A "Crucible" Of Motivation?
Based upon your own understanding and any studied background information regarding The Crucible, what motivation exists for some of the characters and the drama's author, Arthur Miller? Please complete this blog response by 2:30p.m. on Friday, October 7th.
posted by Greg T at Wednesday, October 05, 2011
29 Comments:
Between all the characters in the book, they all seem to have an underlying motivation seems to be that they all want to be independent and do what they want to do, but not be judged for it. For example, at the beginning of the story, Abigail seems to be a sweet innocent girl that just wants to make her uncle happy. But then we come to find out that she was involved in witchcraft, and maybe she isn't the girl we thought she was. But at the end of Act 1, she tries to regain her innocence by admitting to what she had done and saying she would obey the Lord and the Lord was good. Betty on the other hand doesn't seem as sweet and innocent. She seems to be reckless with no real motivation except to hopefully make someone love her by doing witchcraft. The motivation of the adults is to try and rid the town of evil and keep their children safe. Reverend Parris has a motivation to heal his daughter, and that is what drives him to find out what is really going on in the town. But overall, people just seem to want to do what they want and not really think about the consequences. Which I believe will later come back in the story and cause even bigger problems.
The motivation that exists for Abby is that she wants to be John Proctor's wife and she will do just about anything to get Elizabeth out of the way. She believes that John secretly wants to be rid of Elizabeth too so he can be with her. Abby therefore accuses Elizabeth of witch craft so she will be hanged. John's motivation is to get his wife back. He wants Abby to renounce her accusation and if she doesn't he is willing to admit to adultery in the court so they will know why Abby is accusing Elizabeth and Elizabeth can go free.
Lindsey
The motivation that exists for Abby is that she wants to be John Proctor's wife and she will do just about anything to get Elizabeth out of the way. She believes that John secretly wants to be rid of Elizabeth too so he can be with her. Abby therefore accuses Elizabeth of witch craft so she will be hanged. John's motivation is to get his wife back. He wants Abby to renounce her accusation and if she doesn't he is willing to admit to adultery in the court so they will know why Abby is accusing Elizabeth and Elizabeth can go free.
Lindsey
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The motivation that exists for some of the characters is that they all want to be innocent so they are willing to throw anyone under the bus in order to keep themselves and their family safe. I think with John Proctor, his motivation to help save his wife is Abigail. Since he and Abigail had a former relationship he will use that against Abigail. However, if he uses this piece of evidence he will hurt his chances for being a free man. “If you do not free my wife tomorrow, I am set and bound to ruin you, Abby.” This quote shows how Proctor is not afraid to call Abby out before the court and he is willing to do anything to help save his wife. His wife is his motivation to do what is right.
In the book The Crucible, the motivation for the characters is the punishment for witch-craft. The punishment for dealing with the devil is that you will be put to death by hanging or you have to admit that you did deal with the devil. Abigail is motivated because she wants to be on God's side and does not want to die for going to the forest at night and playing with spirits. Proctors is motivated because his wife is up on the chopping block and her name was mentioned in the court. He just wants her name removed from the court so she is not killed or known for witch craft.
Throughout The Crucible, characters find different forms of motivation and leverage. John Proctor, like many others, is concerned of the safety of his wife. He appears to be in a difficult situation due to his problem with Abigail. He is motivated, however, to clear his wife's name and protect her from being found guilty of witchcraft. Abby assumes the character of an insecure individual who constantly craves the attention of others. She finds motivation when she immediately gets attention from the events in the woods. It seems that she cannot let go of any attention she gets, and will do anything to keep it as long as possible. The motivation for the rest of the people of the town of Salem is simple. They believe the act Abby puts on and become overwhelmed with the need to hunt down the witches and "purify" their town.
All of the characters in the crucible seam to have the same motivation in that they all dint want to go to jail so they will do any thing to not be mentioned to the court. because they know if they are mentioned they will have to admit to witchcraft and become a social outcast.or be hung. so all of these characters want to be free
Throughout the play, the reader is exposed to the motivations of many different characters. In Act II, we find that Mary Warren's motivation is to have a purpose in the community. She enjoys being a witness in the courts, and she also probably enjoys being an accomplice of Abigail. She is willing to lie as long as she has a part to play. In Act II, we are also exposed to Cheever's motivation, which is to be a part of the court. Even though many townspeople despise him for throwing their loved ones in jail, he keeps his job as clerk of the court because he enjoys being accepted by it.
In The Crucible, the characters motivation is for them to plead innocent. John Proctors motivation is both Abigail and his wife. He doesn't want his wife to be hung nor does he want Abigail to get away with the situation she forced upon Elizabeth. Abigail's motivation is most likely to get rid of Elizabeth so she is able to take her place. Elizabeth's motivation is Abigail, she knows that John and Abigail have had a past and is worried that he still might have some feelings left.
In The Crucible, the motivation for characters happens to be blaming. For example, John Proctor does not want his wife to be killed and Abigail wants to get rid of Elizabeth, to take her place and be with John. Also, Elizabeth's motivation is Abigail because she knows that John and Abigail have had something before. All these examples show how each character blames others in order to plead innocence and remain out of the court.
Based on my understanding regarding The Crucible, different types of motivation exist between many of the characters. For example, Abigail is motivated to ruin Elizabeth’s life in order to get John Proctor for herself. According to The Crucible, Abigail will accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft which could lead to the death of Elizabeth. Other motivations include honor and ego. Many people defame others in order to gain honor for themselves. People’s egos especially that of ministers, are very prestigious. Ministers believe that they are always right. In relation, the people usually believe that the ministers are always right, creating a disruptive society.
Arthur Miller’s story the Crucible portrays the characters in two groups: the accused and the accusers. This division in important because the ones who are doing the accusing, at the moment, have all the influence over the others. For example when Abigail started accusing all of these people for “practicing witchcraft”, they all had to go to Salem to have a trial. At the trial the accused has two choices, to admit what they had done and live, or deny it and be hung. All of the characters always have something to watch out for, because most of the ideas are made up. When only one side of the arguement is "right" the others are in a hole. Abigail is the one who has all the influence. All of the townspeople strongly believe in witchcraft during the play right now. All the characters are hiding something trying to save themselves.
The motivation for all the character in the Crucible seems to be to prove something. For Abagail it was to prove that Elizabeth Proctor was guilty so she could marry John. For John, at the end of Act two, is to prove Elizabeth innocent of her charges. For many of the men it was to prove that their wives are innocent. For Francis Nurse he just want to prove his wife is innocent. Goody Nurse goes to church every Sunday and had never done anything wrong but read.
In The Crucible all of the characters have nearly the same motivation. The characters all want to be innocent. Therefore each character is willing to do whatever it takes to be and stay innocent throughout the story. I believe that even though each character says they are innocent, they are not. I feel that each character individually is hiding something. Abigail wants to be on the good side of things even though she goes to the forest ever night to play and learn from the spirits that she believes in. John's motivation at this point in the story is to get his wife back. Each characters goal in the story is to be innocent
In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," he creates all of his characters to have one motivation: Control. Parris, Abigail's uncle wishes to have control over the community, becasue he is the reverand. However, he also wanted to control the situation that Abigail and the other girls wer found in. Abigail, one of the girls caught in the woods, wishes to have control over the community to insure her own safety, and wishes she had control over John Proctor. Elizabeth, John's wife stands in the way, and Abigail tries anything she can to control Elizabeth. The leaders of the community, for example the many judges selected for trial, want to be in control, and when a scare or rumor spreads through the village that they cannot control, they will do anything to regain control.
Some of the motivations that exist between the characters are honor, innocence, and selfishness. Abigail wants to ruin Elizabeth's life and to get rid of her because Abigail believes that Elizabeth is in the way of her getting John Proctor. However, Elizabeth wants to prove her innocence and prove that she is not a witch. This makes each characters motivation increase. Also the characters that are accused of being witches want to prove their innocence and therefore get their honor back. When they are accused the lose all of their honor. In order to get it back they have to prove that they are innocent. This also causes them to fight harder to prove they are innocent and therefore cause their motivations to increase.
It seems a similar motivation for all the characters in the Crucible, they do not want to face punishment for witch craft or have a bad reputation. It seems that each character will do anything to prove themselves innocent and/or prove someone else guilty.
In The Crucible there is a lot of hidden motivation with what goes on. This play is about witch craft and people saving themselves. I look at one of the main characters Abigail, and all I see is selfishness and hidden motivation. The whole town is freaking out because if they get named, they will be killed. The motivation of the town is save yourself, and blame others to make yourself look pure. Also in this play truth is a motivation, but not in the way you would think. Instead of being motivated to tell the truth, people are modivated to hide the truth and save themselves.
Through the play "The Crucible" the characters in the book continue to accuss other characters of witch craft and making deals with the devil to get them out of the way. The motivation behind these accusations are past struggles between other, like Abagail has accussed Goody Proctor so that she would be put in jail or killed and she could finally have John. Others have accussed because the towns people are saving themselves by saying random accusations. This occurs when Tituba is accussed of assisting the girls in talking with the spirits, in order to say herself she started saying random names cause if she convicted the other witches then God would be forgiving and merciful.
In the book it seems all the characters have hidden secret agendas and grudges. The witch hunt is just a catalyst for all of these underlying motives to come out. For example, Abigail yearns for John Proctor. She has fallen in love with him, and seems as though she will do anything to be with him. When her activities in the woods were discovered and she soon became the center of attention for the whole town, she immediately used that power to her own advantage, such as accusing Goody Proctor of witchcraft. It is obvious that she has the motive of removing Goody Proctor from the equation so that she may have John all to herself. This is just one example of a motivation in the crucible. Also, the author seems to have a motivation in writing this book. Arthur miller lived durning the time of the red scare, a time in US history during the Cold War where there was suspicion of Communist spies everywhere, and no one knew who to trust. Like the witch hunt in the book, US citizens began their own witch hunt, looking for communist all over, and friends and neighbors turned on eachother, and since writing about this during the time would be pegged as communist themselves, Arthur Miller expressed his view of the insanity going on in the country through the story of the salem witch trials.
One motivation that Abby has is to get what she wants no matter who or what she hurts trying to get it. But yet another motivation might be to be the "perect town person". Realy no one can be thatr person becuase all of us have things wrong with our self. So in the Crucible there are many types of motivation.
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All the characters seem to have the modivation of differenct aspects which are important towards their character. For example, Abigail's motivation is to marry Proctor and remove his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Proctor's motivation is to keep his good reputation and keep his conscience sane.
Between all of the characters in the book, they all seem to have lies that they are hiding. In our modern day society they would be known as "fake". At the beginning of the book Abigail seems to be the nice girl who would never be accused of anything bad. But then everyone finds out that she has been doing witchcraft. The thing about the crucible is that all of the characters have an evil side that no one has realized yet and they also have hidden secrets.
The characters of the The Crucible are motivated by fear of what could happen. An example is that Mary Warren knows that Abigail is staging the witchcraft, but won't say anything because she knows Abigail will come after her if she does. Also, John Proctor knows the truth, but he intends to say something about it in court for fear that he will lose his wife. Other men in the play have the same fear because Abigail and her friends have accused many women of witchcraft. It seems that almost everycharacter in the play is motivated by a fear of some sort.
The motivation of the characters is fear. They are all scared of being sent to the jail and then sentenced to hang, so they make up lies to point the spotlight elsewhere. Abigail's motivation may be to remove Proctor's wife, so she can have Proctor to herself, but if she causes his wife's death, will he really still want to be with her? Abigail is fueled by lust, and is overlooking common sense. Other characters are driven by the desire for power, such as Reverend Parris, who wants to take credit for clearing the devil out of the village.
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