Themes in
The Crucible
11 CP
Conflicts Act 1
Paris vs. Town: reputation with his
daughter/niece associated with witchcraft
Abigail vs. girls: desire to keep quiet
events in the forest
Proctor vs. Abigail: affair and romantic
relationship
Conflicts: Act 1 (con’t)
Proctor vs. Town Elders: resents Putnam’s land greed,
doesn’t think Parris preaches effectively
Putnam vs. Francis Nurse: resents the fact that he owns
more land and wants the property for himself.
Rebecca Nurse vs. Town: doesn’t think the town elders
should look into witchcraft.
Hale vs. Rebecca: She doesn’t think demons should be
sought
Tituba vs. the town: Scapegoat for witchcraft.
Act 1 Thematic Motifs
Theocracy: what happens when the church tries
to regulate behavior by severe punishment?
Control: When society is too repressed, it cracks
Appearance vs. Reality. Characters appear
different on the outside: Paris, looks holy but
wants political gain. Abigail looks innocent but is
evil. Can’t trust what you see.
Act 1 Themes
Deflected blame: Pointing the finger at
another takes the blame off the guilty.
When a person is threatened with
violence, he or she will say anything from
being harmed, there fore justice is lost.
Act 1 Quotes
1. "There is a faction that is sworn to drive
me from my pulpit.“
Speaker: Paris
Significance: Shows his obsession with his
reputation.
2. "There be no blush about my name."
Speaker: Abigail
Significance: Is not who she appears to be
Act 1 Quotes
3. "... I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the
earth."
Speaker: Anne Putnam
Significance: Shows a motive to instigate
hysteria, she is bitter
4. "Give me a word, John. A soft word."
Speaker: Abigail
Significance: Shows her desperate desire for
John and motive to capture him.
Act 1 Quotes
5. "We vote by name in this society, not by acreage."
Speaker: Proctor
Significance: Shows he is not willing to be shamed
6. "You are God's instrument put in our hands to discover
the devil's agents among us."
Speaker: Hale
Significance: Manipulation and loss of justice
7. “You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor…”
Speaker: Betty
Significance: Result of repressed emotions
Act 1 Quotes
8. “A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after
it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.”
Speaker: Rebecca Nurse
Significance: Voice of reason, kids are kids
9. “I am not some preaching farmer with a book under my arm; I am a
graduate from Harvard.”
Speaker: Paris
Significance: Appearances are deceiving, he is insecure
10. “The devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as
stone...”
Speaker: Hale
Significance: Shows his belief that he has the right to judge others
Act 1 Quotes
11. "I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies
will not blink it.“
-Show’s Paris’s obsession with his reputation
12. "And now you bid me tear the light out of my
eyes?“
-Shows Abigail’s inability to hear “no” from John
13. "She made me do it! She made Betty do it!“
-Example of deflected blame.
Act 1 Quotes
14. “You are God’s instrument put in our
hands to discover the Devil’s agents
among us.”
-Shows Hale’s “ability” to find out evil
in others
15. “You load one oak of mine and you’ll
fight to drag it home!”
-Shows Putnam land greed
Act 2 Themes
The worst judge is oneself: John is
tormented by his own guilt of adultery.
Proctors are voice of reason. They know
who they are and don’t pretend to be
otherwise.
Hale’s cross examination: It is not for
another to decide how “good” you are
(McCarthy).
Act 2 Themes
Vengeance rules Salem, society is broken
in the name of blame.
The accuser becomes holy. Accusing
becomes a form of purification. Way of
gaining power.
Fear is a powerful tool for manipulation.
Act 2 Quotes
1. “I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it.”
Speaker: John Proctor
Significance: Shows his initial guilt and fear about coming forward
2. “She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! Abby’ll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor!”
Speaker: Mary Warren
Significance: Shows her meager attempt to use fear to control Proctor
3. “I thought sir, sir, to put some questions as to the Christian character of this house,
if you will permit me.”
Speaker: Hale
Significance: Show’s Hale’s alleged ability to decide how “holy” the Proctor’s are.
4. “You have a faulty understanding of young girls. There is a promise made in any
bed.”
Speaker: Elizabeth
Significance: Shows Elizabeth as the voice of reason, and her ability to use reason
to save herself from Abigail’s attack
Act 2 Quotes
5. “I am amazed you do not see what weighty work we do.”
Speaker: Mary Warren
Significance: Shows Mary gaining “power” as an accuser
6. “The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl.”
Speaker: John Proctor
Significance: John says this to show he is through with Abigail
7. “I labor the earth from dawn of day to blink of night…when I look to
heaven and see my money at his elbows-it hurt my prayer sir.”
Speaker: John Proctor
Significance: Shows his willingness to show his beliefs
8. “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you.”
Speaker: Elizabeth
Significance: Shows the cost of guilt afflicting Proctor
Act 2 Quotes
9. “I never said my wife was a witch, Mr. Hale; I only said
she were reading books!”
Speaker: Giles Corey
Significance: Shows his regret for seeking Hale’s help.
10. “Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born
this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you
what’s walking Salem-vengeance is walking Salem…”
Speaker: John Proctor
Significance: Shows John as voice of reason. Shows
how the girls gain power through accusation.
Act 3 Themes
Hale’s inability to stick up for justice shows
that the “religious” are not always the most
honest.
Hysteria corrodes the fabric of society. The
town’s best are thrown in jail
The notion that truth is found in the
governing powers is NOT necessarily true.
Act 3 Themes
Love in marriage is a very powerful force.
Elizabeth is a pillar of honesty, but caves
to protect John.
A man’s sinful nature doesn’t discount his
heroic attributes. John’s willingness to
come forward is heroic
Crucible Title
Crucible is a melting pot that separates
base metals from valuable ones.
Separation of the good people from the
bad-those with integrity and those without
it. John Proctor, though he is condemned,
has the greatest integrity
McCarthyism
Reflection of McCarthyism that Miller
encountered which was an abuse of
power.
Truth is not necessarily found in the
judicial system or in the governing
powers. Truth is found in an individual
(such as Proctor).
Theocracy
Excessive repression in society
(theocracy) leads to rebellion-hysteria
tears apart a community.
Girls repressed sexuality led to an
explosion of hysterical behavior.
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is a powerful tool.
People easily fall into corrupt
behavior by following the crowd.
Few take responsibility for their
actions when everyone around them
is going crazy-known as mob
mentality.
Proctor
You only get one name in life and can
never have another.
In the end, personal integrity is the most
important quality; Proctor dies with his
good name and finds his goodness in
that fact.