The Literary Theory That Provided the Most Insight

After finishing the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller and trying to analyze it from three different perspectives, I believe that the archetypal perspective allowed me to gain insight that the other two weren’t able to provide me with. The way that I was able to connect this play with other plays allowed me to realize many things about the play that I didn’t think of beforehand. For instance, after comparing the two protagonists from “The Crucible” and “Hamlet”, I realized that Hamlet and John Proctor both have similarities that make them the hero archetype but differences that set them apart from the typical protagonist from other books/plays. This made me think deeply about the play because it made me realize why I thought John Proctor was more interesting than your typical hero archetype. In my opinion, he’s a lot more interesting because he’s known to make a lot of mistakes throughout the play and he doesn’t end up with the expected happy ending that other hero archetypes seem to have. For instance, he makes a mistake by cheating on his wife with Abigail. This is proven in court when he says, “ In the proper place - where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past. She used to serve me in my house, sir. He has to clamp his jaw to keep from weeping. A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now.” (Miller 110). This quote reveals that unlike other hero archetypes, he is capable of making life changing mistakes. Likewise, this theory made me realize something about the world and the people in it. In the Crucible, Abigail is known to create chaos in the town by spreading lies and deceiving people. An example of this is when she tries to accuse Elizabeth of witchery, deceiving people into believing her lies by saying, “There be no blush about my name…hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I will not work for such a woman!” (Miller 12). This made me think about how the world we live in isn’t that much different. This is because in society today, people (often in power) try to deceive people into believing lies for their own gain.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Oxford University Press, 2019.