ENGLISH LITERATURE

The Proposal for The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The Proposal for The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The Proposal for The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Identity loss and its quest has been the persistent theme in modern American literature. Regardless that, the dilemma of identity quest was very much there even in the nineteenth century, or yet much earlier, writers of the contemporary age appear to work out latest equations. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is both an epic play of proportions and intense psychological drama.

Miller in “The Crucible” has placed individual in comparison with moral, psychological and social predicaments. The search of Proctor for identity is categorized by two stages interrelated to the trials of witch-hunt. Initially, he gets caught up in the entire socio-judicial course of the trials rather voluntarily and unexpectedly. Earlier than even he could recognize, he found himself in a very critical controversy, in which he was gratified to make a mindful choice (Miller, 1953, p.45). Therefore, the second stage of his association with the public controversy was what triggered and forced his expedition for identity. When in the start, Proctor gets to know from Mary Warren regarding the misbehaviour; he does not make up the terrible dimension the event will attain. Subsequent to that the events progress very quickly. He informs his wife that he has a thought to set off to Salem and say his objections in opposition to the proceedings. Though, to his dreadfulness, he finds that he is himself involved in the entire controversy, since a number of the accused are his nearest friends. This is the very earliest self-realization for him, after the eruption of social panic (Miller & Robert, 1986, p.18). The second appalling information is that his wife Elizabeth has been taken under arrest. These two events force Proctor to dump his stance of maintaining an objective detachment from the dreadful trials. He is put on to re-define his 'self' in the framework of changed conditions, which demand his personal participation in the trials.

Finally, when Proctor decides to go to Salem, it was by then very late for him and there were not many choices left for him. Proctor's expedition to Salem is essentially related to the conceptual expedition into his individual 'self'. In the starting, Proctor is on the margin of the Salem assessments. However, from the margin he moves to the hub of the controversy. This is the stage of severe crisis for Proctor. He is going to the hub of controversy comparable his attainment a state of exaggerated self awareness. In his effort to set his wife free and fight her case in front of the Deputy Governor Danforth and other judges, two significant attempts were made by him. First, he makes use of reason and his lawful knowledge, which represents his 'self' (Bernstein, 1997, p.329). Then secondly, he attempts to make a futile effort to stay neutral in the ...