Rouch Draft

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Patrick Suskind’s Perfume, both display the major characters as having evil intentions. However in The Crucibles , each character having a good or bad intention often switch from good to evil.

The traditional “Good vs. Evil” plot lines are usually centered on the struggle of the protagonist against the villain. However both in Perfume and The Crucibles, the antagonist is the main focus and his or her quest to fulfill “evil” ambitions. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible John Proctor, the main character, struggles with guilt. Mary denying any witchcraft then saying that John Proctor was the devil himself or people seeing Elisabeth Proctor as a good woman, then evil because they think she made a compact with the devil. The good side is usually victorious. However, in this novel the "evil” side wins the struggle. For instance, in Perfume, Grenouille ends up having power over the society. Grenouille is the evil character and the majority of main characters all display evil tendencies. In general, both of the novels had characters that had an evil side to them.

In both of the novels, the majority of the evil acts resulted from the character’s desires and ambitions. The villain is portrayed as “pure evil” like many other conventional films, novels, and comics. In perfume, the villain Jean Grenouille shows no remorse for his actions and kills countless people but does not feel the slightest sympathy for their murder. The main characters displayed characteristics that were “evil” but not to the extent of Grenouille. For instance Madam Guillard and Baldini were not necessarily “pure evil” characters in the novel however their actions were not “good” either. Baldini used Grenouille’s talent in order to become rich and did not give him a portion of the earnings, recognition or treat him with respect. Good characters were young female virgins that Grenouille killed like Laure. However, none of these characters were described in detail which could indicate that these characters may display evil characteristics as well. In the Crucibles, the town sees the girls who actually dance, chant and get caught running naked in the woods at the start as good, not evil for doing so. John Proctor, his wife and others convicted of witchcraft are seen as the evil people by the public and punished if they do not confess to compacting with the devil. So if they confessed to compacting with the devil, they would be lying. Instead they were hung for saying they were innocent to witchcraft charges. Every character in the play could either be placed in the intentions under good or bad intentions. Almost every character has mixed feelings of evil or good actions. The fight between the centre of evil and the centre of good is the foremost important of the points.



One of the differences from both novels is that in The Crucibles, people who are good and people who are evil have switched identities evil is seen as good and good seen as evil. In the play, the center of evil is Abigail Williams the niece of Parris. She has an affair with John Proctor while working for the Proctors, and also she committed many acts against the Puritan religion. She lies many times and seems to like it when people are sent to hang. From lying she is given power and the more power she gets the more confident she becomes. But when her own friend starts to destroy her control she turns against her. She uses evil actions disguised as good to get attention. Therefore, the viewers see Abigail as the evil character in the play but what the characters in the play think is different

In conclusion, both Perfume and The Crucibles novels have characters that have evil intentions. The authors had many similarities in portraying the evil character however there was a difference of switching roles from good to evil.