Arthur Miller, notable playwright, wrote the 1953 play, The Crucible that focused on the partially fictionalized and dramatized story of the Salem witch trials that occurred between 1692 and 1693 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The play was written as an allegory of McCarthyism due to the American government blacklisting of accused communists. Even Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on what can be labeled as "Un-American Activities" during the late 1950's and was convicted in 1956 of contempt of Congress for the refusal of identification of others that were present during the meetings Miller had attended. Miller's drama was then translated into his play through themes of intolerance, hysteria, and reputation.
The first theme that The Crucible describes in the beginning of the play is intolerance. With the play's setting in a theocratic society, where the church and state serve as one, the government uses religion as a means of control through an austere, strict form of Protestantism, Puritanism. States laws and moral laws are treated as the same and a person's status and sin become matters of public concern. Practice of witchcraft in such a society will instantly place the practitioner into a position of evil doer in the eyes of the public. As is the case with Abigail who gets involved in a supposed witchcraft accusation after Betty falls ill, when someone is accused of witchcraft or suspected of such, they may do anything in order to evade accusations. "I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Proctor with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!" (Miller 47) Towards the end of Act I Abigail starts admitting to seeing Satan after the confession of Tituba to witchcraft. After Abigail comes to the realization that blame will fall on Tituba, she confesses readily to dancing with Betty in the forest so she can clear her name. Abigail, seeing Tituba as an inconsequential slave from Barbados, does not feel guilty for bringing an innocent person into such a problem. Through confessing, she appears innocent and therefore keeps away from the trouble in the town.
In Act I Abigail Williams' conversation with John Proctor clues the reader into not only her past affair with him, but also her desire to remove herself from the Puritanical views of the society she lives in. While people try to adhere to strict rules to appear good and with God, there are others like John Proctor and Abigail who have affairs to satiate their carnal desires. Because of the intolerance of the people and the world she lives in, she lies and seeks to spin scenarios that keep her name from being uttered as a sinner as seen in the end of Act I. "I want to open myself!...I want the light of God ... " (Miller 47)
The Crucible utilizes the theme of hysteria in order to begin the process of tearing the community apart. By supplanting logic with hysteria, people in the community begin believing anything. Upstanding neighbors that have been seen as pillars of the community are now seen as devil worshippers, communing with the devil, even killing babies all because of the overspun tale of lies brought on by false accusations. Proctor sees this and in Act II tries to make the townspeople see the error of their ways by attempting to make them focus on the accuser as much as the accused. "If she is innocent! Who do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now?" (Miller 62) As his wife gets accused and is sought after by Reverend John Hale to arrest, John attempts to reason with them. Elizabeth knew early on that Proctor had an affair with Abigail and the warrant for her arrest was a consequence of this.
Elizabeth explains that by sleeping with a woman, Proctor made a promise that he could never keep. It was up to him to end the madness that gripped the town. In Act III after the arrest of Elizabeth, Proctor at last confesses of his affair with the vengeful Abigail right in front of the court so as to convince the less than logical people that Abigail was not as innocent as she seemed or claimed. By confessing to his crime, he hopes to end the witch trials that were begun by a woman whom he no longer thought of softly. "God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such...
Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller with layers of meaning and subtext. Miller's mission was to draw a direct analogy between the social and political themes of the 20th century with those of pre-Revolutionary America. Setting the play in Puritan New England, in the town of Salem, allows the playwright to explore the thematic connections between the witch trials and McCarthyism. Doing so seems seamless, as the audience perceives
Most of the American public did not know what communism or Marxism really was as an ideology, they simply knew that it was 'bad' and it was 'un-American,' although logically it could be argued that nothing is more un-American than prosecuting a person for holding certain political beliefs. The tragedies of Miller's "The Crucible" and the McCarthy hearings are that good men and women, as well as fearful and ignorant
Indeed, the arrival of Hale, the specialist on witchcraft, brings with it a gloomy sense of foreboding. With the sentence of death being the outcome to such proceedings, I am moved by the remarkable errant authority. Act III: The courtroom drama in this act is compelling if a little overstated. Here, the genuine hysteria has set in and the outrageous turnabout between first Mary and John toward Abigail and ultimately, Mary and Abigail toward John demonstrates
While he resists coming completely clean and exposing his affair, he eventually tells the whole truth, but only after the town is in chaos. The climax of The Crucible occurs toward the end of the play when Mary accuses Proctor of being a witch and he is summarily arrested. Prior to this the action builds as several girls in the play get caught up in the witch hysteria. Proctor's arrest
Hale begins the play as the most idealistic character, but ends the play telling Proctor to lie under oath and confess to being a witch, after Proctor is accused by Abigail. Hale comes to see the judicial system as bankrupt. This shows how a corrupt system can corrupt even decent people. The system also uses Hale's idealism for its own ends, as pro-democracy, pro-American people were used in subservience
Fear, ignorance, personal grievances, and an inflexible political and judicial process result in the death of John Proctor, an innocent man, who dies because he refuses to admit to witchcraft and harm other people. Individuals who named names were cleared by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) while those who did not name names were often blacklisted and lost their livelihoods. Those who refused to turn others in were the
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