The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
Bio
• Born October 17, 1915
• Middle-class upbringing in Jewish faith
• Studied as little as possible – school was an
interruption
• Great Depression – needed an education
Bio
• Did not go to college until 19 – University of
Michigan – wanted to write
• Playwright
• All My Sons; Death of a Salesman
• 1953 – The Crucible >>> lukewarm reviews
• 1958 – successful revival
Crucible
• Earthenware pot or bowl used for melting
• Whatever is in a crucible is subject to intense
heat
• Metaphysical – a severe, even, agonizing test
McCarthy Era
• Senator Joseph McCarthy (R, WI)
• House Un-American Activities Committee,
1953
• Communist hunt
• America in danger from a Communist
conspiracy to take over the world
• “witch hunt”
• Black listed – ended careers
Salem Witch Trials v McCarthyism
• Climate of fear
• Wholesale suspension of rational judgment
• People who challenged the authority of the court found themselves
under suspicion of guilt
• “Notion that conscience was no longer a private matter but one of
state administration
• People’s questions of authority found themselves under suspicion
• Disregard for legal rights: no counsel, guilty by association
Causes for the Outbreak
of Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem
• Strong belief that Satan is acting in the world
“The invisible world”: disease, natural
catastrophes, and bad fortune attributed to work
of the devil
• Belief that Satan recruits witches and wizards to work
for him.
Prior witchcraft cases in N.E. and Europe
• Belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits
certain symptoms
Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences
Most symptoms can be feigned
• Time of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan
was active
Smallpox
Congregations strife in Salem Village
Frontier wars with Indians
• Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba –
charismatic
• Convulsion ergotism, disease caused by eating
infecting rye (ergot) that can produce
hallucinations, causing strange behavior
(interesting theory – but likely?)
• Teenage boredom
No forms of entertainment (CD, TV, etc) – lots
of Bible reading
Strict and humorless Parris household (as well
as Puritan households)
• Magistrates and judges receptive to accusations
of witchcraft
Seen as way to shift blame for their own
wartimes failures
Admission of “Spectral” evidence – spectral
means spirit
• Confessing “witches” adding credibility to
earlier charges
• Old feuds (disputes within congregation,
property disputes) between the accusers and
the accused spurring charges of witchcraft
Why the Hysteria Ended
• Doubts grow when respected citizens are convicted and
executed
Rebecca Nurse (jury first acquits, then told to
reconsider)
George Burroughs (recites Lord’s Prayer perfectly at
hanging)
Giles Corey (81 year-old is pressed to death)
• Accusations of witchcraft include the powerful and wellconnected
Wife of Governor Phips
Mary and Philip English (and others)
• The educated elite of Boston pressure Gov.
Phips to exclude “spectral” evidence
Rev. Samuel Willard and others
Increase Mather points out the Devil could
take the shape of an innocent person: “It
were better that 10 suspected witches
should escape than one innocent person
should be condemned.”
• Gov. Phips bars spectral evidence and
disbands the Court of Oyer and Terminer
Lessons Learned from Salem?
• Hysteria happens
• Children (especially) can be influenced by
suggestion and peer pressure to say things that
are not true.
• We should be skeptical of confessions when the
confessions are the result of torture or when the
person has a self-interest in confession.
• A cooling off period can sometimes prevent
injustices
Lessons
• Trials should be fair
Evidence introduced should be reliable
Witnesses should be subject to crossexamination
Defendants should have legal assistance and
be allowed to testify on their own behalf
Judges should be unbiased
Modern-day witch hunts?
• HUAC/McCarthy “Communist hunts of early
1950s (events that inspired The Crucible)
• Day care abuse trials of 1980s (child
witnesses, accusations multiply, people afraid
to support accused, unbelievable charges,
hysteria)
• McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial (longest and
most expensive criminal trial in American
history)
The Crucible – Literary Terms
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Style
3 ½ months time frame
1 week between acts
Action in 4 places – all around Salem
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POV
John Proctor – victim
Feel his suffering
Good, honest but not perfect
• Allegory – expended metaphor>>>persons and
objects in story represent meaning outside of the
story
Surface>>>>Salem Witch Trials
Allegorical>>>>McCarthy Era
• Exposition – part of the play which is not
presented dramatically
Direct statements
Set stage
“Greek Chorus”
• Antecedent Actions – action that occurs before the
play opens (i.e. dance in the woods)
• Symbolism – something that stands for or represents
something else
• Conventional – widely known or accepted (universal)
• love, heart
• no, not
• Personal – developed on a personal level
• Symbols
Candlesticks, title to house, firewood – Parris’ materialism
Dancing – pleasure (forbidden)
Strength – John Proctor’s resolve
Voice of reason – Rebecca Nurse
Evil - ????????????????
Self-sacrifice – Giles Corey
Abuse of authority – Judge Danforth
What is “right” – Rev. Hale
Form and Structure
• 21 characters
• Act I – sets up terrible possibility
• Act IV – brings terrible thing to pass
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
• Act I – Will town leap to witchcraft?
• Act II – Will the Proctors get caught up in the
witch hunt?
• Act III Will Abigail foil John’s attempt to discredit
her?
• Act IV – Will John Proctor hang?
Themes
• Individual conscience and guilt by
association
• Individual commitment to the society in
which one belongs
• No man can live his own personal life,
ignoring the events around him
• Hypocrisy
• Revenge
Themes
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Abuse of authority
Guilt
Hysteria
Integrity and courage
Theme Statements
• It is possible for human beings who appear to
be agreeable and normal to be knowingly fully
committed to evil.
• A mounting tide of evil within a society can
gain ascendancy disproportionate to the evil
in any one member.
• Truth has no meaning when men believe only
what they want to believe.
• Honest common sense is impotent against
unyielding fanaticism.
Theme Statements
• Men can insulate themselves from truth and
rationality by a chauvinistic confidence in their
own judgment.
• The infection of evil may spread by ordinary
people who are both the mindless agents and
victims.
Theme Statements
• Long-suffering may instruct that moral
integrity, human dignity, and spiritual freedom
are of more value than a life without them.
• All evil needs to succeed is for good men to
stand by and do nothing.