Belonging: Salem Witch Trials and Society Essay Example

the experiences shared can alter an individual’s position on belonging. In the gap scenes of the drama ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller. cardinal thoughts of persecution of those who don’t belong and of those who choose non to conform to the rigorous regulations of the Puritan society that the metropolis of Salem believed in and the effects and position of an individual’s demand to belong are get downing to be expressed.

Abigail. an orphan of low societal standing in the town. who is of a manipulative. vindictive and fallacious mode. who longs to belong in the community as more than merely an orphan Begins to writhe the ideas and actions of the other misss in the community such as Mary Warren. Betty Parris. Ruth Putnam. Mercy Lewis and Tituba in hope of salvaging her ain self-respect and the small regard she holds in the ommunity and to avoid persecution for disobeying the rigorous Puritan belief of no dance and recreational activities that herself and other misss in the town participated in the forests the old dark. By utilizing menaces and fright Abigail manipulates Betty. Tituba. Mercy and Mary into sworn secretiveness. “Let either of you breathe a word. or the border of a word. about the other things. and I will come to you in the black of some awful dark and I will convey a pointy thinking that will shiver you” ( move one ) .

Through Acts of the Apostless of despair and vindictiveness Abigail is able to take advantage of the talk of witchery throughout Salem that Tituba has been accused of. Sing it as a opportunity to convey down Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor’s

wife’s repute in order to have fondness from John Proctor Abigail hopes to convey persecution upon her by impeaching her of witchery. this is seen in act two when Mary Warren informs the Proctors of her mentioning in tribunal.

Abigail is a direct illustration of how an person has to take between conforming to an political orientation and fring moral ego consciousness in order to belong. but in this illustration it enriches Abigail’s experience of belonging as she additions respect and authorization throughout the community. The drama allows the audience to witness the persecution of artlessness such as that of Elizabeth Proctor. Rebecca Nurse. Goody Osborn and Martha Corey. all of whom are accused of witchery and Giles Corey and John Proctor who are arrested for offenses against the tribunal.

These characters uphold a tight belief in truth and honor over conforming to an ideal that they do non believe in. and are hence stray and disgraced by the community when refusal to squeal to a false accusal of witchery has been set upon them. John Proctor the ‘heroic’ character of the drama who makes a strong accent on the importance of name and repute is thrown into interior convulsion as he watches the town bend into craze over a fiction of a frightened and alone miss.

Proctor is a adult male of regard in the town. but it is present that he and Elizabeth do non follow the theocracy of Salem. By non go toing church on Sundays and working on the Fieldss. as he despises Reverend Parris and does non desire to go to his church discourses. “I have problem adequate without I come five stat

mi to hear him prophesy merely red region and bloody damnation” ( move one ) . Proctor and his household have a sense of disjunction towards the society before the enchantress tests began.

Elizabeth being a reasonable. degree headed character finds the whole thought of witchery humourous nd Proctor being misanthropic and moderate. can see the despairing supplication of the town who is in demand of self look and single idea. They choose non to belong in order to maintain a strong sense of what they believe to be good features and ethical motives. Salem’s craze unravels the tight woven knot of conformance and spiritual opinion. that citizens such as Abigail and Mary Warren who had small regard and authorization in the town. gained after claiming witchery to be among them.

Authority and power held by Abigail. Deputy- Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne over the citizens that did keep regard and honor antecedently throughout the town such as the Proctors. the Nurses and the Coreys who refuse to conform to prevarications and fraudulence in order to salvage them egos from persecution and decease from squealing to witchcraft. shows how experiences from the universe around them can alter their positions of belonging into a negative. restricting experience that exposes the prevarications and indecency that was required in order to belong the hypocritical theocracy.

The inspiration for the drama was drawn from the current issue of the 1950s ( the drama being written in 1953 ) McCarthyism. anti communist battle in America and the seventeenth century enchantress Hunt of Salem. Massachusetts which have a closely comparative history with each other and are a signifier of historical correspondence. Both historical events

were the consequences of extremism. craze and panic of a loss of power. authorization and sense of belonging in a society.

Miller was able to retrace the past events and add dramatic. inventive look to make a position of the thought of belonging to a society and the adversities and oddnesss that can originate from the demand to belong. Phase waies are used throughout the drama to underscore dramatic consequence and to let the reader a deeper apprehension of the characters and Miller’s thoughts of the event of the drama can be profoundly captured “Hale is in a febrility of guilt and uncertainty” ( move one ) is a illustration of a phase way showing Hale’s emotions of his engagement in the events of Salem.

As Miller himself was persecuted for furthering anti-American beliefs. merely as Proctor and many of the other characters in the Crucible had been. the context of the drama has a great trade of penetration into the battle of self saving in beliefs. ideals and ethical motives but besides the demand to belong to something greater so the single themselves. The human feature of the demand to belong is one of the strongest key points throughout the drama.

All characters wether they are ‘good’ or ‘evil’ truthful or deceitful or collateral or non-compliance they are in hunt of a topographic point to belong. whether it be to society. to their household or to themselves. Abigail and the other misss are the obvious characters that are in despairing demand of a sense of belonging to society. Their manipulative. fallacious motive for reprobating guiltless people to the gallows is an immediate supplication for attending and credence

from the grownups of the society. Due to the theocracy of the town of Salem. the misss are forced to disregard all sense of decency and honor in order to experience a sense of power and authorization.

Abigail is a miss of leading qualities and is able to take the misss in their Acts of the Apostless of fraud. in the tribunal. in their testimonies and their emotions of the events. The dislodgement of power in the town allows Abigail to carry honorable but flawed members of the hierarchy of Salem. “the brainsick small kids are jingling the keys of the kingdom” . Danforth. Parris. Hale and Cheever who are so themselves thrown into a interior battle on whether conforming to the misss in order to keep authorization or to acknowledge their errors and to hold peace of head. merely as Hale does by the terminal of the drama.

Danforth. Parris and Cheever are characters that are used in the usage of sarcasm in the drama. Act three set in the courtroom is a scene of high tenseness and angst and is a good illustration of sarcasm. Proctor is in a despairing supplication to liberate Elizabeth’s name along with all the other falsely accused. Abigail is at the tallness of her power. Hale is get downing to repent his support of the tribunal and Danforth is determined to keep onto all authorization. theocracy. belonging and truth that is left in the community.

This in itself is dry as Danforth persecutes those who are honest and one time had a sense of belonging in the community and wages respect to those who are fallacious and didn’t belong. Mary Warren.

a servant miss of the Proctor’s abode is grounds of the human demand to belong in act three. Proctor was able to convert her to attest against the misss in the tribunal and to denote that they are frauds and are lead oning the tribunal.

But Mary gives into the force per unit area of equal group opinion when Abigail and the bulk of the tribunal bend against her. she claims that Proctor is the “devil’s man” and “I will non hang with you” and turns back to the misss for credence. Mary finds the persecution of holding single belief to be excessively great a forfeit so conforming to prevarications and misrepresentation in order to belong. Proctor by this phase is at his extremum of interior convulsion over his secret criminal conversation with Abigail. he out calls “Whore! Whore! in a tantrum of fury. subscribing off his good name. The importance of name to Proctor is a cardinal illustration of human demand to belong.

By Proctor subscribing his away in order to turn out Abigail false shows how he is a good adult male and how he will non conform to society. Mary is a weak character therefore an easy mark for Proctor. Danforth and Abigail to pull strings into conforming to their beliefs. Her demand to belong becomes slightly a clean canvas to them as they see her to turn to whatever ideals will let her to belong.

Mary’s testimony of the misss being frauds is brought to a arrest when Danforth asks Mary to feint in the tribunal to turn out that it was all merely prevarications and games. but Mary’s inability to feint as she

does non hold the “sense of it” pushes force per unit area on Mary that changes the how she feels about belonging and shows that she is unable to look past the demand to belong in order to hold self saving and self-respect. The force per unit areas of society are excessively great. this is in entire contrast to Proctor. Elizabeth. Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey who refuse to give up their sense of righteousness and self-respect in order to give in to prevarications and misrepresentation.

By the terminal of the drama in act four. the characters have discovered their sense of belonging and their demand to belong has either been over shadowed by self self-respect such as Proctor. Giles and Rebecca Nurse who all accept decease over conforming and withstanding themselves their righteousness. goodness and honestness. Fictional characters such as Hale and Parris have come to realization of the demand to belong may non ever be the right thing if it is at the cost of undignified human loss.

Both characters. Hale and Parris. are swept with guilt. Hale tries to carry Proctor to squeal and non step up to the gallows. while Parris realises Danforth’s motivations and that his ain motivations for back uping the tribunal were avaricious and a sense of shame washes over him. The high climatic stoping of the drama. where Proctor denies subscribing a false confession as he was able to happen his decency and honor and Elizabeth is able to forgive him. is the concluding act of the human demand to belong. but it shows how the people around an person will alter the demand of that sense of belonging.

Proctor

and Elizabeth realise to be content a sense of belonging to each other is all that is needed. Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse. happen that belonging to decency. honor and truth is stronger so belonging to life in a corrupt society. and Abigail realises that deriving a sense of belonging can non be done through prevarications and misrepresentation. The movie “Into the Wild” by Sean Penn. based on the true narrative of Christopher McCandless. conveys the thought of an individual’s demand to get away a sense of belonging to a society that they find abhorrent and ‘corrupt’ . but the everlasting demand of human relationship and connection.

Christopher was born into a household of high wealth. and is informant of a dislodged. fractured relationship between his parents. This is thought to be one of the causes of Chris’s disfavor for society. as he sees it as a contemplation of his household. The movie shows how some persons find a sense of belonging non with worlds but with environment around them. but that the human demand to belong will ever out weigh all other sense of belonging.

The narrative is told in a series of flashbacks and cut scenes. leaping from the yesteryear to the present with narrative from his sister giving the audience a penetration into the context of Chris’s determinations that led him to Alaska and the ‘Magic Bus’ and his eventual prematurely decease. Chris undertakes a two twelvemonth journey to Alaska in hope of happening peace and felicity in the wilderness of the Alaskan mountains and to get away the demand for him to conform to societal normalcies that his parents expect him to partake

in.

Chris merely as John Proctor in The Crucible. finds an importance in name. a difference being that Chris finds the demand to reject his given birth name and follow a name he has created “Alexander Supertramp” . a suggestion of rejection of his parents and the society he is running from and the acceptance of an alter self-importance who believes in freedom and self look. The name Alexander Supertramp implies ‘super humanness’ . strength of independency and great capablenesss. values that Chris believes to be of import.

While Chris attempts to get away human relationships. he is unwittingly doing new 1s that will hold great significance on him near the terminal of his life. and the great significance he has on the lives of the people he meets along his journey to Alaska. The first characters that are introduced to Chris are Jan and Rainey. a twosome who travel across America in a camper new wave. The relationship between Jan and Rainey is disconnected. and distant. both feel as if they can non pass on with each other.

Chris reunites them. by demoing each of them the demands of the other. Chris does this without realization of his actions and the positive deductions it has on them. Chris’s inability to let himself to organize any signifier of relationship with anyone. brings him to go forth Jan and Rainey in the center of the dark. without a adieu. This shows his privation to get away society. as at the first mark of fondness and emotion being shown Chris feels uncomfortable and a sense of malaise and feels as if he has to travel on.

Jan has a important affect

on Chris. as is learnt near the terminal of the movie. when Chris realises the hurting he has caused his parents and the affect of his disappearing would hold had on them and the sense of belonging to household he learns is of import by the terminal of the movie. The movie demonstrates. the persecution and violation of personal freedom and rights by authorization. merely as seen in The Crucible. Forever running into problem with important figures. Chris is continually being denied the freedom and flight he so strictly desires.

Thingss such as paddling down the Colorado River is denied. with out proper mandate and certification every bit good as a 12 twelvemonth waiting list. non have oning socks while at work at the fast nutrient eating house and being beaten by the train guard for siting the cargo train are illustrations of the authorization that Chris runs into on his travels. Society to an person can be enriching to the experience of belonging but for Chris is limits his ideal sense of belonging.

This is shown in the sum of issues that Chris experiences is partially due to the non-compliance attitudes he has towards society. and the fact that he believes that people should hold freedom to bask the universe without holding to follow rigorous guidelines and construction. This is a parallel to the outlooks of Chris that his parents held for him and the hate of holding to conform to other individual’s ideals and regulations. The lip service of his parent’s outlooks of a perfect boy and the perfect life is slightly to fault for Chris’s dispelling.

Chris and his sister grew up witnessing. force. choler.

fraudulence and hurting from his parent’s matrimony. Corrine’s voice overs describe Chris’s emotions as the breakability of crystal “the breakability of crystal is non a failing but a choiceness. My parents understood a choiceness that had to be cared for or it may be shattered. but when it came to my brother. they seemed non to cognize or care that their class of secret action could convey the sort of desolation that could cut them” . The household troubles experienced changed Chris’s position of belonging ; it showed that belonging to a household can convey both felicity and hurting.

Ron Franz. a Korean veteran is a important character in the movie. his fatherlike figure towards Chris. acts a sort of replacement to Chris’s father’s absence in his life. Ron himself had suffered great personal calamity. by losing his married woman and kid in a auto accident with a rummy driver but he was able to travel on and look past the calamity to some signifier of positive in life. Ron teaches Chris that relationships with people are of import and that he can pass his life full of resentment and or that he can turn and larn from the hurting that has been caused “you can take to be a captive of resentment or you can construct a fulfilling life from pain” .

Chris realises this in his last life yearss at the charming coach. and it helps him forgive his parents for the hurting and fraudulence that contributed to his alienation from society. The characters of Ron. Jan and Rainey show how the people environing an person can be enrichment towards their sense of belonging and

connection to society. even if they themselves are on the outskirts of society themselves. This corrupt society that Chris is continually seeking to outrun is shown as a disorientating. overpowering topographic point. the audience additions a sense of how Chris feels about being the metropolis of extremely populated country.

By utilizing different audio sounds such as. hotfooting traffic. trains and the general sounds of a bustling society. the consequence of Chris’s awkward. uncomfortableness and displeasure is displayed along side with slow gesture and freezing frames to add dramatic consequence. this can been seen in the homeless shelter scene. where Chris views the homeless along the street and begins to experience as if this could be him in the hereafter if he is to stay within society’s appreciation.

These sounds are in contrast with the native sounds of the Alaskan Mountains. the wheat Fieldss and the ocean where hotfooting rivers and birds are heard. the galloping of Equus caballuss and the crashing of moving ridges surround the audience’s sense of hearing that show Chris’s entire easiness and pleasance from being separated from society and connection. The camera shootings and angles used co-inside with these audio sounds are bird's-eye. split scenes that are slow and comforting. merely like Chris’s sense of belonging.

These sounds easy alteration throughout the film as Chris learns the true deepness in belonging and human connexion. As Chris’s wellness deteriorates from deficiency of nutrient and exposure to the elements he learns the value of belonging to a society and that worlds are non capable of life in crude ways in open conditions. He learns that being connected to his household and other people will convey felicity

that no other signifier of belonging such as belonging to the environment and to finish isolation will convey.

The clip spent in the Magic Bus for Chris is a clip of personal contemplation and deliberation every bit good as a clip to larn to forgive and experience a sense of connexion to the people environing his life. At the terminal of the movie we witness Chris reject his adoptive name of Alexander Supertramp and accept his existent name. A mark of complete reformation of everything he believed in and that of what he learnt and now believes in. In both the drama ‘The Crucible’ and the movie ‘Into the Wild’ . the thought of the universe and the people around an single being a modification or enriching experience to the persons sense of belonging had been conveyed.

This was expressed. through all characters. wether they demonstrated the positive or negative facets of the construct such as Proctor and Chris. two individualists who fight conformance in order to maintain their sense of individuality and to show their demands to belong to their ain ideals. or characters such as Abigail. Danforth and Chris’s parents who will conform in order to derive a sense of belonging to what they believed to be the societal norms and theocracies that may non be morally right.

The enriching and restricting experiences described in both texts both come to the declaration of the human demand to belong and the facts of life that will alter the position of an persons sense of belong such as household. friendly relationship. theocracies. societies and their natural milieus.