The Crucible: Arthur Miller's Style

The Crucible: Arthur Miller's Style 

Arthur Miller had a reputation for being pedantic. He maintained, and his estate continues to maintain artistic control over his plays. Miller never ever let anyone else have more creative input than himself. He was a visually descriptive playwright both in his stage directions and settings. Miller’s plays, including The Crucible include pages of detailed information addressing the concerns of both the actors and the audience.

In preparation for writing The Crucible, he studied pages and pages of court transcripts of the Salem witch hunts in order to develop ideas and to create an authentic dialect. He took small ideas from the testimonies given in the courts and fleshed them out into stories. In fact, the basis for John Proctor’s and Abigail Williams’ affair was based on the tension he discovered that the two of them shared throughout the actual court proceedings. 

'This play is not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian. Dramatic purposes have sometimes required many characters to be fused into one; the number of girls involved in the 'crying out' has been reduced; Abigail's age has been raised; while there were several judges of almost equal authority, I have symbolized them all in Hathorne and Danforth. However, I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history. The fate of each character is exactly that of his historical model, and there is no one in the drama who did not play a similar-and in some cases exactly the same-role in history.

As for the characters of the persons, little is known about most of them except what may be surmised from a few letters, the trial record, certain broadsides written at the time, and references to their conduct in sources of varying reliability. They may therefore be taken as creations of my own, drawn to the best of my ability in conformity with their known behaviour, except as indicated in the commentary I have written for this text.' 

Plays can be classified in two major varieties: plays of episodic action and plays of continuous action. Shakespeare's plays are episodic. No one scene is very long, and the action jumps from place to place, sometimes skipping over years in between. On the other hand, Greek tragedies like Oedipus Rex and some modern plays such as Eugene O'Neil's Long Day's Journey into Night, follow what are called the three unities: of time-the action usually takes place within a 24-hour period; of place- there is only one location,, and of action-there is no break in the action from beginning to end. 

The Crucible falls somewhere in between. The time span is about three-and-a-half months; the action occurs in four different places, although it never leaves Salem; and there is a gap of at least a week between each act (between Acts III and IV almost three months elapse). But within each act the action is continuous from curtain to curtain. 

One advantage of the continuous-action method is that it allows the author to build tension or suspense gradually. It also can be less confusing for an audience, because we don't have to stop and figure out where we are every few minutes. And, finally, it allows us to get to know the main characters very well, by letting us watch them for a long time at a stretch. This is especially important in The Crucible, where we come to understand what happened in Salem in 1692 through the experience of one man, John Proctor. 

The Crucible was written in an historical style, marking a shift in Miller's preferred writing style from the "naturalistic dialogue of the American middle class" in his first three plays, to a formal, New-England-Puritan style. Miller "makes exemplary use of this new style, its biblical echoes, its metaphorical richness, and its ethical basis". The Crucible concerns the dilemma of "making moral choices in the face of community pressure and about the irrational basis of that pressure". The similarity between the Communist and Puritan witch-hunts allows Miller to formulate an explanation for their inception, along with the destructive effect that speculations can have on individuals when brought before an unsympathetic, judgmental and irrational public. The public's trepidation toward the subject matter of The Crucible was due to the play's remarkable similarity to the political pulse at the time, causing critics to give it "polite, lukewarm reviews", and closed after only a few months. Ironically, The Crucible was successful in an off-Broadway production five years later and was given ample praise by the same critics who previously rejected it. This performance ran over six hundred shows, establishing it as Miller's second most popular play.

Miller’s style is very simple. He uses simple sentences and sentence structure with a simple vocabulary. While using the simple style, Miller does not take away from the suspense in he plot. The dialogues of his characters are like actual speech. His words are used effectively and does not include anything not necessary to convey the idea. He makes the plot and idea interesting by foreshadowing future events. 

In The Crucible, the characters do not speak in fragments, and some do occasionally string together phrases. Also, they do form their thoughts carefully before speaking. The sentences are simple and the structure does not vary too much. 

In the first passage spoken by Reverend Parris, the speech is more formal that speeches spoken by other characters. This displays that Reverend Parris is more educated than the others. It has a somewhat fatherly, yet commanding tone. 

The second passage spoken by Abigail is markedly different from the first passage. The sentences are less thought out and more fragmented. She repeats the phrase “I know you” several times. This shows less education but more deep emotion than the first passage. The tone for this line is moving, but when compiled with Abigail's character, becomes deceiving. 

The third passage spoken by Elizabeth shows a clearly though out idea. It shows that while Elizabeth may not be as educated as someone like Parris, this is a subject that she has thought about a long time. This gives a tone of something like a bottom line or an ultimatum. While Elizabeth does not give a specific choice to Proctor, it is obvious that he must make a decision on what to do. 

Miller does not rely too much on imagery. There are few cases of imagery in this play. One remarkably memorable one is the statement by Abigail about the way John Proctor “sweated like a stallion.” While this statement is also a simile, it provides an unforgettable image in the minds of the audience. 

The most memorable case of simile is the line, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I came near!” This statement compares Proctor with a stallion. 

Miller rarely uses metaphors or personification in this work. His people generally referred to as people and items as items. Occasionally he alludes to some portion or person in the Bible, but rarely to anything else. For example, while John Proctor is speaking with Rebecca in prison, she alludes to the martyred apostles. Rebecca says, “Let you fear nothing! Another judgment waits us all.” This is an allusion to idea from the Bible that man is judged by God in heaven. 

Miller has few cases of verbal irony. He uses it in act 3 while Elizabeth tell she court that Proctor did not sleep with Abigail she knows that he did. 

All parts with the girls lying about witches and ghosts are cases of dramatic irony since, while the audience knows that the girls are lying, most of the characters do not. For example, in court, Abigail and the other girls pretend to be attacked by spirits and the people in court fear them to be in danger. However, the audience knows that they are faking it. 

Miller’s attitude towards witchcraft is satirical. The tone is serious, cynical, and formal. He achieves this tone by the terrible tragedy of the innocent people executed, and the mental struggles of John Proctor. Miller shows the irony and the unjustness of the witch trials, and thereby the irony and the unjustness of the McCarthy trials. 

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The crucible Themes

The crucible Themes

A crucible is a vessel in which metal is heated to a high temperature and melted for the purposes of casting. It can also refer, metaphorically, to a time in history when great political, social, and cultural changes are in force, where society is seemingly being melted down and recast into a new mold. The word is also remarkably similar to crucifixion, which Miller certainly intended in choosing it as the title of his play. The picture of a man and a society bubbling in a crucible and the crucifixion of Christ interweave to form the main themes of the play: the problem of making the right moral choice and the necessity of sacrifice as a means of redemption. Both these themes, of course, take place in the context of the larger struggle of good versus evil.

The choice John Proctor must make is between saving either himself or society. His failure to do good initially allows events to get out of hand and eventually forces him into a position where he must make a choice. Reverend Hale, while not subject to the same moral quandary as Proctor, also suffers a crisis of consciousness for his failure to strive hard enough to stop the proceedings of the court. In contrast to them both are Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor, whose moral and emotional steadfastness represents society at its best.

In a society at odds with itself and where reason and faith in the society has been replaced with irrationality and self-doubt, a clever manipulator can cause chaos. The Reverend Parris, Danforth, Hathorne, and Putnam represent the corruption of society by self-interested parties preying on society's fears. Through them, Miller highlights the destruction that manipulation and weak-mindedness can thrust upon society.

Miller suggests that in such times good can only triumph through a sacrifice upon the altar of society, that the crisis might only be able to be rectified by the death of those who struggle to uphold society's values. The death of John Proctor, though it might seem a tragic waste, is necessary, both for his own personal redemption and that of his society. The sacrifice of Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Giles Corey and others, recalls the sacrifice of Christ for the sake of humankind. In the end, The Crucible focuses on a historical event to drive home issues that essentially characterize all societies at all times, which makes the play both universal and enduring.

INTOLERANCE
The Crucible is set in a theocratic society, in which the church and the state are one, and the religion is a strict, austere form of Protestantism known as Puritanism. Because of the theocratic nature of the society, moral laws and state laws are one and the same: sin and the status of an individual’s soul are matters of public concern. There is no room for deviation from social norms, since any individual whose private life doesn’t conform to the established moral laws represents a threat not only to the public good but also to the rule of God and true religion. In Salem, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the Devil; dissent is not merely unlawful, it is associated with satanic activity. This dichotomy functions as the underlying logic behind the witch trials. As Danforth says in Act III, “a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it.” The witch trials are the ultimate expression of intolerance (and hanging witches is the ultimate means of restoring the community’s purity); the trials brand all social deviants with the taint of devil-worship and thus necessitate their elimination from the community.

GOOD VERSUS EVIL
The major theme in the play is that of good versus evil. Based on the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century, The Crucible explores the fragility of a changing society and the difficulty of doing good in the face of evil and tremendous social pressures, both at the social and personal level. John Proctor, the protagonist of the play, is faced with the choice of accepting responsibility for his actions and doing the right thing. In a similar vein, society as a whole must deal with the challenge of doing good when threatened by evil, even when it comes with the stamp of law, authority, and social opinion.

HYSTERIA
A minor theme of the play is that the hysteria of the witch trials can be easily duplicated, as seen in the hysteria surrounding the "McCarthyism" of the early 1950s. This link should be understood as a background to the play, not as a simple interpretation of the play.

Another critical theme in The Crucible is the role that hysteria can play in tearing apart a community. Hysteria supplants logic and enables people to believe that their neighbors, whom they have always considered upstanding people, are committing absurd and unbelievable crimes—communing with the devil, killing babies, and so on. In The Crucible, the townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious piety but also because it gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to act on long-held grudges. The most obvious case is Abigail, who uses the situation to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and have her sent to jail. But others thrive on the hysteria as well: Reverend Parris strengthens his position within the village, albeit temporarily, by making scapegoats of people like Proctor who question his authority. The wealthy, ambitious Thomas Putnam gains revenge on Francis Nurse by getting Rebecca, Francis’s virtuous wife, convicted of the supernatural murders of Ann Putnam’s babies. In the end, hysteria can thrive only because people benefit from it. It suspends the rules of daily life and allows the acting out of every dark desire and hateful urge under the cover of righteousness.

REPUTATION
Reputation is tremendously important in theocratic Salem, where public and private moralities are one and the same. In an environment where reputation plays such an important role, the fear of guilt by association becomes particularly pernicious. Focused on maintaining public reputation, the townsfolk of Salem must fear that the sins of their friends and associates will taint their names. Various characters base their actions on the desire to protect their respective reputations. As the play begins, Parris fears that Abigail’s increasingly questionable actions, and the hints of witchcraft surrounding his daughter’s coma, will threaten his reputation and force him from the pulpit. Meanwhile, the protagonist, John Proctor, also seeks to keep his good name from being tarnished. Early in the play, he has a chance to put a stop to the girls’ accusations, but his desire to preserve his reputation keeps him from testifying against Abigail. At the end of the play, however, Proctor’s desire to keep his good name leads him to make the heroic choice not to make a false confession and to go to his death without signing his name to an untrue statement. “I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” he cries to Danforth in Act IV. By refusing to relinquish his name, he redeems himself for his earlier failure and dies with integrity.

BETRAYAL
Poignantly, The Crucible explores much more than this theme alone. It is also the story of betrayal and, in particular, the betrayal between a husband and a wife within the sanctity of a conventional marriage. However, John Proctor who is guilty of infidelity is not alone. Many of the characters are guilty of betrayal. Abigail betrays her whole community in order to seduce John. Those who falsely confess to witchcraft betray their relationship with God and their church.

PERSECUTION
The Crucible is also about persecution. History has provided us with canons of documented information about the persecution of the Jewish people from the Bible up until the chronicles of the Second World War. Miller, who was Jewish, would surely have had an inescapable imprint of atrocities of the holocaust embedded firmly in his psyche.

Furthermore, this play insists that it is every individual’s responsibility to accept liability for the wrongs of the past. Miller’s plays, explore the American way of life but the themes, issues and concerns presented in The Crucible are a universal phenomenon.

EVIL AND EVENTS OF THE McCARTHY ERA
The Crucible's minor theme is the evils and events of the McCarthy era, which provided the initial inspiration for the play. Miller saw many parallels between the witch trials of Salem and McCarthy's hunt for Communists, which some critics at the time even referred to as a "witch hunt." Both were periods of dramatic social tensions and social change, marked by terror, suspicion, hysteria, and paranoia. While there were undoubtedly Communists in America in the 1950s, and perhaps witches in Salem in the late 1600s, the hunts for both destroyed many innocent lives and corrupted the accusers.

Perhaps the most striking parallel between the McCarthy era and events in the play occurs in the scene where Parris accuses the signatories of Francis Nurse's petition of attacking the court and suggesting that no innocent person could possibly be unhappy with the court. This was the same logic that McCarthy and his followers used to discourage dissent.

Although The Crucible can be read as a commentary on the McCarthy era, its location in actual historical events of another era, its emphasis on personal struggle and responsibility, and its aesthetic achievement as a work of literature and drama render it timely and relevant in any era. Indeed, as historical circumstances change, new historical parallels emerge. Miller has noted that when he wrote the play, he never could have imagined that people would see in it a commentary on the dangers of accepting children's testimony in sexual abuse cases, yet the parallel seems quite apparent now. It is The Crucible's timeless concern with the problems of ascertaining truth and obtaining justice, rather than its commentary on any one historic event, that has made it a lasting work of art.
Conformity, Imbalance of Power, And Social Injustice

Conformity has plagued mankind for ages. It is a strong theme in The Crucible, and Miller's audience can draw parallels to it in their own lives. In The Crucible, the need to conform to the church's views and that of its minister is quite evident. The characters in the play find themselves in a very difficult situation. They must either turn their backs on what they believe in and lie by admitting to having had "relations with the devil", thereby conforming with the church's wishes, or they must follow their individualistic beliefs and refuse to lie. The Crucible should be considered a great drama just because of it's all encompassing theme of conformity.

The Crucible has so much more to it that it needn't be considered great drama on the basis of a good theme alone. It also attacks the poor balance of power that we can see around us everyday. Miller shows us how much power a sole individual can have when that person defines the ideologies or beliefs by which we live. During the Salem Witch Trials religion was, much more so than now, the answer to what people didn't understand. So as a result, ministers and priests were extremely powerful because they were the only people that were "qualified" to interpret the rules of their religion. They were considered to be the voice of God. Back in Salem, how could anything have been more powerful than that? Nobody could question the priests because they would then be questioning God. Which of course was completely taboo. So a person in such a position of power could say nearly anything they wanted, such as deciding that "cleansing" was needed in Salem. And, as a result, people would listen and it would be done, but not necessarily deemed to be right.

In the 1950's the idea of an imbalance of power was still an issue. After just starting to recover from the Holocaust, which was fueled by the very same need for "cleansing" as in Salem but on a larger scale, Americans were bewildered as to how easily people could be manipulated by those in a position of great power. Hitler had just basically accused a few million people of being witches. Americans could see how weak they were. One could not question the government, the military, or the church. To this very day, a huge amount of people are still afraid of questioning the church - look at the issue of abortion and the Catholic Church's position upon it for example.

Miller portrayed the priests and judges in The Crucible as that certain type of people that Americans will always be up against in the struggle for power. While the Church and its' ministers isn't quite as powerful now because people can openly admit having no belief in God without fear of being hung, we now have a new group of people that decide what is true and what is not. Science is the new religion and scientists the new priests. Scientists are the only people capable of interpreting what all of the math and formulas mean. And as a result, the rest of us openly accept their conclusions to be the true. This is the same kind of reliance that people put on the church two hundred years ago. And at that time, you didn't question it. The church was always right. The Crucible is a great drama because it addresses the issue of conformity in American culture and questions the amount of power that we allow those to have whom are supposedly more educated than the majority of the population and are responsible for defining the ideologies and beliefs by which we live.

At the time when The Crucible was first being performed something was taking place that was very alike the Salem Witch Trials. In Hollywood, the House Un-American Activities Committee was investigating the film industry for communist activities. Actors, writers, and directors were interrogated as to whether or not they had involved themselves in any kind of relations with the Communist Party. If people didn't readily conform to the HUAC's line of questioning, and answer their questions regardless of whether or not they were deemed intrusive or not, it was assumed that they had been involved with the Communist Party. It was thought that the Communists were trying to gain control of the American film industry for propaganda purposes. As a result, those individuals that were thought to be in any way associated with the Communists were blacklisted in Hollywood and could no longer work there.

As history has shown us, the injustices that occurred during the Salem Witch Trials continue to go on. Most obviously by the HUAC in America at the time of Miller's The Crucible. We see parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and other issues even today. Most recently, the military wanted to discharge any gay men in service. These kind of injustices will always exist. The Crucible addresses the idea of a group of select people choosing another group for a scapegoat to a supposedly determined "problem" that exists. This is yet another reason why The Crucible should be considered to be great drama.

Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, addressed issues which were as important to Americans in the 1950's as they are today. The idea of conformity is one which any given individual will always face. People who define the ideologies and beliefs by which we live will also always exist. As will the accusations made by one group of select individuals towards groups of others in order to support their cause, or solve their problem. The House Un-American Activities Committee was doing exactly that in the 1950's which was why the idea of "cleansing" in The Crucible was so relevant to Americans. Arthur Miller's play took on very strong themes and took a stand against issues that are still pertinent to date. Great drama is something in which an audience can find relevance and relation. Great drama is drama that will always be important. The Crucible is a play that no one will ever be able to ignore because of Miller's ability to touch issues and themes that have plagued mankind throughout history and will continue to do so in the future.

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The Crucible, Abigail Williams

The Crucible, Abigail Williams 

If there is a "bad guy" in The Crucible, Abigail Williams
is it. She is the one who first led the girls to Tituba for
dancing in the woods and conjuring spirits. When Tituba
is forced to "confess," Abigail jumps right in and the
other girls follow her. During the witch trials she is the
girls' leader, bringing them into the court and presiding
over their "torments." She intimidates everyone-the
girls, the townsfolk, even the judges. And then, when it
begins to look as if the tide is turning against her, she
gets out while the getting is good, robbing her uncle,
Reverend Parris, before she goes.
Abigail is a lot like the little girl in the movie The Bad
Seed. In the movie, a nine-year-old terrorizes her family
and the whole community. She murders several people,
including her parents. She gets away with it because no
one can believe that a child could be so evil. Anyone
who does find her out, she kills.


Abigail lies without shame, threatens without fear, and
thinks of nothing of sticking a needle two inches into her
own belly in order to bring about the murder of
Elizabeth Proctor. And she gets away with most of it.
But Abigail isn't a child. She's had a grown-up love
affair with John Proctor, and has lost her childish faith in
"the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian
women and their covenanted men." A child, when hurt,
may strike back in anger. But only an adult could so
coolly plot and execute the ingenious revenge Abigail
plans for Elizabeth.
The important thing to decide about Abigail is whether
you think she's evil or not. Without doubt, almost all her
actions have evil consequences, and if there is good in
her, we don't get to see much of it. She takes the lead in
"crying out" witches; the other girls take their cues from
her. In a very short time she has the whole town at her
mercy, and she uses this power unscrupulously. In fact, a
real witch could hardly have done a better job of
destroying the community.
But is Abigail the only one to blame? if so, then what
happened in Salem was a fluke, a case of one bad apple
spoiling the barrel. Everyone else is therefore innocent;
they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
One thing that supports this idea is an old convention of
writing plays that goes back to the Middle Ages. Certain
plays called "moralities" always had a stock character
called the Vice. The Vice was a troublemaker; his whole
purpose was to stir things up, to set characters against
each other, and to try to destroy the established order of
things. Often the Vice was the Devil in disguise, but
since these plays were put on by the church, he always
lost in the end, most of the time by getting caught in one
of his own traps. Abigail certainly fits this description,
except for the last item-she doesn't get caught.
But some believe that considering Abigail the "bad guy"
misses Arthur Miller's point. These people think that the
real "bad guy" in The Crucible is superstition. With or
without Abigail, there'd have been no witch madness if
there'd been no belief in witches. If you look at it this
way, Abigail, although you'd hardly call her innocent, is
not entirely to blame either. Other girls cry out witches
too; and it looks as if they were prompted, not by
Abigail, but by their parents. If Abigail is evil, she's not
alone. The madness itself, caused by superstition, is to
blame. One person alone could never wreak such havoc.
But however you think of her, Abigail Williams is a
fascinating character. We see her only twice-in Act I
and Act III-but her presence and her influence dominate
the whole play.

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The Crucible - Weakness, Jealousy, and Manipulation

The Crucible - Weakness, Jealousy, and Manipulation 

  

In every conflict there always seems to be at least one person to blame. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many problems arise that deal with live and death. Many innocent people in this play were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there are many people that may be blamed. In The Crucible, one may find Abigail Williams, The Putnams, and Mary Warren to blame. Abigail was manipulative, The Putnams were very jealous, and Mary Warren was weak-willed. 

  

Although she was a smart girl, Abigail was only out for herself and her own reputation. Abigail Williams didn't only lie about witchcraft, but she forced others to join in. She was Reverend Parris's niece and believed she could get away with whatever she wanted. Abigail did not want to have to damage her reputation by having a different testimony as all the other girls, so she forced them to lie as well. While alone with the girls she said, "let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it..." (Miller 1044). Abigail also stuck a needle in herself because she knew Goody Proctor had a poppet at her home with a needle in it. While talking to John Proctor about Abigail, Cheever remarked, "...and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, she draw a needle out. And demandin' of her how she come to be so stabbed, she testify it were your wife's familiar spirit pushed it in," (Miller 1077). Abigail may have been the most prominent person to lay the blame on, but other people were guilty as well. 

  

Jealousy also played a big role in who was to blame for the deaths in Salem. The Putnams were a small family, whose seven children out of eight did not survive. Mrs. Putnam was a very jealous person when it came to families, and Mr. Putnam was a very jealous person when it came to land. Goody Putnam wanted more children and was jealous of Rebecca Nurse and her large family, so she blamed her for witchcraft. Mr. Putnam wanted more and more land and was very greedy. He accused many people of witchcraft, and once they were hanged, he would buy their land. Mental weakness is as much to blame for these deaths as much as jealousy andmanipulation. 

  

Some people may have good intentions, but still cause harm by the things they do. Mary Warren was the servant for the Proctors. In her case, sewing a poppet for Elizabeth Proctor caused a lot of problems for her. During the trials, Mary sewed a poppet to give to Elizabeth as a gift. However innocent it was, it still was the underlying reason that she got accused of witchcraft. Also, during the trials Mary didn't want to tell the judge that all the girls were lying, even though she did tell Proctor. She made him look bad by lying and saying, "My name, he want my name. `I'll murder you,' he says, `if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court,' he says!" (Miller 1102). Proctor was so aggravated by this that he said some things about God that he shouldn't have, and there was no tolerance for that in Salem. 

  

The people in this play may have had different motives for accusing other people, and practically sentencing them to death, but the out come of all the accusations were basically the same. Innocent people died and there was more than one person to lay the blame on. In almost every conflict there is someone, or some people, to blame. In this case, it was Abigail, the Putnams, and Mary Warren. 

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The Crucible – The Title

The Crucible – The Title 

  

Arthur Miller cleverly picked the title "The Crucible" for his play about the Salem witch hunts of the 1660's because of the word's many meanings. Throughout the play, Miller has characters face severe tests that make them question their own self. A crucible is also an earthen pot that is used for melting metals. In a way the town of Salem was a crucible as people were brought before the court and blasted with allegations from others as being witches. They were either forced to give in and live a lie or be hanged. 

  

The term crucible could also be used to describe the heat of the situation. Innocent people were caught up in the witch hunt were thrown into an overheated situation that had been blown completely out of proportion. The crucible may also symbolize Hell. As substances in a crucible melt and disintegrate they form a completely different substance. This could symbolize the society of Salem disintegrating and forming into a completely new one. After the situation had been heated what you are left with are the remnants of society that once existed. 

  

By the end of this play, the true meaning of the word crucible was a severe test. John Proctor underwent the most severe test and as a result his character underwent a drastic change throughout the play. The ultimate test that John Proctor undergoes is the final decision that he makes before he dies. The town of Salem was deeply religious and they were willing to believe the word of a deceitful young girl rather than believe in the integrity of people like John Proctor, Reverend Hale, and Rebecca Nurse. 

  

Throughout the play John Proctor was an honest man, as was his wife, Elizabeth until she was asked to testify against her husband about his affair. One thing that never changed about Proctor throughout the whole play was his willingness to stand for his beliefs. Time after time, he was bombarded with questions about why he didn't regularly attend church or why he didn't have one of his sons baptized. He answered these questions with integrity and questioned the ministry of Parris. No one in the town of Salem had done that before. 

  

Proctor was also undergoing a difficult time in his marriage with Elizabeth and at the beginning he seemed timid to deal with it. The first time that Elizabeth and John are in a scene together the mood is extremely awkward. There is hardly any eye contact or communication between the two. This had been going on for seven months, since Proctor's affair with Abigail Williams. 

  

By the end of the play, the soreness of the subject seemed to disappear and any timidness that Proctor felt also disappeared. In the final two scenes, John Proctor was willing to ruin his name by stating that he did in fact have an affair with Abigail in order to prove the accusers wrong. Before this time, Proctor would not even discuss the issue especially when Abigail approached him in the first scene about it. Abigail claimed that she thought about him and that one night she had with him constantly. Proctor would not reply and wanted nothing to do with the conversation. Proctor wanted to wish that whole night away, as if never happened. He even said that was ashamed of his act. When it came to restoring credibility to the people accused by Abigail he was willing to set aside his personal problems and admit to his adultery. 

  

The ultimate test came at the end when Proctor must decide between confessing and living or dying alongside the wrongly accused people of Salem. He chose the latter, but I do not think the Proctor from Act I would have done this. The Salem Witch Trials changed the man drastically as he appeared to be a stubborn man in the beginning. By the end, Proctor chose to die in the most righteous way, with dignity. In the beginning, Proctor could be described as stubborn and selfish, but by the end of he was anything but these qualities. He was willing to die alongside those that were accused and he refused to take the easy way out the situation by confessing to something he never did. Proctor and the others were unwilling to confess. Instead they stood for the principles of honesty and integrity in order to die noble deaths. 

  

"The Crucible" was a good name for this play because of its originality and how its various meanings seemingly fit into the plot and the various sub-plots of the play. Salem was the perfect setting for the "the Crucible" as the settlers had no place to turn away from the heat, the mayhem, and the severe tests that faced them in the town. The heat of the situation forced the change of John Proctor and the town was forever changed as a result of the trials and the false the accusations. 

 

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The crucible

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The Crucible THE AUTHOR

THE AUTHOR

Arthur Miller was born on 17^th October 1915 in Harlem.

He was the son of Polish immigrants and his parents enjoyed good prosperity up until the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Financial hardship forced the Miller family to move to Brooklyn in 1929.  He was not a good student and in fact he failed to graduate from High School, and his initial working career involved a mixture of labouring jobs either in the country or on the New York Waterfront.  Miller learned much about life at the sharp end, and this was to stand him in good stead when he commenced his literary career. In fact, his work ‘A View from the Bridge’ dealt with life on the waterfront.

His work in the countryside gave him the inspiration for the movie, ‘The Misfits’ which starred his late wife Marilyn Monroe.  It was whilst he was earning a meagre wage from menial work that he started to read extensively, and he decided that a literary career should be the goal to aim for.  He was able to convince the University of Michigan to take him on as a student although he had never graduated from High School.

He supported himself at University by working on a Newspaper and entering literary competitions. He graduated in 1938 and returned to New York. He soon became involved in writing scripts for radio and the theatre. Much of his work has the common thread of dealing with the problems faced by the man in the street.

His first major success was the play, ‘All My Sons’ published in 1947. This was followed by ‘Death of a Salesman’ published in 1949 and which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Many misinterpreted Miller’s views regarding the common man as being sympathetic with communism, and he was subsequently investigated in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee, but was completed cleared by the Committee.

‘The Crucible’ was published in 1953 and there is no doubt that Miller is making a direct comparison in this book of the Salem Witch Trials with the McCarthy Hunt for Communists. However, it is to do the work injustice by viewing it as merely a swipe against the McCarthy era, and there is a far deeper message in this work concerning human nature and mass hysteria.

Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe in 1955 and he wrote the screenplay of ‘The Misfits’ for her in 1961. ‘After the fall’ was published in 1964, and is a fictionalised account of his relationship with Marilyn.

Also in 1964, he wrote ‘Incident at Vichy’.  Other works include ‘Fame’ 1970, ‘The American Clock’ 1980, ‘Elegy for a Lady’ 1982, and in the same year ‘Some Kind of Love Story’.

Miller wrote the screenplay for the movie version of ‘The Crucible’, which was released in 1996.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Miller has received numerous awards over the years, including The Gold Medal for Drama, by the National Institutes of Arts and Letters. In 1965 he was elected President of Poets, Essayists and Novelists. 

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The Crucible CONTEXT

CONTEXT

This play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.

We are in the home of Reverend Parris, whose daughter, Betty lies apparently unconscious in bed after being discovered at midnight dancing in the woods outside Salem. Her father had witnessed this scene, which involved the house black slave Tituba, and Parris’ niece Abigail, and one other unidentified naked girl.

It later transpired that this naked girl was Ruth, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Putnam and she was in a similar comatose state.

There is talk of witchcraft.

Abigail is the leader of the girls and she had an affair with John Proctor and was dismissed by his wife from the household.  She still desires John and she is obsessed with becoming his wife.

During the episode in the woods, Abigail drank blood and cast a spell in order to kill Mrs. Proctor.

The physician is unable to determine Betty’s illness.

A well-respected member of the community, Rebecca Nurse tries to calm the situation and warns the Reverend Parris against blaming witchcraft for Betty’s illness, as it would set a dangerous precedent. 

There is animosity between Mrs. Putnam and Rebecca because all Rebecca’s children are healthy whilst Mrs. Putnam has lost seven children in infancy, and she believes witchcraft is responsible for this.

There is a mutual dislike between the Reverend Parris and Proctor. Parris believes Proctor heads a group opposed to Parris and he is fearful for his position in the town.

There are disputes between the Putnams and the Corey family over land. Putnam is ambitious and desires more possessions.

The Reverend Hale arrives in the town to investigate the strange events. He is an expert in witchcraft.

Tituba, the black slave, is suspected of conjuring up spirits, and Abigail blames her for enticing her to sin.

Hale questions Tituba who accuses Goody Good and Goody Osburn of witchcraft.

Abigail also confesses to witchcraft, but fully repents and so starts a wave of accusations of witchcraft in the town. She sees a way to obtain John Proctor by accusing his wife of witchcraft.

The Proctors’ servant, Mary Warren is appointed an official of the Court and she manages to protect Elizabeth Proctor from the first accusation of witchcraft.

Hale arrives at the Proctors’ house to question them.  He is concerned at Proctor’s poor Church attendance and the fact that their last child has not yet been baptised. Hale is not convinced of Elizabeth’s innocence and soon after she is arrested. They find a doll that was made by Mary Warren in the Proctors’ house, and concealed inside is a needle. This is taken as evidence of witchcraft.  Abigail stabs herself with a needle and accused Elizabeth of this act.

The Court convicts Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse of witchcraft.

Giles Corey believes that Putnam is using his daughter to accuse his neighbours of witchcraft so that he can gain their land.  Corey is arrested for Contempt of Court.

Deputy Governor Danforth who imposes a stay of execution for Elizabeth, as she is pregnant, heads the Court.

Proctor persuades Mary Warren, his servant, to make a testimony against Abigail and the other girls. However, through fear she withdraws this statement and matters look bleak for the Proctors. Proctor is forced to make public his affair with Abigail and he calls her a whore, and tells the Court that her aim is to have Elizabeth executed in the hope of becoming his wife. He has faith in his wife’s honesty, telling the Court that she would never lie. However, on this one occasion she does lie to protect her husband from being charged with Lechery.  John Proctor is arrested and he is scheduled to hang with Rebecca Nurse.

The Reverend Hale realises that matters have got out of hand, and hopes to save the lives of the prisoners by persuading them to confess to witchcraft. Proctor does confess to witchcraft, but when he realises that a written Affidavit is required to be posted on the Church door, he refuses and is taken to the gallows. 

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The Crucible..Abigail Williams

The CrucibleBy Arthur MillerCharacter AnalysisAbigail Williams

Abigail Williams is the vehicle that drives the play. She bears most of the responsibility for the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods, and once Parris discovers them, she attempts to conceal her behavior because it will reveal her affair with Proctor if she confesses to casting a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail lies to conceal her affair, and to prevent charges of witchcraft. In order to avoid severe punishment for casting spells and adultery — not to mention attempted murder when she plots Elizabeth's death — Abigail shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This desperate act of self-preservation soon becomes Abigail's avenue of power.

Abigail is the exact opposite of Elizabeth. Abigail represents the repressed desires — sexual and material — that all of the Puritans possess. The difference is that Abigail does not suppress her desires. She finds herself attracted to Proctor while working in the Proctor home. According to the Puritanical mindset, Abigail's attraction to Proctor constitutes a sin, but one that she could repent of and refuse to acknowledge. Abigail does the opposite. She pursues Proctor and eventually seduces him.

Abigail's willingness to discard Puritan social restrictions sets her apart from the other characters, and also leads to her downfall. Abigail is independent, believing that nothing is impossible or beyond her grasp. These admirable qualities often lead to creativity and a thirst for life; however, Abigail lacks a conscience to keep herself in check. As a result, she sees no folly in her affair with Proctor. In fact, Abigail resents Elizabeth because she prevents Abigail from being with Proctor.

Abigail gives new meaning to the phrase "all is fair in love and war." She has brooded over her sexual encounter with Proctor for seven months. The more she thinks about the affair, the more Abigail convinces herself that Proctor loves her but cannot express his love because of Elizabeth. Abigail continues to review and edit her memories until they accurately portray her as the center of Proctor's existence. Rather than seeing herself as an awkward seventeen year-old who took advantage of a man's loneliness and insecurity during his wife's illness, Abigail sees herself as Proctor's true love and his ideal choice for a wife. She believes she has only to eliminate Elizabeth so that she and Proctor can marry and fulfill her fantasy.

Abigail's fantasy reflects her age. She is a young girl daydreaming about the ideal male. However, she possesses shrewd insight and a capacity for strategy that reveal maturity beyond that of most other characters. Declaring witchcraft provides her with instant status and recognition within Salem, which translates into power. Abigail uses her authority to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. She threatens the other girls with violence if they refuse to go along with her plans, and she does not hesitate to accuse them of witchcraft if their loyalty proves untrue. Such is the case with Mary Warren.

Abigail develops a detailed plan to acquire Proctor and will stop at nothing to see her plan succeed. Her strategy includes establishing her credibility with the court and then eliminating Elizabeth. The achievement of her plot requires cold calculation, and so Abigail carefully selects the individuals that she accuses in order to increase her credibility. Thus, she first accuses the town drunk and vagrant, knowing that society is already predisposed to convict them. Each arrest strengthens her position, and demonstrating fits and trances increases her authority even more. Her decision to wait until the court sees her as irrefutable before she accuses Elizabeth reveals her determination and obsession with Proctor. Abigail thinks nothing of the fact that she condemns innocent people to die; those people merely serve as necessary instruments for her use in the fulfillment of her plan. At the end of the play, when Abigail realizes that her plan has failed and that she has condemned Proctor to hang, she displays the same cold indifference that governs her actions throughout the play. She flees Salem, leaving Proctor without so much as a second glance.

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible by Arthur Miller 

The crucible Themes

THEMES

A number of thematic threads run through The Crucible. Some
of them contradict others, some of them overlap. And no one of
them completely explains the play. You'll find that some of
them ring more true to you than others, but you can find
evidence to support all of them in the play. These themes are:

1. OCIAL DRAMA

Arthur Miller is dramatizing a bizarre but not
uncommon social phenomenon. The explanation for the
witch madness can be found in the makeup of the
society itself. The play was written at a time when
American society was threatened by a similar madness,
over communism instead of witchcraft. The author is
telling us that it might happen again, and we'd better do
something about it.

2. A PERSONAL TRAGEDY

The Crucible is really about one man's struggle with his
conscience. The whole play revolves around John
Proctor. The witch madness serves only to intensify and
focus Proctor's energies on his problems with his wife,
his neighbors, and himself. -

3. HYSTERIA

The play demonstrates an outbreak of that peculiar
insanity called mass hysteria. We get to see how easily
reasonable human beings can become unhinged in an
environment that allows little opportunity for letting off
steam. Once the seal is broken on the pressure cooker, it
explodes.

4. SUPERSTITION

There were no real witches in Salem. Without the
superstitious belief in witchcraft, this catastrophe could
never have happened. Arthur Miller blames "them that
quail to bring men out of ignorance" for this tragedy, and
is making a plea for a more enlightened approach to
religious beliefs.

5. GREED AND VENGEANCE

Several characters find "monstrous profit" in the witch
madness, and manipulate events for their own ends.
Thomas Putnam, the richest man in town, acquires quite
a bit of land by having his daughter Ruth "cry out" his
neighbors. And Abigail Williams accomplishes a pretty
sweet revenge on the Proctors when her affair with John
is broken off.

6. AUTHORITY

This play examines the question of authority: who has
the power, and on what is that power based? What is the
proper use of authority, and what is abuse of power? The
judges believe they derive their authority from God, and
so carry on the witch-hunt as if they are on a holy
mission. They're deceived by the girls, and refuse to
believe the obvious truth when it's staring them in the
face. What went wrong?

7. THEOCRACY

The separation of church and state, which is one of the
cornerstones of the American Constitution, did not exist
in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. "Theocracy"
means "Government by God," and the Puritans believed
that they were establishing God's "visible Kingdome" on
earth-the state was to be governed by God's laws. But
this mixing up of the laws of God and the laws of men
led directly to the legal chaos of the Salem witch trials.

8. JUSTICE

The concept of justice is central to most of Arthur
Miller's plays, especially The Crucible, where he
dedicates the entire third act to a courtroom drama. How
can we guarantee that a person accused of a crime gets a
fair trial? And how should the guilty be punished?

9. HISTORICAL DRAMA


The Crucible tells a story of the American past, a time
when many of the basic principles of our society were
formed. It's possible, the playwright suggests, that some
of the things that were wrong in 1692 are still wrong
today.

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