Explore this statement with close reference to your prescribed text. American playwright, Arthur Miller, crafts a powerful drama, The Crucible, to convey the complex human condition of which is a result of both the individual and collective experience. Living throughout the tumultuous 1950’s, Miller was indulged with the McCarthy Communist trials, which sought to rid the United States of any ‘Un-American Activity’ through conviction of commmunist actions, and subsequent imprisonments or even deportations.