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Why did Miller Change events in The Crucible The Crucible is a book written by Arthur Miller in the 1950 s and is about the Salem Witch Trials. Although there were many differences between The Crucible and the actual witch trials Miller had good reason for making the changes for the book. Some of the things Miller changed to get the reader to side with the people on trial. Abigail Williams and John Proctors ages were changed. Abigail Williams age to 17 even though the real girl was only 11, but he never mentioned that John Proctor was 60 (Burns 2) He changed the ages so people would not think Proctor was so bad even though he did have an affair. Elizabeth was 41 and was not Johns first wife.
Elizabeth, 41, was his third wife. (2) Living with them was their daughter aged 15, their son who was 17, and Johns 33 -year-old son from his first marriage. (2) These facts were left out to let the reader think John Proctor was a generally good person who had made a mistake. He again did not want Proctor to look bad because he was looked at as the good guy, or underdog, of the book. Miller changed some things so it looked more absurd and incredible that these people were being convicted of witchcraft. He wanted the book to show that the whole town had gone crazy.
There was not a wild dance in the woods like the book portrays. There never was any wild dancing rite in the woods led by Tituba (2) He put this into the book to make it look like the people who caused the trials and made the accusations were the ones practicing witchcraft. Tituba was not from Barbados and Miller probably made her from there so it would seem more likely that she practices voodoo. she was Amerindian, probably Such American Arawak (1).
The first girls to be afflicted by witchcraft were not Ruth Putnam and Betty Parris. The first two girls to become afflicted with Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, not Ann Putnam (2). Ruth Putnam, who in the book, was afflicted first was not even named Ruth. She was named after her mother Ann Putnam and Miller probably changed her name so people would not get the two confused. So the Ann Putnam talked about the former quote was Ruth in the play.
The Putnam's daughter was not named Ruth, but Ann (2) Ruth Putnam was not the only child out of eight to survive. In 1692, the Putnam's had six living children, Ann being the eldest, down to a 1 -year-old Timothy. () Miller changed this to make Ann Putnam look more crazed with the loss of seven children. Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, and Martha Corey were hung on different days unlike what Miller says in the play. Rebecca Nurse was hung on July 19, John Proctor on August 19, and Martha Corey on September 22 not all on the same day on the same gallows (3). Reverend Hale never signed a single death warrant. Reverend Hale would not have signed any death warrants, as he claims to have signed 17 (3) George Jacobs, the old man accused, was not accused of witchcraft.
The elderly George Jacobs was not accused of sending his spirit in through the window to lie on the Putnam daughter (3) In the play a group of children were afflicted by witchcraft but adults were afflicted too. The afflicted was not just a group of a dozen teenage girls there were men and adult women who were also afflicted, including John Indian, Ann Putnam, Sr. , and Sarah Bibber. (4) Miller made a statement with the play about witch hunts. Throughout history people have been persecuted for outrageous reasons. Many people have been persecuted for supposedly being communists throughout the twentieth century. When Harry Truman was president around the time Miller wrote The Crucible, and over one thousand people were fired from political offices and six thousand resigned rather than have a trial. Thousands of people were investigated, but under Truman only 1, 210 were dismissed and another 6, 000 resigned rather than submit to the indignities and publicity of a hearing or trial. (Oakley 199) Miller was upset by this and wrote the play as a protest of these hearings and to show the absurdity of the present persecution.
In the early nineteen hundreds during the Red Scare nine hundred immigrants were deported for being possible communists but nothing was proven. Miller was trying to prove a point that people get too caught up and do not care if the persecution is justified. Another thing about The Crucible is it shows how one person, Abigail Williams, can manipulate an entire town. She wanted John Proctor and in order to get him she needed to get rid of his wife Elizabeth. She started accusing people of witchcraft and accused Elizabeth but Proctor would not have her. a lovelorn teenager is spurned by the married man she loves, and in her revenge, she fans a whole community into a blood-lust frenzy (Burns 1).
Miller changed many things about the real witch trials in his play so the readers would side with the people on trial and show more animosity towards the towns people, which condemned these people. He wrote the play about the so-called witch trials of his time as a protest against them. The play was about a love-scorned teenaged girl getting revenge on her former love. Bibliography: Hill, Philip G. The Crucible a structural view Modern Drama December 1967: 312 - 17 Margo Burns. Arthur Millers The Crucible: Fact & Fiction (or Picky, Picky, Picky) December 1999.
web December 16, 1999 4: 24 p. m. Oakley, J. Ronald. The Great Fear in The Crucible. By Arthur Miller.
Evanston, Illinois, 1997. 199 - 221.
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