It becomes his way of escaping reality. The boundaries between the past and the present are withdrawn in his fantasies, where his illusions become real. But the truth is that the family is in severe financial condition and, in the end, Willy decides to commit suicide by driving and crashing himself to death so that his insurance money could be used to establish a business for his eldest son, Biff. He also intends to prove to Biff during his funeral that he is popular among people. Willy, in comparison to John Proctor in Miller's previous fiction, does not attain the status of a tragic hero because he does not come to full self-realization as does John Proctor. The play does not become a pure tragedy and Willy is viewed as an anti-hero, instead in that he fails to develop the nobility and magnanimity in traditional and tragic heroes. He falls short of the self-realization or self-knowledge of the typical tragic hero. His decision to commit suicide represents only a partial discovery of the truth. He fails to realize and confront his personal failure and to grasp a true, personal understanding of himself as an every man. Instead, he gives in to the force of a desperate mind and a distorted vision of a materialistic future for his family, especially Biff by killing himself (Miller, Wikipedia). In contrast with Willy, his son Bliff seeks the truth about himself and acknowledges his failure rather than denies it (Miller 1949, Wikipedia 2006). His father and brother Happy are of a kind in...
Biff also loses respect for his father when he discovers his unfaithfulness. Willy covers up for these by regarding Biff as an under-achiever. Biff is determined to break the stream of lies surrounding and afflicting their family to come to terms with his own life. He endeavors to confront his father's fantasy and release himself from it and into freedom. His father's blind obsession over his materialistic interpretation of the American dream has created that barrier for Biff. He undergoes an identity crisis, during which he realizes the need to expose the fantasy and pain of Willy's disillusionment over himself, his true failures. Biff sees that this is the only way to go through the crisis and establish his own and separate identity from his father and his distorted dream. Biff, rather than Willy, achieves that nobility and magnanimity required of traditional tragic heroes and thus qualifies as one (Miller, Wikipedia).
We see John making a determined effort to please Elizabeth -- he kisses her perfunctorily, he praises her cooking -- all this being done in a desperate effort to compensate for his guilty feelings. Elizabeth's coldness, however, augments his failure. Once her love has been betrayed, she lives in a continuous suspicion and doubts John's reasons as to why he would not testify against his former lover, Abigail, when
Crucible Dearest John, I am writing this letter in the hopes that I can explain myself and make you understand why I have done what I did. You are angry with me now and perhaps I deserve your anger, but you must know in your heart that your wife stood between us. We never could have been together so long as someone else called herself Mrs. John Proctor. That is a
He was labeled for a belief that he did not openly admitted subsisting to; he was labeled based on the fact that he refused to testify against an ideology. It is not surprising, then, that the primary message of "The Crucible" resonated his thoughts and feelings about the McCarthy administration's containment policy against Communism. The arguments he presented in the play showed how Miller viewed the government's offensive action against
Intolerance to Difference: Social Realities and Norms in the Crucible, The Guest, And the Old Chief Mshlanga Human societies have, throughout the years, established norms, values, and artifacts that are collectively agreed-upon by its members. The culture of a society can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to its people. Norms and values held important by members of a society can be advantageous in that it provides people with social structure and
Arthur Miller, notable playwright, wrote the 1953 play, The Crucible that focused on the partially fictionalized and dramatized story of the Salem witch trials that occurred between 1692 and 1693 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The play was written as an allegory of McCarthyism due to the American government blacklisting of accused communists. Even Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on what can be labeled as
Arthur Miller penned the play The Crucible in the context of McCarthy-era rhetoric and anti-communist propaganda in the United States. Although it has a literal and direct historical reference and application to the Salem witch trials, the play serves as an overarching metaphor for public persecution and the dangers a police state poses to the general public. Through The Crucible, Miller critiques American society and indirectly accuses patriarchy of dismantling
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