Looking at the similarities and context of the plays; The Crucible, St. Joan and Antigone

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Drama essay

Looking at the similarities and context of the plays; The Crucible, St. Joan and Antigone

I shall be comparing the following three plays: The Crucible, St. Joan, and Antigone. I will be analysing the play’s contents so that I can look at the similarities between the three of them and communicating the ideas that each of the three main characters have similar characteristics. The Crucible was written by playwright Arthur Miller and was first produced in 1953. The play is set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and looks at the ‘witch hunt’ that surrounded America in the seventeenth century. Miller used his own views of McCarthyism to look at the sheer madness that had surrounded this so called witchery, and so the play was seen as a political parable.

  Antigone is a Greek tragedy that was written by Sophocles between 496 and 406 B.C but then was first produced in Paris, 1942, by the French dramatist Jean Anouilh. The play appealed to the French people’s stand against dictators and their own hatred for Hitler. The play contains a tragedy and a hero (Antigone), dramatist decided on the use of masks in which to symbolise the idea of camouflage, and it is then easier to understand who is who in the play. Antigone is the daughter of the late king Oedipus, her brothers Polymices and Eteocles decided to go to war with each other over who should be the next king, but both were killed. Antigone’s uncle Creon, therefore, became king, but Antigone was not happy as her brother Polymices was blamed and so was not given a proper burial. She buries him herself, although knowing that Creon will have to kill her due to the law.

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        The third and final play is St. Joan, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1923 and was based upon Joan of Arc who lived from 1412 to her death in 1431. St. Joan was involved in a long trial and was found guilty of heresy. She did not feel that the kingdom was being run properly and decided to oppose this by setting up an army and sending it into demise, she was then caught by a group of French civilians, tried and later burnt at the stake. St. Joan confessed to the charge of being a heretic but later ...

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