Miller introduce them into the book Essay

This shows that the girls want some recognition and gain authority by accusing innocent people of witchcraft. The people of Salem’s biggest fear was the defiance of God and so when Abigail and her assemblage spoke out against witchcraft everybody heeded their words and gave them the attention that they wanted. By pretending to be doing God’s work the girls become more important than before and use their power to make people believe what they want. This is why they are believed and never themselves impugned. One of the most noticeable themes of the book is heroism. Throughout the book there are many examples of this theme. The two most obvious events in the book which display heroism, if not somewhat controversially, are the deaths of Giles Cory and John Proctor. Cory’s death was heroic but it is possible to see the hanging of Proctor from a different perspective. It could be said that it was not a hero’s action to die but that of a guilty and cowardly man. In the book Miller, as well as Proctor, openly tells us of the characters mistakes. The reason Proctor chooses to be hung is because he could not bear to have his reputation tarnished. It could also be said though that he just could not bear the embarrassment of pleading innocence in order to save his life. John Proctor can be perceived as either a hero or a coward. I think that Proctor was a hero in this book. The way the book talks of him leads me to think of him as a well respected and highly thought of individual. I think that his actions were extremely brave and heroic. It must take a huge amount of bravery to go to your death even though you can get out of it. Despite there being little symbolism in the play it is a definite symbolic representation of the McCarthy anti-communist trials of the 1950s. I have explained previously about these trials and how they led Arthur Miller writing the book so from this is it obvious that Miller had these trials in mind whilst writing The Crucible. Many people have said though that these two events are completely different in that there were (as far as we know) no actual witches in Salem yet there were definitely communists in 1950 America. In the book I noticed that Miller seemed to focus more on the unwillingness of the judges to believe that the accused townspeople were innocent and preferred to hang as many people as possible in order to improve their status and rank within the court. I think this because when Danforth’s judgement is questioned he informs the court of how many death warrants he has signed, this to me shows that Danforth thinks that the more people you have hung the more respected you become. It is made obvious to us that Danforth is an important character because when he enters everyone in the room goes silent. This could suggest that you are more important if you have signed a lot of death warrants. This use of silence is another dramatic device used by Miller to emphasise an entrance and to make the audience focus on the entering character. I personally don’t know how the judges didn’t see through the girls because when I watched the video I noticed a lot of things which prove the girls are lying. For example, in Act 3, Abigail claims that ‘a cold wind blows’ and blames Mary Warren for sending out her spirit. During this performance, John Proctor claims that Abigail is a whore and that he has committed adultery with her. Abigail immediately stops acting and desperately informs Danforth that she is not a whore or a lecher. This could have been a major downfall for Abigail if someone had noticed this. I am particularly surprised that Proctor did not. If he had the trials could have ended there and then and would have prevented the deaths of many innocent people. In addition to themes Miller also introduces motifs. A motif is a recurring design, feature or melody. Accusation, Legal Proceedings and Confessions are major motifs of The Crucible. These appear regularly throughout the book and are the centre of action in the play. ‘This created a series of indictments even before Hale arrived’ (Sparknotes. com) and a reason for these people to turn on one another (revenge). The only way that the ‘witches’ could be found was through the accusations and confessions. The trials only continue as a result of accusations. John Proctor attempts to discontinue the courts proceedings by confessing to adultery in a desperate bid to expose Abigail yet it all goes horribly wrong and Proctor himself is accused of witchcraft! Proctor’s final courageous decision to die rather than confess to a crime he did not commit makes the judges rethink the whole case and decide to stop the trials before any one else died. Michael Day 10GO Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.